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Page 3
Comments & Replies
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This page contains Customer Comments and our Replies
about various interesting topics. Click
here to see the index list
of all the pages of Customer Comments. |
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If you enjoy
reading the Comments and Replies on this page, you may also enjoy listening to The
Bailey Brothers, Tom and Nevin, discuss similar questions on Pet Fish Talk. Click here
to see the list of all the Pet Fish Talk Shows. |
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Customer Comments |
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I have a 50 gallon freshwater tank with live plants, an Eheim filter, about 7 fish, and one Miracle snail. I've had
this tank for about 10 years.
Two years ago, I moved and the city water in this area is EXTREMELY basic. Since I re-established my tank, I have a continual problem with algae and the plants, while not
dying, are not thriving.
The pH of the tank is 7.4, despite all my efforts. I had been using RO water in the tank exclusively, but have recently read that the lack Of minerals in RO water can also
cause problems.
Help. How can I get my tank to an appropriate pH? Note: I do have driftwood sculptures in the tank-could they be a factor? Any input would help.
Thanks.
Anna B. |
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Reply. If the pH of the tap water coming from your faucets is between 7.0 and 8.0, then you don't need to be concerned about the pH, just use the tap water.
Change 20% of the water in your aquarium twice each week.
We find that people have lots of problems, when they try to change the pH of the water in their aquarium, and changing the pH is not necessary if the pH of your tap water is between 7.0 and
8.0.
The lack of minerals in RO water makes RO water chemically unstable and the pH can change rapidly. This could very well be part of your problem.
The driftwood in your aquarium may have absorbed minerals, and these minerals may change the pH of your unstable RO water. Always be sure that everything you put in your aquarium has been
labeled for use in aquariums. Click
here to read more about not contaminating your aquarium water.
I recommend you remove the driftwood and change 20% of the water in your aquarium each day. Use your local tap water to replace the water you remove.
Finally, the water in your aquarium will improve, if you add a BIO-Wheel. Click
here to read more information about
BIO-Wheels. Click
here to go to Marineland's web site and see their various powered and un-powered
BIO-Wheels. |
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Customer Comments |
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what exactly is brown algae? I can't tell what is
growing on the inside wall of the tank as for now it is just a film that i can see when looking from the side diagonally out the front.
rockweed
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Reply. Algae are plants, and there are many species of algae with various colors such as green, red, brown, and black. The stuff growing on the glass inside your
aquarium is probably mostly bacteria, but here are probably many types of algae growing among the bacteria. The combination of the bacteria and the algae may appear to be brown especially when
viewed from the side.
At least once a month you should take a scrubber and scrub the glass inside your aquarium until the glass is squeaky clean. Click
here
to see a scrubber and read more about cleaning your aquarium.
The stuff growing on the glass usually does not cause problems but is unsightly, and most conscientious aquarists clean it off the glass at least once a month. The stuff growing on the glass
feeds on the waste in your aquarium water. You can minimize the rate at which this stuff grows on your class by removing 20% of the water from your aquarium and replacing it with fresh water at
least twice a week. Click
here to read more about aquarium water.
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Customer Comments |
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My sister bought a 3 or 4 inch Fantail Goldfish. But she
bought a 2 1/2 gallon fish tank for him. The tank is too small for him but unfortunately we don't know the exact size he needs.
Can you tell me what's a good size tank for him? How big do Fantails get?
And what other fish should we get that are compatible with
him?
Thank you for help. This site was pretty helpful for me. It's been about 10 years since my last fish tank and I was a little girl then. I really need more information about the
Fantail. Anything you send is helpful.
Sincerely,
Beddie
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Reply. There is a rule-of-thumb for beginning aquarists of 1" of fish per gallon of water. This rule seems to work for fish that are smaller than about
3". Applying this rule, your sister's aquarium could keep one 2.5" Fantail. But her 3" to 4" is too big for her 2.5-gallon aquarium.
I have seen Fantails that were 8" long, and Fantail breeders have told me Fantails occasionally get bigger than 8". The rule of thumb, that is mentioned above, does not work
for big fish, and a 8" Fantail would be too big for an 8-gallon aquarium.
I recommend that your sister go to Wal-Mart and look at the 12-gallon Galaxy Aquarium. This aquarium has a built in cover with a fluorescent light and a BIO-Wheel filter. There is also a nice
6-gallon Galaxy Aquarium, but it will soon be too small for your sister's Fantail.
Click
here to go to another page in this web site with more information about Fantails. This page also
has information about other varieties of Fancy Goldfish, like Black Moors, Telescopes, and Orandas, that would be good tank mates for your sister's Fantail.
