Hi there, I set up a new 8 gallon bowfront aquarium about 3 months ago with fluorite black aquarium gravel, it also has a bio wheel and mechanical filtration built into the hood, and has completed cycling. It currently has 2 goldfish in the tank with an amazon sword all of which seem very healthy, testing the water I get 0.0 readings for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite a week after the last water change using the seachem master test kit, and a hagen nitrates test kit and I have been doing semi weekly water changes of 40%
One problem I am having is the PH keeps creeping up, my tapwater PH is 7.0, but my tank PH is 7.4 - 7.6 which would cause a problem for many invertabrates right? is my substrate causing this? Will the driftwood I just added help to bring this PH down, as I do not want to have to fight the PH in the aquarium all the time.
Should I be adding fertilizer to the water for the amazon sword, or does the substrate I used provide all the food it needs? What if I added 2-3 more plants, at what point do I need to think about fertilizers for my tank, or do I have to at all when using the seachem black?
The goldfish are coming out shortly, they are in there now to keep the bacteria alive while I was soaking some driftwood, and decide on what fish I wanted, I believe I have settled on a small school of neons, and some invertabrates for clean up, however for algae control, will the inverts also take care of algae, or should I look into a single otto for algae control, as I have some green algae that sort of looks like small hairs growing on my tank walls, heater, and light. Can anyone suggest some good inverts for my sized tank? Ideally I would like a good mix of the freshwater shrimp, and snails, and a freshwater crab if I can find one to tolerate soft water, currently I was thinking of a few red cherry shrimp, a freshwater clam, and a japanese trapdoor snail along with about 5 neons.
One problem I am having is the PH keeps creeping up, my tapwater PH is 7.0, but my tank PH is 7.4 - 7.6 which would cause a problem for many invertabrates right? is my substrate causing this? Will the driftwood I just added help to bring this PH down, as I do not want to have to fight the PH in the aquarium all the time.
Should I be adding fertilizer to the water for the amazon sword, or does the substrate I used provide all the food it needs? What if I added 2-3 more plants, at what point do I need to think about fertilizers for my tank, or do I have to at all when using the seachem black?
The goldfish are coming out shortly, they are in there now to keep the bacteria alive while I was soaking some driftwood, and decide on what fish I wanted, I believe I have settled on a small school of neons, and some invertabrates for clean up, however for algae control, will the inverts also take care of algae, or should I look into a single otto for algae control, as I have some green algae that sort of looks like small hairs growing on my tank walls, heater, and light. Can anyone suggest some good inverts for my sized tank? Ideally I would like a good mix of the freshwater shrimp, and snails, and a freshwater crab if I can find one to tolerate soft water, currently I was thinking of a few red cherry shrimp, a freshwater clam, and a japanese trapdoor snail along with about 5 neons.