final few questions b4 i complete ALL purchases

[chia2k]

i have some question that i need help with b4 that i will provide as much info of my tank as possible . if u need a reference to my tank its at the bottom of my signature.

tank = 60 X 30 X 45 cm
light = 2 X 36W PL light
water temp = manage to keep it at around 26C-27C
PH - acidic thats all i know man , its between 6- 6.5 according to a test kit. but their shade of yellow are almost the same to me >.<
right now tank is into the 2nd week of cycling , but i added 10 shrimps

question:

1. do i need to test KH ? heard it will affect fish and shrimp. what else do i need to test for ? i tested for PH
only. what are the lvl recommended for a 2ft tank?

2. should i get SAE now to start the nitro cycle ? i have 9 shrimps now , but scared the SAE get poisoned by my tank.

3. after that , if the KH and watever im suppose to test for is suitable , then i should add in the rest of the fish . how many fish is the max ? thinking of keeping tetras small farts fishy

[hugo]

Hi there,

I will try to answer as to my own experience and what I was thought.

As I understand usually the thing to do is to test KH. For new tank there is usually very low or no KH so it will be important to ensure that you have at least 4d KH. This is to ensure that you have buffer when you introduce Co2. The PH will then be under control

I think you can safely add SAE now. I put my SAE in 4 days after setting up. (can't wait to see fishes in the tank).

As to how many fishes, well you have to calculate the amount of water in your tank. Rule of thumb is 1 liter for every cm of fish. Every neon or cardinal tetra is about 2cm. Remember to calculate them as their adult size. You may buy a juvenile fish and calculate the size in accordance to the 1 liter rule but then when they mature you will have a crowded (high bio-load) tank. My suggestion is to keep some top feeders (hatched fish), some mid water feeders (neon tetra) and some bottom feeders (SAE) apart from your shrimps.

Hope this helps.

[Allen_1971]

Hi Chia,

Yes I would advise you to buy a KH test kit... PH/KH are probably the 2 most tested parameters for planted tanks... so buying a kh test kit is probably worthwhile.

As for adding fish, it would depend... If you plant heavily, then theres really no reason to be afriad of cycling... your plants should be consuming any ammonia present in the tank. So introducing a couple of fishes should be relatively low risk... It is advise however to only introduce algae eaters at the early stage... This is mainly so that you can go on a "no food" regime... force those SAE's to eat whatever algae there is in the tank.

[vinz]

I would put in some Otos to handle brown algae which are usual in new tanks and yamato shrimps in place of the SAEs to handle hair-like algae. Otos are good in the long term as well.

Note: Otos die easily from new tank syndrome, so do not add too many fishes at a shot. Be patient... don't fall in the trap of many who want to see many fish in the tank ASAP. It's worthh the wait.

[chia2k]

thx vinz , i was thinking of slowly increasing the fish number . right now i can't even see any shrimps ?!! maybe becoz theres only like 9 of em . i was thinking of introing more shrimps later , like another 20 more . as for SAE and OTO . i was thinking like maybe 6 fish. 3 each.

so guys , all i have to test for is KH and PH rite ? wat abt NO or anything else ? if my KH isn't 4(um wats the recommended level for a 2ft tank again), wat should i do to increase or decrease it? does KH have something to do with CO2 level ? i always think CO2 has something to do PH.

[Allen_1971]

Chia,

for now you should be ok with just KH and PH... your next buy should probably be a NO3 test kit.

In light bioloads, you will probably start dosing N either using KNO3 or Flourish N (so your plants don't suffer N deficiency).... in which case you need to use your NO3 kit to monitor so that you don't overdose (this is what I use mine for)

In heavy bioloads, your N should be in abundance, and you will periodically need to test to ensure its not going out of control.

[vinz]

LOL... I have supposedly a hundred (less a few obvious deaths) malayan shrimps in my 6 ft tank, but I only see less then 10 at anytime... and this is after I cleared the E. quads and Sagittaria growing along my front glass.

