Hi Guyz.
Hoping you are all safe over there in the UK! (The news we are getting here from there is scary.)
Our 55 litre tank made it over safe and sound. Our little 5 gallon tank was shattered. (Not pleased about that - I've had it for almost 20 years and it survived countless moves. It was well packed, but apparently was tossed around a lot from what the box looks like! So much for "fragile - glass" stickers all over the box!) Our new 5.5 gallon tank is due to arrive today and we are going to try to get it started cycling ASAP.
We are going to get a beta for it once the water is suitable. In a few months, once we know we'll be staying here for the long-term, he will be moved up to the 55 litre tank. (Until that point, the big tank will be in storage.) Then the little tank may have some ghost shrimp in it as they are quite cheap here and interesting to watch.
So once again I'm getting used to dealing with a new water source. I wrote to the local water authority and this is what they said:
"We have different water sources that the Town uses at times and those results are listed in the Annual Water Quality Report. Generally the
ph is 7.70 +/ -
Alkalinity 80 - 120
nitrate 2.26ppm
nitrite<0.01
chlorine 0.20-1.70mg/l
Fluoride 0.70- 1.00mg/l
silicate - none detected
Hardness is 160 - 200. (17.1 grains per gallon)
We do not test for ammonia, phosphate."
Wow, that's so different from Glasgow's water! They say they draw from an open reservoir out in the forest, and also have three deep wells from which they get the water for the system. As the source changes depending on when in the year it is, etc., I'm going to have to watch the water quality like a hawk!
I believe betas prefer soft water in the 6.5-7.0pH range. That would be the easiest thing to fix in all this, I think. That hardness - I need to get it below 25 or 30, right? Looks like I'm going to need to get some bogwood (Mopani?) to help with the pH over time, and maybe mix the local water (after treating it) with distilled water?
Other suggestions as to how to get this water down to beta-friendly standards? Since it'll be a smaller tank, I'll be changing out water at least twice a week. (That worked well for us when we were in California with a beta in a similar tank.) We bought some round gravel for the "ground" and have several live plants ready to be put in there as well.