Need help with my new set up

[Curt1s]

Hey evryone!
So I'm new to this sight... Basically because I need help. I previously had a 75 gallon with oscars and had no issues with it but that was 2 years ago and I prob wasn't doing it right anyway. To the moral of my story I fell into a heck of a deal (free) on a 90 gallon saltwater setup....which I converted to FW because I really don't want the headache of SW. now, The aquarium has an overflow with a sump style filter, I set it all up ooh 3 days ago and have been getting it all ready to go. I want to put angel fish and gourami's in it I think( any ideas on cool fish??) I whent out today and bought 10 Zebra danio's to help with cycling the tank. I did a test just a bit ago and got alarming numbers. My ph is somewhere between 8 and 8.5, alkalinity is at 300ppm, and hardness is at 75ppm( dunno if this is bad? ) I'm wondering what all you experts thoughts are on this? Do you think the ph will come down on it's own? What are your thoughts, mine are that not much is going to live with a ph like that. I just want to do the right the first time and not screw it up as this is a very pretty aquarium. No need for disasters here lol your help is greatly appreciated

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Did you use most everything from the SW setup? How much clean-up was involved? SW is high pH, heavy salt, etc. Unless there was some serious scrubbing and neutralizing (?), IMO you're gonna have some issue that aren't going to go away soon. You might find out from the SW crowd, the best way to de-SW a tank is my best suggestion.

Welcome Aboard!

 

[bobbedmarly]

Some cool fish you might wanna look into are ghost knifes,African butterfly fish,blue lobster yabbie but just watch out for him cause he will own any of your live plants.

 

[Curt1s]

Cleaning

When I got te tank I removed all of the old sand and stuff and rinsed evrything out, I then filled the tank and with water and bleach and ran it for 24 hrs. Pumped te bleach mixture out and filled it once more with just fresh water. I let that run for 10 hrs, took the whole thing apart, rinsed EVRYTHING like as good as I could (4-5x) and moved it into my house. Any ideas?

 

[Curt1s]

Oh and all I used from the SW set up was the two tanks and the pump I put all new rock in..

 

[Mr. Limpet]

When I got te tank I removed all of the old sand and stuff and rinsed evrything out, I then filled the tank and with water and bleach and ran it for 24 hrs. Pumped te bleach mixture out and filled it once more with just fresh water. I let that run for 10 hrs, took the whole thing apart, rinsed EVRYTHING like as good as I could (4-5x) and moved it into my house. Any ideas?

Sounds like what I would have done and even though plastic absorbs pretty good, a few hot washings and all new media in the filter should take care of that.

 

[Curt1s]

Do you think that emptying the sump and adding distiller water will help? Or just doing a normal tap water Chang would suffice?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Do you think that emptying the sump and adding distiller water will help? Or just doing a normal tap water Chang would suffice?

I don't have enough info to say that, that will resolve your issue. First question is, did you cycle the tank? i didn't see any mention, so that's where I'd suggest you start. Here's a link:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html

 

[Curt1s]

That basically is my question, the tank is cycling right now I put danio's in there to help it along. I guess what I'm wondering is as the cycle goes on does ph usually drop? Or in my instance do you think it will?

 

[Mr. Limpet]

That basically is my question, the tank is cycling right now I put danio's in there to help it along. I guess what I'm wondering is as the cycle goes on does ph usually drop? Or in my instance do you think it will?

I'm not a fan of compromising a fishes health to cycle a tank, but during a cycle the pH can go crazy (everything really), so until the tank is cycled and stable you won't get what you're looking for IMO.

Here's a different link for you to check out.

I just learned about cycling but I already have fish. What now?!

 

[Curt1s]

I guess evryone as a different perspective, some ppl say do it fishless and some say do it with fish! I guess I will have to just see how it goes

 

[Curt1s]

Ok so I bought some bacteria starter at lunch and a master test kit, now I have one more question. As I said before it has a sump wet/dry filter. The overflow comes out if the tank and into my sump tank. Now at the beginning it runs thru bio balls which sit above the water level to a chamber below that has nothing in it, then thru a chamber that I put white fluval foam and some rock in, then into the chamber where the pump is. Do you think this will be adequate for filtering? Our would I be better to put filter wool or something below the bio balls also? Sorry for the "stupid" questions I'm just not use to these set ups. As I said before THANKS if it wasn't for places like this I'd really be in for it haha

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Ok so I bought some bacteria starter at lunch and a master test kit, now I have one more question. As I said before it has a sump wet/dry filter. The overflow comes out if the tank and into my sump tank. Now at the beginning it runs thru bio balls which sit above the water level to a chamber below that has nothing in it, then thru a chamber that I put white fluval foam and some rock in, then into the chamber where the pump is. Do you think this will be adequate for filtering? Our would I be better to put filter wool or something below the bio balls also? Sorry for the "stupid" questions I'm just not use to these set ups. As I said before THANKS if it wasn't for places like this I'd really be in for it haha

I don't know enough about sumps yet (researching for future SW tank), to help you out there. I know they're used in SW most all the time and have seen some info on FW sumps, so you might want to search here or google and see if changes are needed to the SW sump for use as a FW sump.

