Fresh water aquarium advice

finalfantasyxii · Post by **finalfantasyxii** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 3:46 pm

Sooo... I've decided to set up my 40 gal hex aquarium as a fresh water fish tank. I won't be able to set it up for a few months so of course I will be obsessing over research the whole time because that's what I do! Wanted to know if anybody knows of a good forum or website for correct info regarding fresh water aquariums? Or do any of you have any specific advice or if you are fresh water fish experts can I bug you with questions?

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:32 pm

I've dabbled in fresh water aquariums on and off over the years with my most recent tank being a twenty gallon Betta sorority tank.Unfortunately after having it up and running nearly eight months I had a bacterial infection go through and it wiped out four out of five of my Bettas and three out of six of my corydoras catfish.I've since gotten the problem fixed it was a faulty internal Whisper filter rated for up to twenty gallons that allowed the water to go foul which caused my fish to get sick so I don't recommend the internal filters by Whisper they use poor quality filter cartridges and claim to have biological filtration which they don't as the foam pad doesn't actually grow the beneficial bacteria need for that action.I'm planning on adding two dwarf gouramies in the next couple of months.What you really want to do for a forty gallon is live plants that will grow tall and fan out wide for adequate coverage and as a bonus the live plants will aid in naturally filtering the water keeping the ammonia down.I live java ferns and amazon swords as they are hardy plants requiring little care from the owner to thrive. I always recommend going sand for the substrate as it looks much cleaner and doesn't mess around with your PH levels because it is a PH neutral substrate.You can almost instantly and fishlessly cycle the tank by using a bacterial product like Start Zyme by Jungle it will add the bacteria you need instantly.You'll need to add two bottles of the bacterial supplement then feed the tank some kind of fish food to provide the waste necessary to make the ammonia to feed the bacteria.You'll feed the bacteria for about two weeks you'll need a fresh water master test kit to keep track of your ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels and when you notice the readings for the ammonia and nitrites go to zero you'll know the tank is ready for fish.You can actually speed up this process further by using straight Ammonia from the store just make sure it doesn't have any surfactants, dyes or perfumes and you can put a table spoon per gallon into the water every day to feed the beneficial bacteria.Since your giving an ample amount of food to the bacteria you'll have a fully cycled tank in two to three weeks versus six to eight weeks using no starter enzymes and just the fish food.You'll want to have a filter kit rated for a tank size double what you want to use it on as this allows for more fish and less stress on the filter unit.If you have to you can use two filter units together like I do which works just as well as one over-sized unit.I always recommend using the HOB(hang on back) style filter units as they take up little space in the tank being that only the intake is actually in the water, are easier to maintain and allow for a wider range of fish, plants and substrate types.Add your plants after your tank has cycled as the high levels of ammonia that will be present the first couple of weeks will kill the plants.I would start of with some hardy fish like Danios, Rasboras and Gouramies adding a couple fish every other week or so and then at the two month period you should have a fully established aquarium with a good number of fish.

finalfantasyxii · Post by **finalfantasyxii** » Sat Jul 27, 2013 5:55 pm

Yay! I'm stoked that you are a fish expert as well as a crab expert. AWESOME. And thank you! Any forums or websites you would recommend for fishy stuff?

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 3:52 am

I use a forum called Aquahobby.com, they have some really useful info there.

Mikau132 · Post by **Mikau132** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 9:49 am

What I would do is test the tap water for pH, and then choose the type of fish based on the pH. For instance, I have a pH of 8 (pretty high) so I chose African cichlids.

dylan644 · Post by **dylan644** » Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:16 am

If you want a certain type of fish that can only tolerate a pH of a specific range that isn't met with your water source there are two easy ways to buffer it. Panty hoes filled with peat moss will lower pH. A couple teaspoons of baking soda will raise pH.