Impulse Purchase - New To Gbr

I was at one of the local fish stores looking for golden zebra danios for my 75 gallon and they were out - for the first time since I've been going there.

Looking around, I asked the owner what would go good with 2 Angels in a 36 gallon bowfront I started roughly 5 - 6 weeks ago. Tank was fully cycled at 3 weeks (using some media from the 75 gallon and a Seachem Stability regimen with freeze dried shrimp as an ammonia source) - I moved the Angels from the 75 to the 36.

Anyhow, the owner suggested a pair of GBR for the tank. I normally don't like buying fish without doing a lot of research - I read a little about GBR's previously, I'm a big fan of dwarf cichlids, the 75 is housing a pair of Apistogramma BorellI in it. I took his word for it that it would work and brought them home. I didn't have a way to drip acclimate unfortunately, and during the floating bag acclimation, the bag slipped into the water after only 35 minutes of acclimating. They seemed to fare well though and are swimming around the tank now (it's 8 hours later) and picking at a little left over food the Angels didn't eat earlier (a half eaten pea and a few softened pellets). I read up more on the GBR, and so far the temperature range is compatible (tank is at around 80F), and the Angels and the GBR are getting along way better than I thought, even swimming together.

The only concern I have is the Ph. I don't know why, but it's creeping up. The tank was at 7.5 even though I always add RODI water that I remineralize and that I bring to about a KH 6, GH 10 using Equilibrium, Acid Buffer and Alkaline Buffer. PH is always around 7.0 when I add it. I decided to test tank parameters and the PH is at around 7.8 right now. That seems very high for GBR - should I be worried? Everything else is perfect 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate.

Any other tips and pointers for GBR's and anyone else keeping them with Angels?

 

My GBR stays in a tank with a pH above 7. As long as there aren't any wild shifts in KH and GH it should be fine.

What is your water straight from the tap?

 

Tap is 8.2 with 10 ppm nitrate. That's why I run it through an RODI system.

 

my EBR pair are thriving my PH is 7.8, never had a problem.

 

I've never kept my gbrs in water that hard. I'd imagine it will effect them over time. You may of got lucky with your acclamation bag dumping. Dripping them can cause more harm than good unless their source water is drastically different than your aquarium. The biggest thing with GBRs is nitrates. Theyre extremely sensitive and anything over 20 and their health will degrade rapidly. I'd estimate 1 in 10 will survive in water higher than 20ppm for a significant time. I keep all of my GBRs in soft 6.5ph or lower water with less than 10ppm nitrates. They breed actively and are very colorful and healthy

 

Well, got up this morning and they seem ok so far. I fed the tank some thawed bloodworms, and they happily gobbled them up with the Angels.

I know it hasn't been 24 hours yet and I will monitor the tank closely. Tested the water this morning and the KH in this tank is between 4 and 5, so I don't understand the high PH in it. I really don't know how to lower it further - the water I put in is about 7.0, sometimes 6.8. Also, I have some detritus/brown algae issues right now - but nothing out of the ordinary. It's nowhere near as bad as my 75 gallon got when I first started it. Nitrates don't get high at all in this tank, right now between 5 and 10 and today is water change day. Proper feeding, RODI water changes and some hornwort keep nitrates at bay in all my tanks.

I'm attaching a couple photos - one of the tank, one of a closeup of the GBR's. Could anything in my tank be causing the higher PH? The substrate is CaribSea Ocean Direct Live Sand. It didn't say anything about Ph buffering abilities like that of some african cichlid substrates. Everything else is standard fare - a few cheap decorations, some teracotta pots, some fake plants (which will eventually get switched out for some anubias).