But you said the bio-balls are above the water which AFAIK is counter the way it should be. BB's should be in a body of water because that's what the bacteria use as a main residence to eat ammo/no2/no3.

Just a suggestion but did you consider a canister filter?

 

[Curt1s]

That's kind of what I thought, but I will see how it works. The rock I put in the filter will aid for bacteria also. And no I didn't think of a canister because I don't want one lol. I like the ease of cleaning

 

[Curt1s]

Update

so i whent ahead and put the filter wool in my sump. actually i made one container that sits inside another and the pump sits in it, surrounded in the wool and WOW does that stuff work awsome my water is crystal clear within an hour. My other question is from what i have been reading for the cycle of the tank i should first see the ammonia levels climb...then decrease as nitrItes rise...then nitrItes lower as nitrAtes rise correct? well the first test i did had no nitrites/nitrates but a bit of ammonia. days 2 and 3 ive had the bit of ammonia and the nitrAtes are rising?? seems backward to me no? and also i am using some bacteria starter. i mean its only been 4 days but dosnt make sense

 

[Mr. Limpet]

so i whent ahead and put the filter wool in my sump. actually i made one container that sits inside another and the pump sits in it, surrounded in the wool and WOW does that stuff work awsome my water is crystal clear within an hour. My other question is from what i have been reading for the cycle of the tank i should first see the ammonia levels climb...then decrease as nitrItes rise...then nitrItes lower as nitrAtes rise correct? well the first test i did had no nitrites/nitrates but a bit of ammonia. days 2 and 3 ive had the bit of ammonia and the nitrAtes are rising?? seems backward to me no? and also i am using some bacteria starter. i mean its only been 4 days but dosnt make sense

By wool, do you mean the poly-fil? If so, yep that's killer filter media and it isn't $5 every time you replace it .

Yes the normal pattern is: ammo->no2->no3 and the ups/down as you described it. Could be the bacteria starter kicking in, but it's hard to say. With fish-in cycling you want to keep the ammo <.25ppm and the no2 as close to 0ppm as possible and that's done thru PWC, usually on a daily basis depending on your bioload.

 

[BillD]

The alkalinity seems very high. Is that the reading you get out of the tap? If so, you might want to keep Africans. While angels will adapt to water that hard, it is a natural for Rift Lake fish. Actually, most Central American cichlids come from hard water so they are an option. I don't normally buy into the water having to be a certain way, but your water seems a little extreme in terms of alkalinity, although I have no concerns with the pH.

 

[Curt1s]

Well you see I only tested the ph of my tap water because I was concerned that something in my tank was causing Hightower ph but it reads the same out of my tap as in the tank which is as high as my high range test card will go. So it very well could be 9+ but I dunno. And yes it's poly wool. The tank looks great I'd just love to be able to put fish in it lol

 

[Mr. Limpet]

High pH could be some remnant from the SW setup, because I think they run it high. pH out of my tap can jump to 8.4 or a bit more and if I let it set even for a couple hours, it drops to 7.8. All my tanks are 7.8 and everyone does well. Call your local water company and find out what they have it dosed to is all I can think of. Raising pH is relatively easy, lowering it is tough and even tougher to keep it stable and jumps +/- in pH can kill a fish quicker than ammo or no2 from what I've read on here.

If you have an air stone running the added oxygen can raise the pH too. You might want to take a sample of water to a good LFS and ask them to test the pH, in case your kit is faulty.

Sorry I can't be of more help with it, I did some experimenting to lower my pH and have given it a rest because I wasn't having much luck keeping it stable.

Hey, at least I got you hooked up on the poly-fil trick .

 

[Curt1s]

No Im sure it's not my tank causing the high ph because my tap water is just the same. And I can really talk to anyone about the water because I'm on well water. But one thing I do know is there is alot of underground limestone formations in my area from my well drilling days. Or it could be because of the ground thawing and runoff seeins that the snow just melted 2 weeks ago. I will take a water samPle in an get it checked. I will just wait until my ammonia levels drop and see how an Oscar will deal with the high ph I think they will do just fine. I did nothing with my old aquarium and them oscars thrived