Few beginner questions

HI All,

I have some basic questions.

1. During water change, how much time should I wait after adding dechlorinator.
2. I have a thermometer that is sticked to outside of the tank. How accurate is this thermometer? It shows 78 as clearly readable, and 80 in green or blue but not as clear as 78. Can I assume the water temperature is 78.
3. My water hardness is too high. I am in second week of cycling. When should I start worry about hardness level.
4. Past one week I have been doing 15% water change once in every two days. The water is white cloudy. I read that we will have this situation in first two days, is it normal to have this even after a week? What can I do to improve this.

Thanks,
Alex.

 

HI and welcome to Fish Lore

1. During water change, how much time should I wait after adding dechlorinator.

After you've mixed the water well with the dechlorinator, you can add the water to your tank right away (provided that it's the same or - more or less - similar temperature to your tank water temperature. This is to avoid temperature shocks in fish.

2. I have a thermometer that is sticked to outside of the tank. How accurate is this thermometer? It shows 78 as clearly readable, and 80 in green or blue but not as clear as 78. Can I assume the water temperature is 78.

Sorry, never used this kind of a thermometer so I can't say how accurate it is.

3. My water hardness is too high. I am in second week of cycling. When should I start worry about hardness level.

What is your pH?

4. Past one week I have been doing 15% water change once in every two days. The water is white cloudy. I read that we will have this situation in first two days, is it normal to have this even after a week? What can I do to improve this.

It's normal to have cloudy water during the cycle. And you don't need to perform this frequent water changes in a cycling tank without fish.

 

Thanks Isabella. What do you mean by mixing the dechlorinator well?, do I need to stir it or something? My Ph level is above 8. I am cycling my 30 gallon tank with 3 tiger barbs.

 

Isabella, pretty much answered about all I could, but as far as hard water goes, usually hard water tends to have higher ph. Messing with kh and ph tends to be worse for your fish in the end. I would tend to stock with fish that suit your water. If you have hard high ph water go with like guppies or mollies or swords, or a higher ph loving cichlid etc. For the mollies or swords etc, they do like some salt in there water.

To safely bring down ph / kh as they go hand in hand, alter one the other follows, as long as carbonate is the only buffer present (no phosphate buffers like pH-UP and- DOWN, Discus Buffer, etc (I am not a fan of them at all, I think they make your water unstable). C02 is one method, as when you are driving in c02 to grow plants etc, you will typically drive a full point down (not always the case, but in general) to obtain a healthy 25 ish ppm c02 level. Basically if you have 7.4 ph in your tank driving it to 6.4 with c02 is roughly your target etc, there are instances that can alter that though phospates etc.

But if your talking true hardness in gh the only way I would consider bringing that down is with a mix of tap water and Reverse osmosis water, I would never go full RO as its strips the water of beneficial nutrients. And I would never use ph down discus buffers etc as they remove calcium and magnesium ions and replaces them with sodium ions, and pretty much any soft water acidic fish don't like sodium ions either.

Basically messing with your water messes with your fish, if you want to go softer and keep more soft water/acidic fish, mix RO and tap, and drive in c02, read lots before doing so though, or keep fish that like hard high ph water. Or your fish will suffer in the end.

 

Basically you will take water out, and in the bucket you use to put water back in mix your declor in that buck and stir it up before adding it. And keep that bucket for that use only. A fish bucket is a fish bucket only, avoid other uses for it, and soap etc.

And with a ph of about 8 I would assume your kh would be about 6 to 7, assuming your water is not loaded in phosphates. You could drive that down to about 7ph with c02 as your kh will fall some too with c02, then you are balanced in ph with moderate carbonate buffering and could go either way for stocking fish.

But your GH total hardness would still be high, and RO / tap water mix is about the only way I would mess with that, but then you are now sitting in a spot where you are forever tinkering with your water changes to avoid big swings.

I would personally go with high ph loving hard water loving fish if you are just starting out. Or make sure you get non wild caught fish if you are determined to have softer acidic loving fish. Captive breed fish will take to unnatural parameters much better. But I don't think they ever thrive in them. Personally I would lean to making the right choice in fish to meet your water parameters. And play down the road with other options, ie learn the basics of fishkeeping before playing with possible harmfull methods.

I just noticed the barb thing, they are pretty much right in the middle of the spectrum, they are happy slight acidic or slight alkaline, and moderate dH water. They would get used to your water most likely fairly fine. If it was cycled.Cycling with fish is really hard on them. And while cycling you ph etc will be all over the map.