harpua2002

Great! Looks like you are cycled. I'd give it a few days and add a few more danios if you'd like. Their bioload is low and as long as you wait a while for any other additions, you should be fine.

mosin360

Is my pH of 7.6 a tad high or should most fish be ok with that?

harpua2002

Don't worry about it. Most fish are fine with that.

DRock914

Congrads on the tank getting cycled. When you add new fish now only add a couple at a time so you don't throw off the bio load. I've had zebras in 7.6 and they did fine so I don't think that's an issue. Also if you try to lower the pH now you can shock the zebras that are currently in there.

mosin360

Well, I've watched the remaining Zebras and they appear to be fine. I've chalked up the deaths to hunger. I've started feeding twice a day now in hopes to prevent any more deaths.

Since I do like them, I plan on going to the LFS and getting more tonight. I do have one question about puttin in new water. How long should I wait after I put in the water conditioner before adding the water to the tank?

Meenu

tetra aquasafe you can do immediately.

mosin360

Now thats quick.

Follow up question. I've read that you should warm up the replacement water to as close as possible to the tank level. I assume most people take a pot, put in cold tap water then put it on the stove. Should I add the Aqua Safe then or wait till after I take it off the fire?

Meenu

people usuallly use warm water from their tap. In my tank, I use water from our RO unit, which doesn't have temperature control. The best I can do is get it to room temp (my hubby likes a cold house, so in our house, that's 72.) I keep the tank at 76. We just add the water slowly, over a full day.

mosin360

Just wanted to give a quick update. I only topped off the tank as the tests came back fine. Sadly, I appear to have a fish issue.

See Odd behavior than death follows.

mosin360

Everything seems to be stable in the tank with the six Danios. I think at this point my tank is well cycled as all the tests I've done since starting have come up clean. I plan on going to the LFS today and picking up a new fish.

It's kinda hard to plan that as they are quite popular and the fish stock adjusts quite a bit week by week. So, I'm just going to to and see what they got.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I took some this morning thou they sure don't like to stand still. I'm sorry for the quality as I only have my phone to take pictures. If you look at picture #4 - bottom right corner next to the plant, you see this what appears to me as a bag or sack. Did one of my fish lay eggs? Also I noticed in picture #5 that they dug a little hiding spot. I had to bend around the tank to take that picture, sneaky buggers.

Anyway, I'll report whatever I get.

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Meenu

when you get your fish, here's a little tip: ask them when they get their fish in. You don't want to buy the fish the same day they come in, as they are acclimating to the store's water, and may be overstressed if then they have to adjust to yours,

i've talked to mine about it. they get FW in on mon and wed, SW on thurs. The lady told me she recommends not buying your fw until at least thursday, and if you ask about a particular type of fish, she can tell you how long ago those came in ("that tank of neons came in 2 weeks ago, we've had no losses in that tank", etc.) This makes it easier to pick out fish, as you will know what is more risky and what may be a bit hardier.

mosin360

Funny you mention that. The guy I spoke with a couple times remembered me so we chatted for a bit. They get their fish on Wed so is Sat/Sun fine or would Mon be better?

They had quite a few choices but I settled on two Honey Sunset Gourami. I actually googled a few different fishes while at the store and they seemed the best match. They had another type of Gourami, Blood something, which looked twice as big and twice as mean. Haha.

Anyway, they are sitting in the bag waiting to be released. Ya know, it's easier to take pictures of fish when they can't move far.

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Meenu

i think sat or sunday is fine. they are gorgeous! i can't wait to get mine...

VenomGrass

How did you convince them to take fish back? lol

Meenu

I'm just going to give them away. Not asking for any money back or anything...

mosin360

My LFS will take back any fish for store credit.

aquarist48

Hello Mosin. Your tank and fish are beautiful! Great photos!
Keep us posted.
Happy Holidays!
Ken

mosin360

My hunch was right, that odd looking sack thing in the picture above, it must've been full of eggs. I was looking at the temp gauge in my tank when this tiny speck came into my view. Kinda explains why I've seen the fish picking at the bottom for awhile now. The fry are so tiny, no wonder I didn't notice.

Heh, explains why the adults are so full of energy lately.

mosin360

Sadly, one of the new Sunset Gourami's died and even worse, it looked liked the Dwarf Gourami Disease. I've watched the other one closely and so far shows no signs. I really do like how the Sunset looks and how it just casually goes around checking things out. I just hope he beats the odds.

