Hello

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Offline Diz1

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Re: Hello
« Reply #20 on: September 03, 2014, 09:34:23 PM »
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Speaking as someone who has an aqua nano 55 litres ( which is the one I think you're referring to Sue), it has a large compartment at the back which houses the pump, heater and filter. This, together with any substrate, plants, ornaments etc. reduces the overall available capacity to, I would say, around 48 litres. This might still be big enough for what you want Joe. Colin B has more experience with this tank than me though, andI'd recommend that you follow Sue and Colin's advice about suitable species because space is the major consideration, though it is a very nice aquarium.  :)

Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #21 on: September 03, 2014, 10:12:36 PM »
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Thank you for the advise guys I think I will give that one a miss which is a shame as I think they look really smart but I have seen some nice square ones. I get home from sea at the weekend and will be giving my tank a birthday clean up so will get some pics for you all to see

Offline Puffin

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Re: Hello
« Reply #22 on: September 04, 2014, 08:34:05 AM »
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Ah yes, I saw a photo of that in my google search. It's not a biorb, although I don't know who does make it.
I too have the aquanano 40, again though, not had it for long. Takes up a 40 x 40 cm space on my sideboard.

Offline ColinB

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Re: Hello
« Reply #23 on: September 04, 2014, 08:38:30 AM »
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Where did my reply go????

Anyway - the AquaNano40 is a true 50litres taking into account the gravel and the air-gap. It's got great filtration as long as you stack it properly, but the lighting is a bit weak. Easy plants only!

A Selection of Fish in my Fish Community Creator Tanks
Panda Cory (7) - Honey Gourami (3) - Ember Tetra (9) - Lemon Tetra (4) - Cherry Barb (1) - Otocinclus (2) -
Note: The user may not necessarily own these fish, these are tanks that they may be building or researching for stocking purposes


Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #24 on: September 04, 2014, 08:22:58 PM »
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To be honest I would probably put fake plants in there as I tried live ones when I first got a tank and didn't really go to plan lol

I was just thinking a few small colourful shoaling fish that are easy to keep

Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #25 on: September 07, 2014, 01:29:33 AM »
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I feel a bit disappointed now.

I purchased my tank off a colleague at my old work who had no idea about its capacity so i gave the dimensions to my local fish store who told me it was 300l before gravel/ornaments etc but ive just used the calculator on here to find out it is in fact 211l :( It makes me doubt all the advise they have given me

Offline Sue

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Re: Hello
« Reply #26 on: September 07, 2014, 11:25:25 AM »
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I wouldn't rely on anything a shop says till you know that they give good advice. And a lot of tank manufacturers include the glass and the air gap at the top in the volume - it's the volume of air the tank displaces rather than the volume of water it will hold - so you can't even rely on them.

Be wary of what shops say about fish, it is very common for them not to have a clue about the fish size, or for them not to care if you buy unsuitable fish as long as you buy something. Always research first - Seriously Fish is a good place to start as they have more species than the fish profiles on here.

Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #27 on: September 07, 2014, 02:46:01 PM »
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i will not be listening to them from now on but unfortunately it means more questions for you guys :) you've all been too helpful now :)

Offline ColinB

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Re: Hello
« Reply #28 on: September 08, 2014, 08:01:33 AM »
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We like questions - it makes us feel wanted  :))

A Selection of Fish in my Fish Community Creator Tanks
Panda Cory (7) - Honey Gourami (3) - Ember Tetra (9) - Lemon Tetra (4) - Cherry Barb (1) - Otocinclus (2) -
Note: The user may not necessarily own these fish, these are tanks that they may be building or researching for stocking purposes


Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #29 on: September 08, 2014, 09:55:47 AM »
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Haha well your in luck because there will be plenty sent your way!

Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #30 on: September 08, 2014, 11:32:28 AM »
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so i have just had a reply from southwest water letting me know that my water is soft with a calcium concentration of 11.38mg/l

what does this mean? do i need to add RO water or should it be ok?

Offline ColinB

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Re: Hello
« Reply #31 on: September 08, 2014, 12:20:09 PM »
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so i have just had a reply from southwest water letting me know that my water is soft with a calcium concentration of 11.38mg/l

what does this mean? do i need to add RO water or should it be ok?

 :yikes: That is Ultra Soft, approx 0.5º General Hardness.... no wonder your platys, mollies, guppys etc didn't last long!!! Where d'you live that the water's like that?

You'll need to harden that up.... but I've never done that before so I'll leave it to those that have.

A Selection of Fish in my Fish Community Creator Tanks
Panda Cory (7) - Honey Gourami (3) - Ember Tetra (9) - Lemon Tetra (4) - Cherry Barb (1) - Otocinclus (2) -
Note: The user may not necessarily own these fish, these are tanks that they may be building or researching for stocking purposes


Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #32 on: September 08, 2014, 12:47:30 PM »
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i live in torbay (South Devon).

How hard does it need to be?

this is all very new to me

Offline Sue

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Re: Hello
« Reply #33 on: September 08, 2014, 01:10:43 PM »
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Just to check - that 11.38mg/l, was that just calcium or calcium carbonate? Water companies have the habit of quoting either just calcium or both, and for fishkeeping purposes we use the calcium carbonate unit or german degrees.
If it is just calcium, that 11.38 converts to 28.24mg/l calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and 1.6 german degrees.
Both of these are very soft. And your KH (carbonate hardness) is also going to be very soft. You could ask a shop to check the KH of your tapwater to be sure.


In the short term for cycling, you need to boost the KH as 1) the filter bacteria need carbonate to multiply and 2)you are in great danger of a pH crash. The simplest way to boost it is by adding baking soda (nor baking powder) sold in the home baking section at the supermarket. Use a 15ml spoonful for every 50 litres tank water. Keep an eye on your pH and as soon as you spot it dropping, add some more. Or buy a KH tester to keep an eye on that; it should be above 6 german deg/110mg/l for cycling. At the end of the cycle you will need to do a 100% water change to get rid of the sodium before getting fish.

Once you have fish, I would add something to increase the hardness slightly. Unless you want hard water fish you would only need to boost it a bit. With the low hardness you have, I don't think using crushed coral or limestone rocks would increase it enough. I would seriously think about using remineralisation salts, the ones you have to add if you use 100% RO water. A couple of examples are Kent RO right and Tropic Marin remin tropical making sure you get the freshwater versions not the marine.
You would use these by adding enough to raise the GH and KH to at least 4 german deg/ 72mg/l. Ideally, add to a bucket of water and test before adding it to the tank. And you'd have to be sure to add the right amount of salts to give the same reading at every water change.

The other option would be to choose only fish that prefer very soft water such as those form the Amazon. And do a couple of water changes a week to keep the KH topped up. The acids made by the nitrogen cycle and fish waste use up the carbonate, so in your circumstances it would need topping up quite frequently.

Offline ColinB

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Re: Hello
« Reply #34 on: September 08, 2014, 01:17:03 PM »
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EDIT: Sue beat me to it while I was typing.... but I'll leave it as is.

It's not really a question of 'need' - but the majority of fish would be better in the 6º to 12º range. I kept my platy and guppies in 10º quite happily.

Fish from soft water can adapt to harder water far better than fish from hard water adapt to soft water. Having said that, most fish you buy now are farm raised and have probably been raised in the middle ranges of hardness.

The other thing is that soft water (i.e. low GH) almost certainly has a low KH as well, and this is the 'buffering capacity' of the water. A tank with low KH can undergo pH crashes where the tank water goes acidic. A KH of 5ish or more would prevent this happening.

You can add spoonfuls of things to your tap water to bring up the GH and KH, and/or you can use a limestone type substrate which will slowly dissolve into your water, raising the GH and KH. However; I'll leave this to someone else 'cos I have hard water so I've never really looked into it in the detail that would be needed to offer proper advice to someone.

A Selection of Fish in my Fish Community Creator Tanks
Panda Cory (7) - Honey Gourami (3) - Ember Tetra (9) - Lemon Tetra (4) - Cherry Barb (1) - Otocinclus (2) -
Note: The user may not necessarily own these fish, these are tanks that they may be building or researching for stocking purposes


Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #35 on: September 08, 2014, 01:35:06 PM »
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ok so sorry to be a pain but im a bit thick with all of this lol

I have fish already in the tank, some of which have been in there for quite a while. do i still add baking soda? do i have to get another tank to put them in and start from scratch?

Offline Sue

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Re: Hello
« Reply #36 on: September 08, 2014, 02:04:29 PM »
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Sorry, didn't realise there were fish in there  :-[ No, don't add bicarb when there are fish in the tank. It's sodium bicarbonate and sodium isn't good for fish (it's not good for us either)

Since you have fish, I'd use one of the remineralisation salts. See which, if any, your local shops stock. Then experiment with a bucket of water and GH and KH test kits. Add it a bit at a time till you get the readings just above 4 german deg/72mg/l. Make a note of how much you add in total to what volume of water. Then just scale the amount up for the amount of water you change. Since the fish are in plain water, no added salts yet, you need to build up slowly. Don't add enough salts in one go for the volume of the tank as that would shock the fish. Add it just to the new water, at the amount for just the new water,  at each water change. That would build the concentration up a bit at a time until after several water changes the tank would be the same concentration as the new water.

Offline Mogwai

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Re: Hello
« Reply #37 on: September 08, 2014, 08:03:03 PM »
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I can sympathise Joe. Here in the Chilterns if my water was any harder it would be damp chalk!

Maybe half way between us there is a guy with perfect water wondering what all the fuss is about  :))

Offline Joe Browse

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Re: Hello
« Reply #38 on: September 08, 2014, 10:02:56 PM »
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thanks sue i will be going there first thing in the morning. its weird as my guppies have been in there 2 months now which is the longest guppies have ever lasted and are swimming around, happy as ever.

i know Mogwai its crazy! i had no idea about any of this and now it turns out to more than likely the issue ive been having with fish loss :(

my plan tomorrow is to get the salts and testing kit and start getting it sorted :)

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