Adding Chemicals

[madasafish]

Just FYI, Jon. (I'm a Jon, btw, and I'm in Cambridge, UK atm).

*******
There is a good rationale for not adding chemicals (I realize that you're prob. starting to understand this now).

Chemicals: 1) are unnatural for fish, 2) sometimes only cover up/temporily solve problems in your tank, rather than getting to the root, 3) may completely obscure the true results of any tests that you conduct on the tank water such as KH, pH, CO2, phosphates, Ammonia etc tests and 4) can cause real havoc with the level of natural chemicals in your tank/can eventually upset balances.

I've experienced this! I thought that chemicals would solve my ammonia spike problems when I first started my tanks up, but quickly found that they just increased the number of potential problems in my tank. Now that I use only a dechhlorinator, if something goes wrong in my tank I can first check the vitals--temp, pH, nitrogenous waste etc. and if those tests come back fine, I know that there's bound to be a simple answer to the problem, such as disease (not SO simple...) or recent changes.

With chemicals in the water, you can never be sure what your problem is! You may think that you've got an ammonia problem, but you might actually be suffering from excess phosphates (phosphate buffers) contained in your pH regulator powder. The problems go on and on. Best bet... fit your fish to your water. Don't be afraid to add fish to water which is ever so slightly too acidic or alkaline for them, as long as they're slowly acclimated. Most fish (exceptions such as Discus apply) actually do fine in water slightly out of their natural range. No extremes, though. Don't keep cardinal tetras at 8, or African Cichlids at 6.5.

******
All things now understood about your tank size, you'll still have to move your baby guppies soon in order to keep the 15-gallon bioload down. You can think about selling them back to the store, or getting a 20-30 gallon tank for them (assuming most-to-all survive).

******
Hope all goes well! Good luck fording the purist, chemical-free world of fish-keeping.

--Jon

 

[madasafish]

As if my first response wasn't long enough...

I forgot to mention that these rules do not apply to trace additives for plants. Adding Fe, K, P, to stimulate plant growth/replicate natural levels is fine, as long as dose according to instructions. I do this for my planted tanks, and am just about to start adding individual solutions of Potassium and Phosphorous on my big planted tank.

If you've got simple plants such as Anacharis, Java Fern you almost certainly do not need to add trace elements. If you've got lotuses, hygros, -worts, anubias, you're right to do so.

 

[Thaiboxer]

I'll add - Gregarica, your bala shark is not going to be happy in 25 gallons. You need a bigger tank for that fish, and they prefer to school. I wouldn't put one in my 55 gallon b/c it's too small!

 

[jonstinton]

If i were being perfectly honest, i would say that we dont know the names of the plants. We're undure as to whether to have false plants or not, which we probably will. Its all very confusing! =s

When you say get a 20 - 30 gallon tank madasafish do you mean litres?

The tank we've got at the minute is a Rekord 60 (30cm depth 60cm width 30cm height whihc we calculated as 54litres, about 12 UK gallons. We've seen a nce little tank which we will probably get for breeding, but on our budgets at the mo we cant get a bigger tank.

Is that gonna be ok?

 

[angelstiger]

Just to reconfirm what has already been said in this string.

"The only chemical you need is a declorinator."

"Fiddling with PH is generally harmful to your fish, it is better to let them acclimate to the PH that exist in your source water. Unless you have species that are specifically sensitive to PH or you existing PH is way off the scale."

"Don't over crowd your fish. Follow the 1" of fish per gallon rule."

 

[jonstinton]

Ok, thanks guys for all your help on this matter. It's been really usefulm, and a leanring experience.

Any further comments are welcome, but thatnks to all those who replied.

Tar muchly!

Jon & Liz

 

[madasafish]

Yes, I meant gallons, unfortunately. As Angelstiger says, small fish should be stocked in a tank following the 1 inch of mature fish (w/o tail) per gallon. A 20 gallon tank--roughly 54 liters--at very least, is necessary for 24 fully grown guppies. Sorry! A 20 gallon is not particularly large, though! It shouldn't cost you more than $25 (perhaps 15-20 pounds) or so.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sati]

Enki, what is the baking soda for?

And jonstinton, what do you plan to do with all those fry? Your tank is heavily overstocked right now.

 

[jonstinton]

Yeah, tell me about it!, the amoount of waste being produced is not good.

I'm going to look at a tank in a LFS as we cant afford much (me being on a student budget and saving for a wedding =s ! ) the tank is only about 10g, is this going to be ok for a breeing tank and then maybe a i could turn it into a tank for a couple of angels?

Does this sound like a plan?

Jon

 

[Sati]

Sorry, I replied before noticing there was a page 2... and 3, heh.

I believe angels need more room than that, but I've never kept them so I'll let somebody else answer that question

 

[Enki]

Enki, what is the baking soda for?

The baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) increases the hardness of the water, particularly carbonate hardness. Rift lake cichlids do best in hard, alkaline water.

My Ph is a little over 8, KH about 12 and GH in the high 20's. Tap water is 7.5 Ph, 6 KH and 16 gh. I would probably be ok without the buffering, but I would rather have conditions as close to optimal as I can, since I want to breed them.

I use a buffer recipe that I got from a cichlid-forum.com article. I would give you the direct link but I have not been able to get that page to load all day