Testing the water

[renadia]

OK,  so I have my new tank 55 gal bought second hand fish included.
Now I'm wondering what type of kit or water test should I buy, something not complicated. I  have a Ammonia kit for my pond but I wasn't to sure about the chart and did not have a PH kit.

The tank was very dirty,I kept some of the water and kept the water in the filter (Fluval 404), the rest is new water. I cleaned the tank and gravel.

I added the conditioner for the water and added salt like I do in my pond because they were stressed. One of the Blood Parrot was swimming upside down! I added him first to the tank and he recuperated.

Not sure what to do now, had a bad start with my pond that was pretty costly and would not like to loose all the fish ( Yep I lost my first batch of Koi a few after that) but now my water is stable.

I would also like to add real plants, the ones in there are plastic, there's a type of rock that has holes and she told me it disintegrates slowly I did see at Big Al's some live rock is that it? What type of plants should I buy and how soon should I add them?

Thanks

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[babblefish1960]

The rock appears as though it is a tuffa, possibly travertine tuffa, it will disintegrate very slowly, it will still be there when you are old and wizened.

Add fast growing stem plants such as hygrophila polysperma, any hornwort or cabomba, and depending on the lighting, perhaps some frogbit or water lettuce to get things balanced at first

You will be able to pick these up at the first meeting on the 24th of September, and of course, adding plants to the tank can happen as soon as you add water.

You do however have a large cyprinid in there that could be a tinfoil barb, it will have very different ideas about why you are putting plants in there, and of course eat them. Have fun with that.

[renadia]

  What's a cyprinid ?

[babblefish1960]

What's a cyprinid ?

It is a large family of fish, most notably, carps, barbs, danios and rasboras. There is a cyprinid of Europe that can grow up to 10 feet in length. They tend to be unforgiving of plants some of them.

[renadia]

I was told it's a Rainbow Shark. Looked up and found information saying they can be aggressive, he just seems to love the Blood Parrots they always swim together

Here's some pictures, can you confirm if it is a Rainbow Shark?


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[Jeff1192]

Looks like a Tinfoil Barb.

Check this link:

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/tinfoil.htm

Jeff

[dan2x38]

It is a Tin Foil Barb no doubt about it...

[matt]

As for test kits...the basic ones that you should get would be for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. These will tell you if your tank is cycled or not. If you add plants you can get an iron test kit (should help out with your fertilizer), Phosphate test kits will help you out if you have an algae bloom. Ph and Hardness test kits would mostly be if you want to change the water parameters for a certain type of fish (high Ph/high hardness for lake Malawi cichlids, low Ph/low hardness for tetra and so on). Hope this helps a little.

[babblefish1960]

That is most definitely a tinfoil barb, a rainbow shark would never get so large either as well as having a blue body.  He is going to eat everything green he can, as he is primarily a herbivore, one way in which I out-wrestled those things in the past was to provide them with their own greens such as peas and zucchini.  Very nice looking fish by the way.

[renadia]

Thanks for the info, I went at Big Al's tonight and he didn't look lik the rainbow shark they had they were so small!

[KLKelly]

Don't buy the main test kits individually - get the AP mini master test kit.  It has the two bottle ammonia and nitrate tests, nitrite, low ph and high ph.  Big Al's has them at a good price (petsmart is more) - great deals online but you have to pay for shipping.  If you are on city water - getting a gh and kh test kit is nice to have too - you won't use it a lot though.  The first month of a tank being set up is when you use the tests the most.  After you get settled it will be once a week before water changes - or if your fish are acting off.

[BigDaddy]

PS - That tinfoil won't like being in a 55 gallon much longer (if he isn't already)

Tinfoils get quite large.  Like "I need a 125 gallon" large.

[renadia]

I will have to sell the Tinfoil Barb! I got this tank to bring in my Koi
So you rtelling me he's going to keep on growing?

Any idea how a fish like that is worth?

How big do Blood Parrots grow? Mine are pretty big

[renadia]

Don't buy the main test kits individually - get the AP mini master test kit.  It has the two bottle ammonia and nitrate tests, nitrite, low ph and high ph.  Big Al's has them at a good price (petsmart is more) - great deals online but you have to pay for shipping.  If you are on city water - getting a gh and kh test kit is nice to have too - you won't use it a lot though.  The first month of a tank being set up is when you use the tests the most.  After you get settled it will be once a week before water changes - or if your fish are acting off.

Thanks I will look at getting one tomorrow at Big Al's I have to get my water tested again, it's toxic

[BigDaddy]

I will have to sell the Tinfoil Barb! I got this tank to bring in my Koi
So you rtelling me he's going to keep on growing?

Any idea how a fish like that is worth?

How big do Blood Parrots grow? Mine are pretty big

Big enough to outgrow that 55 as well.

[renadia]

Big enough to outgrow that 55 as well.

What did I get myself into!! I tought I would have to deal with 5 growing Koi's,  and these fish are going to keep on growing!!!

[dan2x38]

How big do Blood Parrots grow? Mine are pretty big

The parrots can get up to 8" - 10" in length. Remember though that does not count their girth. Tin Foils upwards to a foot, again a big girth. Goggle the 2... Plus the parrots might have a hard time competing to eat because of their mouth. They are hybrid fish... Koi would likely out race them to any food...

[renadia]

The parrots can get up to 8" - 10" in length. Remember though that does not count their girth. Tin Foils upwards to a foot, again a big girth. Goggle the 2... Plus the parrots might have a hard time competing to eat because of their mouth. They are hybrid fish... Koi would likely out race them to any food...

I always heard that fish grow depending on the size of the tank, wouldn't these stop growing? I will Goggle the 2, I tough when I bought the whole setup that those fish looked pretty good in that tank, they always swim together it doesn't look like they don't have enough space. It's getting complicated the hubby doesn't agree with a bigger tank, says I have enough of a pond and 55 gal...

[beowulf]

I always heard that fish grow depending on the size of the tank, wouldn't these stop growing? I will Goggle the 2, I tough when I bought the whole setup that those fish looked pretty good in that tank, they always swim together it doesn't look like they don't have enough space. It's getting complicated the hubby doesn't agree with a bigger tank, says I have enough of a pond and 55 gal...

Please read this thread on the the "grow to the size of the tank" issue.

http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=19969.0

As for the fish

tinfoil
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_tinfoil.php

blood parrot

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_parrot.php