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Customer Comments |
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I recently ordered a tiger fish from a local pet store and
they said they are shipping it in brackish water but I was planning on keeping it in a freshwater tank, what should I do?
I was planning on making my 10 gal. tank into a brackish water tank temperarerly and slowly reduce the amount of salt I put in the tank until it is completely fresh.
Would rock salt work, or should I go buy aquarium salt?
Also, I already have platies, mollies, and swordtail in the tank, will they
be harmed by the salt?
I'm not worried about the tiger fish eating the other fish because it is only going to be 2" long.
Thanks
Jason H.
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Reply. Hi Jason, Siamese Tiger Fish (STF) do well in aquariums with or without Aquarium Salt. This is explained on our page about the STF. Click
here
to go to that page now.
You say that the STF will be shipped in brackish water to your local pet store, so it would be best to add the same amount of Aquarium Salt to the water in your aquarium. This is usually
about 1 Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt per each 5 gallons of aquarium water. If so, you'd add 2 Tablespoons to your 10 gallon aquarium. You might ask your local pet store how much Aquarium Salt
they would recommend.
Mollies, Platies, and Swordtails are all livebearers and prefer water with about 1 Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt in each 5 gallons of water. So they will do fine in the salted water. Click
here
to read more about Mollies,
here for more about Platies, and
here
for more about Swordtails. On each page scroll down to the paragraph labeled "Appropriate Home" where you'll read that these fish prefer salted water.
I recommend you use Aquarium Salt, which is sold in most stores
that sell pet fish. Click
here to read more about Aquarium
Salt, and about why we recommend using it, and why we do not recommend rock salt.
Here is a note of caution. At 2" your new STF may be too small to eat the Mollies, Platies, and Swordtails. But the STF has a huge expanding mouth, and so it may surprise you by eating
your smaller fish. If the STF arrives at 2.5" or 3", it will surely start eating your other fish.
STF are caught in the wild and not raised by fish farmers. So the available sizes vary depending on what can be caught. The wholesaler shipping to your pet store may not be able to ship a STF
that is exactly the size you order. Lists of fish from tropical fish wholesalers are rarely accurate in the sizes that they list. You should think about what you will do if the SAE is bigger
than 2". |
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Customer Comments |
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I am thinking of buying a fish. I like the look of
Bettas, but our
house is
only about 60 degrees at night, closer to 68 during the day. Of course, in
the summer it will be warmer. It doesn't sound like Bettas will
tolerate
that change in temperature. Will any fish? I don't have much room,
so I
need something that can tolerate a small environment. Thanks for your
help.
Sherrie Smith
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Reply. Here are two recommendations.
(1) Get a large fish bowl with at least one gallon of water. I now keep four large mature White Clouds in a 1.5-gallon (6-quart) fish bowl, and they do very well. Click here
for more information about that Fish Bowl.
The water in my Fish Bowl got as gold as 55 degrees F. last winter, and the White Clouds did very well. Another group of four White Clouds was in my pond, and when the temperature of the water went down to 50 degrees, those
White Clouds stopped eating. So I moved them back inside my house, they recovered completely in a few days, and began to eat again. Click here to read more about those White
Clouds.
By the way I would not keep any goldfish in a fish bowl with less than, say, ten gallons of water, and fish bowls that big are very rare, but I have seen pictures of very large fish bowls in China. If anyone knows how to get
them, I'd like to know.
(2) My other recommendation is to buy a 6-gallon Galaxy Aquarium. This Galaxy Aquarium is quite compact and comes with a cover that has a built in BIO-Wheel filter, which is very important. Click here
for more about BIO-Wheels. Incidentally, there is also a 12-gallon Galaxy Aquarium,
which is probably larger than you want now.
You could keep a nice group of White Clouds in a 6-gallon Galaxy Aquarium, and if you get a small 25-watt Aquarium Heater, you could keep an assortment of fish including the White Clouds and a few other warm water fish that
are compatible with them. Click here to see a brief list of fish that are compatible with White Clouds.
White Clouds are very good fish to keep in Fish Bowls, Cold Water Aquariums, and Warm Water Aquariums. They are hardy and mild tempered. My White Clouds are now about 1 year old, and the males are very colorful. White Clouds
should be much more popular in aquariums, than they are now.