Use KH to raise and buffer pH dropping due to CO2 injection. There's a link to a good article about pH-KH-CO2 on the post about using Baking Soda to raise KH in the AQ Aquatic FAQ forum. Another one to read is http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm.

Usually, we maintain KH between 4 to 6KH, and pH around 6.8 +/- 0.2 regardless of tank size. pH is subjective to the type of fish you intend to keep but 6.8 is fairly normal.

[CK Yeo]

I think shrimp is naturally shy one (it should be, considering that it is at the lower end of the food chain.) I once put many many many shrimps into a small small tank so that I can always see them... but after a while, they remind me more of cockroaches crawling everywhere.... eeeee!!! not to mention the negative effect it had on the bioload.

ck

[chia2k]

hi guys , tested my kh with a sera KH test kit. i think abt 3 drops -4 drops the colour changed to yellow. 1 drop means 1 kh so i guessing its around 3-4 kh. as for ph , its always yellow , so its always around 6-6.8 never below and above it . went to petsafari , frenly staff there. intro me to denerelle tablets. he said 1 was for iron , another vitamin and 1 more for .... i forgot[]. anyway , are this the nutrients u guys have been talking abt ? or is it totally different from the nitro cycle.

speaking of shrimp , i found them today, they were all underneath the driftwood. coz its dark and cozy i guess. only one dead so far. maybe i shouldn't have bought the shrimp , went to frens house , go out eat then go walk walk at orchard road with frens , than put shrimp next to arcade machine as i trash ppl then finally bring them home. next time i got live animal i bring them home first.

oh ya 1 last thing... algae. i see alot of fine transparent hair like algae . no green one but fine one. do shrimps eat those ?

[chia2k]

lol 1 more thing , my shrimps actually choose to swim abt the whole tank ! they went to the left side of the tank than the rite side .

[Allen_1971]

----------------
On 12/16/2002 6:01:56 PM

hi guys , tested my kh with a sera KH test kit. i think abt 3 drops -4 drops the colour changed to yellow. 1 drop means 1 kh so i guessing its around 3-4 kh. as for ph , its always yellow , so its always around 6-6.8 never below and above it . went to petsafari , frenly staff there. intro me to denerelle tablets. he said 1 was for iron , another vitamin and 1 more for .... i forgot[]. anyway , are this the nutrients u guys have been talking abt ? or is it totally different from the nitro cycle.

oh ya 1 last thing... algae. i see alot of fine transparent hair like algae . no green one but fine one. do shrimps eat those ?
----------------

Yes your KH is 3-4... and combined with your PH, that seems like a pretty healthy level. As for the dennerle stuff, most of what they introduce would be fertilizers... Gold 7 - Plant growth booster, S7 - Fish Vitamin and Plant trace elements, E15 - Iron Tablets, V30 - Liquid Fert... you can choose to use the dennerle range, and it is good, only more costly.

As for the algae, not sure what you have, but if it starts growing longer and longer, then I advise you to mechanically remove it (by hand, comb, toothbrush) as you probably have filamentous hair algae... a pain to remove.

[chia2k]

thx for the info allen. found 2 dead shrimp [] 1 was already bright red with hair algae on it , another was actually swimming b4 i saw it die . it went up then it float down backwards.then it swim a bit then float down again backwards. anyway thats not the important part. today i removed those dead guys , found the rest under the wood with the moss feeding i think. i removed the wood , and changed it with a wood that look like a hand ! added in 2 oto and 4 SAE . but found something strange. there were a few small little worm like thingy crawling on the glass. its white and no bigger than a hair. any idea wat it is ? i thought they were undeveloped worms so i crushed them in 2 . if they are bad for the tank , is there any way to kill them with out killing the plants and the fish ?

[Allen_1971]

are you already feeding in your tank? those worms are typically due to a build up of uneaten food... try cutting down on your feeding a bit... you might find your fish start to nibble at the worms.

[chia2k]

feeding ? haven't bought a single fish food at all.