Ideally you should add in the fishes in stages based on their hardiness... the hardier fish species first and the sensitive fishes last. As the beneficial bacteria population establish and build up larger and stronger, their growth speed becomes faster too, so after a few weeks you can test the water parameters to make sure its stable before adding the more sensitive fishes.Originally Posted by Ryan Peh
Beneficial bacteria only grow to match the current bio-load anyways (they will not grow more than what the tank's bio-load can sustain their population), so even if a tank is "cycled" with hardy fishes, anytime you add more fishes in the bacteria still need time to grow further to handle the increase in bio-load (unless you remove the fishes used for cycling to replace the fishes you want, then have to re-house those older fishes).
Btw, other than having a stable cycle and strong bemeficial bacteria population, you still need to make sure the tank environment is suitable for those new fishes... if they are softwater lower pH fishes, your tank should also maintain those conditions.
My fish choices mainly requires soft acidic water. But cuz of my scape using a lot of rocks, I'm afraid that my Kh will increase which is also why I put 3 huge pieces of driftwood hoping it'd be enough to lower the ph and Kh faster than the rocks release minerals into the water!
I guess you'll have to either try to adjust your water parameters to suit the intended fish species (which will require more work and additional monitoring), or choose fishes which suit your current water conditions (which is much less work and easier to manage).
Usually for most people who plan to keep the more sensitive softwater fishes, they would setup the tank with active soil substrate, no rocks and only wood or leaf litter. In the case of your tank with its combination of inert gravel substrate, calciferous rocks and higher pH water from the tap, it will take more effort to maintain a stable lower pH softwater environment. Driftwood can help to lower pH, but its effects will depend on the quantity of wood and the concentration of tannins they produce (vs the buffing capacity of the other items in your tank), so you may need to add alot more driftwood to achieve a noticeable pH lowering effect.
Only thing with relying on driftwood to lower pH is you have to be okay to have your tank water stained a yellowish/tea color... which i guess is okay if you are aiming for a blackwater biotope style tank anyways.
That being said, while adjusting your tank environment to suit softwater fishes would be the most ideal path to take... most softwater fishes can still adapt to neutral to slightly higher pH conditions with moderate hardness, especially those which are tank bred. The important thing is to make sure to acclimate those fishes properly before introduction into the tank and make sure the water parameters are super stable.
Personally i keep cardinal tetras in a sand based tank containing rocks and wood, pH of 7.2-7.4 GH 4 KH 2 TDS 150-180 without issues, all of the tetras i bought 2+ years ago are still healthy and active with bright colors.
That's good to hear!! Thank you so much for your constant inputs!! You're really very knowledgable and I'm always learning stuff from your posts!
Anyways if my ph is too high, I'm considering getting peat moss and using blue led light to reduce the yellowish stain in my tank HAHA.
Also, I just bought 6 neon dwarf rainbow fishes to add to the bio-load for cycling!
Just sharing my new addition of fishes!
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Here's a photo of the neon dwarf rainbow swimming at the top of the tank
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And just to show another!
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Also, my corydoras are swimming pretty actively all over my tank! I guess everything's good after all!
Option A will require more water changes while Option B may require more hassle since you need to get good quality soil and plants for an optimal planted aquarium. The choice is up to you but I'd prefer Option B.
HAHAHA you're a bit too late... As you can see I've already aquascaped my tank and added fishes
Any updates Ryan? May i know where you bought the white gravel? Thanks
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Errrr currently I isolated 1 neon dwarf rainbow cuz it was tilted and kept swimming at the surface of the tank. After I changed 25% of the water (0.5ppm ammonia at that time) the fish was swimming around the middle or lower but it was still swimming tilted.
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Then another neon dwarf rainbowfish died in front of me... Like it was struggling to stay balanced and it just slowly sank to the bottom of the tank..
The other 4 schooled together and swims around really beautifully!
Seems like it is relatively stable now. Enjoy it
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Waiting for the cycle to finish then I'm gonna go ahead and start a nano shrimp tank
Thanks for all the help guys!! I'll update this again when my tank is cycled and ready to max out with fishes HAHAHA
Hahas okay bro nano shrimp tank is hard in the sense that due to a small volume of water your water parameters can fluctuate very fast. If you want you should quickly get a tank add the substrate and run a filter now. By the time you are ready it will be cycled
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Yup that's my current plan! But I just realise Singapore water quite alkaline... Idk if my shrimps will survive. And I was at aquarist chamber just now and a lady told me most hobbyist who keep shrimps have chillers for the shrimps. They don't use chillers at their shop because they have air condition turned on 24/7!
So I'm only worried Singapore temperature and the water ph won't allow me to keep shrimps..
Depends on that kind of shrimps u want to keep. For me i use to keep a shrimp tank 2 ft of fire red. 2 years down the road now i still have that tank. I have only fed and changed water every 5 months(very low bioload) for temp wise i only have a fan running 24 7 to keep it cooler. The shrimp population is somewhat constant as they are able to replenish their numbers. Water wise i just add anti chlorine and make sure i dont change more than 20 percent water
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I'm thinking of fire red, CRS and the blue coloured shrimps!
What do the shrimps eat for the 5 months before you feed them??
And the water you use is just dechlorinated tap water??
For crs you definitely need a chiller if you want to breed them. Without a chiller there is a slow success chance . For blue bolts i dont have any experience but i think it also does. Baby Shrimp eat algae/bio film. Yes of course de chlorine water They are very fragile creatures it is a must!
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Ohhh what's your temperature with just the fan?
And the water you didn't use distilled water or anything? Did you put any shrimp mineral substrates or other stuff?
the left fish looks sick...
It's dead already
Fan can only help cool down your tank temp by 1~2 deg of your room temp. So it depends heavily on your room temp. Do note by using fan your evaporation rate will be very significant for a nano tank! i did not use distilled water nor any sheimp minerals for my fire reds. I used ADA soil and have moss inside. But i did have to cycle the tank for a whole 4 months before it was stable. Therefore if you want a quick start you will need to buy those kickstarter packs
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