By the way I would also recommend you get some Java Ferns for your fish bowl or aquarium. The Java Ferns are beautiful and make the White Clouds much more comfortable. Click here
to see a list of available Aquatic Plants including Java Ferns. |
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Customer Comments |
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I wanted to know if the following fish could be kept in a 10 gallon aquarium. 1 plecostomus, 2 mollies, 3 red phantom tetras,
2 zebra danios, 2 cory catfish, and 1 bala shark.
C.J. Hunt |
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Reply. I count 11 fish in your list. If they were all one inch long, you would already be slightly over the recommended limit of 1" of fish per gallon of
aquarium water. The Plecostomus and the Bala Shark would probably be longer than 1". So your list of fish would be slightly too many fish for a 10-gallon aquarium.
Most of the fish on your list prefer to school with other fish of their same species. So for example, one Bala Shark will be nervously looking for more Balas Sharks.
Mollies do best with 1 or 2 males and several females not just one male and one female. Zebra Danios prefer to live in a group with at least 6 Zebra Danios. All of the fish you list, except
the Plecostomus, prefer to live with 6 or more fish of their same species.
So you need a bigger aquarium with a few more fish of each type of fish that you listed in your email. Lets make a table and total up all the numbers.
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Name of Fish |
Number |
Size |
Number x Size |
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Plecostomus
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1 |
4" |
1 x 4" = 4" |
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Zebra Danio
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6 |
1.5" |
6 x 1.5" = 9" |
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Male Molly
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1 |
3" |
1 x 3" = 3" |
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Female Mollies
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3 |
3" |
3 x 3" = 9" |
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Red Phantoms
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6 |
1.5" |
6 x 1.5" = 9" |
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Corydoras Catfish
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6 |
1.5" |
6 x 1.5" = 9" |
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Bala Sharks
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6 |
3" |
6 x 3" = 18" |
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Total = 61"
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Name of Fish |
Number |
Size |
Number x Size |
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In this table I made a row for each type of fish on your list, then I included the
minimum number of fish of that type that you should keep, and finally I guess-timated a size for
each of these types of fish. My guess-timates are not the maximum sizes, but sizes these fish will grow to be pretty soon.
To finish my table I multiplied the Number times the Size for each fish and added those numbers up to get a Total of 61" of fish. So you'll need a 60 gallon aquarium to give these fish
plenty of room to grow and to live with several members of their own species like they prefer.
The Bala Sharks will grow and need bigger aquariums. Click
here to read a story about raising Bala Sharks. If
you decided to not to get the Balas, then the other fish would total 43" and fit nicely into a 45 or 50 gallon aquarium.
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Customer Comments |
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Thank you for all the valuable info on your web site ... I refer to it frequently. I am a little confused and have some
questions. I guess first would be when I am cleaning out my tank ... what is the best thing to do with the fish?!
If I am using quick cure and aqua safe can I still have the bio-filtration in or, do I need to take it out along with the charcoal filter? How do I keep the water from getting
cloudy when I am using the quick cure and the aqua safe and don't have either a charcoal filter of the bio filter in?
You mentioned to not tear apart the aquarium and clean everything when the water is cloudy ... so I am not sure about do I ever take the aquarium completely apart to clean or
just a bit at a time.
I have a 5 gallon tank with two fish ... both black moors. They both have ich. I have no gravel in the aquarium. I would so appreciate any help you can give me!
Thank you, Patti |
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Reply. Hello, Patti. You should almost always leave your fish in your aquarium, when you clean your aquarium. Just clean a little bit at a time. Scrub the inside
of the aquarium and change 20% of the water. Click
here for more about cleaning your cool water aquarium.
Very rarely tear your aquarium apart. Perhaps just every few years, when you decide to move it to another room, or perhaps you move to another location. Click
here
for more about moving your aquarium.
When you treat your aquarium with Quick Cure leave the filter running but remove the filter pad with the carbon, then after about an hour be sure to put the filter pad back in the filter.
Quick Cure and
Water
Conditioner should not cloud the water. Click
here to read more about Cloudy Water and what to do about it.
If any of your fish ever have ich, as your Black Moors do now, you should immediately give them the Recommended Treatment. Click
here
for more information about the Recommended Treatment.
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About our Fish Photographs ...
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Almost all the photographs and videos, shown on this web site, were taken
by us in our aquariums of our fish. Compare the healthy,
beautiful, energetic fish in our beautiful aquariums to the
fish in our competitors pictures. Their fish often look thin
with clamped fins and poor color.
We buy the highest quality fish, produced by the best fish
farms or caught by the best collectors of wild fish, then we take incredibly good care of our fish in our beautiful aquariums. If you compare the pictures on this site to our competitors pictures, you can instantly see, our fish and aquariums are better!
;^ }
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