A couple co-workers mentioned a pure fish store that I wasn't aware of we had. It's a small locally owned place so I checked it out and it's nice. They have a very nice selection. The Australian Rainbowfish caught my eye. I understand they are schooling fish so getting 3 and then 3 later would take up a lot of my free space in the tank so I'm thinking about it. Another fish that I noticed was the Harlequin Rasbora which seemed to be a very tight schooling fish. If I recall, they are about half the size or maybe a little smaller so that might give me more flexibility in the future.

Either way, going to do more research. Is it sad that I'm already planning on getting a 125g tank whenever I get my own house?

Wrtbrgr87

Just an fyi, that filter will not last forever. I hesitate to buy kits because the equipment is of very low quality and doesn't do the best job. I figured that out the hard way with my 20 gallon. I had to replace the filter, the heater, and the aquarium hood with light because they were all just pieces of . The kit will get you started but i highly recommend that in the future you start to look at higher quality equipment. For example, i have a rena smart filter, a hagen aquaclear 50 and a tetra airpump. Great tank tho, wish I had the space for a big one.

Wrtbrgr87

Aquarist im so jealous of ur huge tank.

rae64

Sorry to hear about your sunset gourami If you really do like the way they look, though, there is another type of gourami that is very similar. Sunset gouramis are "colisa lalia" aka dwarf gouramis. Lalia indicates the types of gouramis that can contract the dwarf gourami iridovirus. But, the very similar honey gourami, is "colisa chuna". Because of the change in their scientific name (indicates a change in species) they are no longer susceptible to the disease. Honey gouramis are great little fish, and can be kept in same sex groups. (i.e. all male) They have fabulous gentle temperments, but because of this should not be kept in aggressive tanks. They also stay under 2 inches, great for little tanks. Just if you decide to buy them, make SURE they are colisa CHUNA, not colisa LALIA. Many stores often sell them as "honey sunset gouramis" or sell sunsets gouramis labeled as honeys. Just check the scientific name and you are good to go!

rae64

sorry! haha I didn't realize you were using TSS! The stuff is wonderful!

mosin360

The other Sunset is doing fine. Very active and quite fun to watch the little guy go around and do this thing. Not sure what I'd do for a Gourami next time.

I did get five peppered cory cats this past Saturday. My first bottom dweller so they have the whole bottom to themselves. So far they been a little shy when I get near but otherwise they are also quite active. From my research, I'm pretty sure they laid eggs on my heater so in a week we'll see what happens.

I'm probably going to hold off on getting anything else for a while now.

Wrtbrgr87 - I've not seen any bad things about the brand I bought. Sure, it ain't the top notch stuff but it's not generic either. You mentioned Tetra which as far as I've seen is the same quality as Aqueon.

mosin360

Just to give an update. The five Peppered Cory cats are doing fine thou a tad shy at times. They are quite fun to watch and just dang cool to look at. They are eating the algae wafers and I see them checking out the bottom of the tank at times so they seem to have adjusted just fine.

The six Zebra Danios are totally cool with the catfish now and will swim around them instead of staying at the top. They seemed to have calmed down a tad which is nice when you just want to watch them chill out.

The Honey Sunset Gourami acts like the king of the tank. Goes where he wants, eats whatever he wants, and has no problem with anything. Love how he comes to the front of the tank when I get near. I might give him a kiss or two but no need to go into that.

The actual tank itself has been maturing quite nicely. My woman was first alarmed at the smell when you open the lid but after searching on here, I told her the earth smell is what we want. And besides, you only smell it when you open the lid for feeding. The past couple weeks, I started seeing that brown diatoms. And again, after searching on here, I found it's a natural process for new tanks so nothing to worry about.

I did get a small heater for when I do water changes, I can warm up the water to the right temp. I just don't like to use the hot tap water. I finally did figure out how to clean the gravel well so tonight I'm going to go after the diatoms and clean the gravel.

At this time, the only fish I'd be interested in adding is some Harlequin Rasbora. But, I don't have a time line for that. I'll have access to a very nice camera this weekend so I plan on taking pictures of my fish. Naturally I'll post the best pictures on here.

I'm also in the works to get a 20g tall and a 10g tank, both free with extras. I shot some stocking ideas around for the 20g in another thread so have a basic idea for that. I just recently made the deal for the 10g so no plans for that. I know the woman is starting to look at the money side of it all so we'll see how it pans out.

All in all, I have no regrets in starting the tank. The initial cost was a shock I must say but being that the tank is doing fine, it's easy to say it was worth it. I have a big goal of getting a big 125g tank in the future so all the experience I get now will surely help with that huge project.

DRock914

The Harlequin Rasboras are a good choice. I recently added 4 to my tank and they are great community fish. Its funny how fast you're going to be jumping to 3 tanks. I too would like to get a 125g but I have to wait until I move somewhere with more room.