Hi,
My Name is Kevin. I'm 28 and currently living in McKenna, but originally grew up in Spanaway. I was told that I needed to check out WFB by Gosu. I recently got back into fish keeping about a year ago after visiting my friends house. After checking out his tank, and remembered how cool/fun it was when I had a 20gal as a teenager, I had to have one again. I went right out and bought an All-Glass 55gal tank with a stand. It came with a 30-60gal Aqua-Tech HOB filter, All-Glass 200W heater, and two 24" All-Glass florescent light strips. I then went out and bought an additional HOB filter to finish the set up.
My first venture back into fish keeping was a total disaster. I was housing two small Oscars for about 5 months, until I epically failed. I was only doing a 25% water change each month and not properly vacuuming my gravel. I then knew I needed help. I did some research and found a book that quite a few fish keepers recommended. The book was called "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums" by David E. Boruchowitz. The book helped me immensely, and got me started on the right path to say the least.
Currently I have a peacefully community set up with 5 Platies, 8 Zebra Danios, 3 Serpae Tetras, and 5 Cory cats. I recently tried to finish my stocking scheme with 3 more Serpae's Tetras and 6 tiny Lemon Tetras... that didn’t work out well. :cry: Sadly after my fish died I took a water sample to my LFS, and that’s when I got the news. My pH was at 7.8 and it took less than a week to kill my Lemon's and Serpae's. I thought I was doing everything right. I had been doing large weekly water changes when I vacuumed, and testing my water for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites. Everything was at 0 or in the safe range for several months. The only test that I wasn’t performing was on my pH. :cry:
Currently I'm still trying to find out why my pH is high. My well water pH is coming out at about 6.6 to 6.8. I then let it sit for a week because it’s high in iron. I then test it a week later, and it reads around 7.0 to 7.2 because of the dissipated CO2. I also add Tetra Aqua Safe to the water before I add it to my tank. I did some research, and with the help of TFK.com I found out that the "river rock" I bought at Wal-Mart may be marble. Also I found out that marble raises your pH over time. I have since removed it and I'm still waiting to see if it lowers my pH. I'm currently not adding any more fish until I get this thing figured out.
Also this week I'm purchasing an All-Glass 48" twin-tube florescent strip light for my 55gal. I really want to have a planted tank and have been doing research for months now. I have purchased some 1-2 millimeter aquarium gravel as my substrate. This was recommend by a few experts on TFK.com. Next of course is the lighting, then the driftwood and a plant package from Sweet Aquatics.
I know I need to learn a lot more about fish keeping and hope that I can learn from the experts on this forum.
My Name is Kevin. I'm 28 and currently living in McKenna, but originally grew up in Spanaway. I was told that I needed to check out WFB by Gosu. I recently got back into fish keeping about a year ago after visiting my friends house. After checking out his tank, and remembered how cool/fun it was when I had a 20gal as a teenager, I had to have one again. I went right out and bought an All-Glass 55gal tank with a stand. It came with a 30-60gal Aqua-Tech HOB filter, All-Glass 200W heater, and two 24" All-Glass florescent light strips. I then went out and bought an additional HOB filter to finish the set up.
My first venture back into fish keeping was a total disaster. I was housing two small Oscars for about 5 months, until I epically failed. I was only doing a 25% water change each month and not properly vacuuming my gravel. I then knew I needed help. I did some research and found a book that quite a few fish keepers recommended. The book was called "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums" by David E. Boruchowitz. The book helped me immensely, and got me started on the right path to say the least.
Currently I have a peacefully community set up with 5 Platies, 8 Zebra Danios, 3 Serpae Tetras, and 5 Cory cats. I recently tried to finish my stocking scheme with 3 more Serpae's Tetras and 6 tiny Lemon Tetras... that didn’t work out well. :cry: Sadly after my fish died I took a water sample to my LFS, and that’s when I got the news. My pH was at 7.8 and it took less than a week to kill my Lemon's and Serpae's. I thought I was doing everything right. I had been doing large weekly water changes when I vacuumed, and testing my water for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrites. Everything was at 0 or in the safe range for several months. The only test that I wasn’t performing was on my pH. :cry:
Currently I'm still trying to find out why my pH is high. My well water pH is coming out at about 6.6 to 6.8. I then let it sit for a week because it’s high in iron. I then test it a week later, and it reads around 7.0 to 7.2 because of the dissipated CO2. I also add Tetra Aqua Safe to the water before I add it to my tank. I did some research, and with the help of TFK.com I found out that the "river rock" I bought at Wal-Mart may be marble. Also I found out that marble raises your pH over time. I have since removed it and I'm still waiting to see if it lowers my pH. I'm currently not adding any more fish until I get this thing figured out.
Also this week I'm purchasing an All-Glass 48" twin-tube florescent strip light for my 55gal. I really want to have a planted tank and have been doing research for months now. I have purchased some 1-2 millimeter aquarium gravel as my substrate. This was recommend by a few experts on TFK.com. Next of course is the lighting, then the driftwood and a plant package from Sweet Aquatics.
I know I need to learn a lot more about fish keeping and hope that I can learn from the experts on this forum.
!: