Tropical Fish Forum

Think Fish Tropical Fish Forum => Fish Community Creator => Topic started by: Loubaa on July 17, 2018, 08:11:49 PM

Title: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Loubaa on July 17, 2018, 08:11:49 PM
Hi everyone!
Looking for some expert advice and I am pretty sure I have come to the right place   ;D

I am setting up a new tank! Yay!
125 litre, 80cm
Obvs I will do the whole cycling sans poissons.

Previously, I've kept a 60cm community tanks: zebra danios (they were a bit mean), WCMMs (lovely), Cories (love 'em -  did well despite my hard water), endlers (bullied by mean danios), shrimps (v entertaining), ottos (useful), platys (too much poo), and an inherited, unidentified cory (Clive - my most adorable fish ever  :-*).

I'm kinda looking for something a bit different for my new tank.
I have hard water (not super hard) and ph of around 7.5-7.8
And an 80cm, 125 litre tank.

Could I keep Bolivian rams? Either singly or as a breeding pair? Group? Ditto kribs? Could I keep these with mollies? (my daughter, Molly, would like a molly!)
Could I combine any of the above with a dwarf plec?
Kids also keen on cichlids - are there any dwarf cichlids that would be happy in my water? Lots seem to prefer soft.
Would Clive like any of these? Probably not the plec...

I don't want to try to soften my water or alter the ph...

Thanks in advance for your help and advice

 :D



Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: fcmf on July 17, 2018, 09:18:13 PM
Hi Loubaa,

Is your water hardness still the same as mentioned in a post from 2014 ie 230 ppm, or have you moved since then? That will help us narrow down suitable choices for you.

May we see a picture of Clive, to see if we can identify what type of cory he is ( and admire him simultaneously :) )?

Others on here with hard water will probably be your best sources of advice but, in the meantime, these threads might be helpful to narrow down possibilities [thanks to Littlefish, a hard water (multiple)tank-keeper, who cited these recently]:
https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/new-fishkeepers/list-of-fish-suitable-for-high-ph-and-hard-water/msg28102/#msg28102
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwhardness.htm

 :fishy1:
Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Loubaa on July 18, 2018, 07:20:15 AM
Hi fcmf
Thanks for replying.
I will try to get a pic of the adorable Clive!  :fishy1: He can stay where he is - doesn't have to be placed in the new tank. He seems quite happy even though he's on his own with no other cories.
Same water as before. My water co says 200 is medium, but info on the web seems to disagree about what constitutes hard and very hard water.
I really want my fishes to get along in their hard water too. Or at least put up with/ignore each other!

Thanks!
Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Littlefish on July 18, 2018, 07:56:06 AM
The descriptions used for water hardness can be a bit misleading, so it's easier to use the numbers.
Your water (just over 200 ppm/ approx 12dh) is great and will give you a wide choice of fish species to consider.
In fact, I now have water envy as mine is >300 ppm, and use a tap/RO water mix in some of my tanks.  :)
Also, just in case you do change you mind bout Clive, I have gold stripe cories in the same tank as yellow brstlenose plec male. They all seem to get along fine, but it's all down to the individual fish personalities.
Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Loubaa on July 18, 2018, 09:52:01 PM
Thanks, Littlefish!
Clive could probably wrestle a piranha - he's a pretty tough little guy!
I tried the RO tap water mix in my first tank -collecting it from my LFS by bike every week! - but couldn't keep it up, so in the end I decided to just go with the water.
What fish do you keep -apart from your plec and cories? How much of a reduction do you get with your RO water?
Thanks
 :)
Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: fcmf on July 18, 2018, 10:37:34 PM
Thanks, Littlefish!
What fish do you keep -apart from your plec and cories?
:rotfl: The next reply might be a long one - Litttlefish, our Multiple Tank Syndrome Queen, has more tanks than the rest of us added together, lucky her!
  ;D
Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Littlefish on July 19, 2018, 08:35:12 AM
 :rotfl:
This thread is a little out of date, I have more fish now, but it should give you some idea of how things are here.
https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/gallery-showcase/multi-tank-syndrome-confessions-of-an-mts-sufferer-by-littlefish/
I have danios, WCMM, v. platies, peppered cories, and amano shrimp in my temperate tank. I agree with you that the platies pooh a lot. The ones I have are the offspring of my original fish. They are complete pigs, and their output more than matches the input.
Your Clive sounds like a cool dude  8)
As far as water is concerned, it's easier to work with what you have, rather than deal with changing it (as you have found out). As an example, water is 17dh, my river tank is approx. 420L, and 20% RO takes it down to 14dh.
There are fish that are fine in my water - my dwarf puffers, tiger barbs, etc., but I admit to getting carried away and buying fish that are less suitable for my water, hence the RO.
Your water (12dh) will work for so many fish.
Going back to your original post, and bolivian rams, here is the site we tend to turn for checking on details
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/mikrogeophagus-altispinosus/
You will see that the rams would also need a larger tank.
If you use a combination of the community creator, and information from Seriously Fish, you can check on the fish that you like, and see if they would work for you.
http://aqadvisor.com/ can be used as a community creator. It has a much larger list of fish available, but the CC on Thinkfish is more straight forward.


Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Loubaa on July 26, 2018, 02:52:48 PM
Thanks Littlefish
Your collection does sound impressive...!
I have been restricted to two tanks. Unfair. My husband says it's his house too  ::) and he doesn't want it full of fish. No, I don't understand either....

Seriously fish is very helpful. I'm going to investigate some smaller cichlids who might be happy in my water (although the smaller ones seem to be softies).

I'm sure I could spend a good few weeks planning and doing important research!.

By the way I think Clive might be a girl... s/he looks like a peppered cory, but quite fat!



Title: Re: New tank! Looking for suggestions...
Post by: Matt on July 26, 2018, 07:32:25 PM
Take a look at Kribensis and Bolivian Rams  :cheers: