# <---- Freshwater Tank Newbie



## bakerbaked (Jan 4, 2012)

In the past I have had a few 20 gallon tanks but with no success. All my fish died and I gave up. There was this deal in PETCO so I bought myself a 55 gallon tank. 

I have a few live plants in there with some mollies and swordfish, I am expecting them to slowly die in the cycle and unfortunately that is true and some of them have already gone to fishy heaven. The water in the tank is about 2-3 weeks old and I am going to test it tonight to check the PH and nitrate levels.

I have a few questions that I hope some one can help out with : 

1 - for lives plants, my tank came with 2 hoods and 2 bulbs, if I were to change the bulbs will my fixture handle the extra wattage or will it fry it.

2 - When my ammonia is too high, I have to do a water change?

3 - What do I do if the pH is not at 7.0? Do I add a piece of driftwood? I heard most plants need a pH of 7.0

4 - I know its not a good idea to disturb the gravel/substrate but I wanted to add more gravel, currently i have layer of substrate on top, can I move that to a side and put the newly bought gravel on top and then cover it up with the substrate ? 

thanks !


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## S-hag (Jan 8, 2012)

If you want the easiest solution to pH problems, just buy pH neutralizer. It's cheap, works decently, and lasts for a while. It sounds like there's something in your tank that's posionous to the fish, when one tank has died, what do you clean it with? Have you cleaned the gravel?


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

If your pH is not perfectly at 7.0, it's ok. It doesn't mean the worst is going to happen. My best bet is that your tank is not cycled, which is why your ammonia was high. Your tank probably turned a milky white color too. When that happens, leave it alone. It'll go away. You have to be careful about adding too many fish at one point too, it'll overload the tank and cause a lot of stress on the fish.


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## phlyergirl (Nov 6, 2011)

You don't need a perfect 7.0 pH. Mine is 7.6 and my plants do great. What kind of plants do you have?

For cycling with fish, my method is do big water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite below .50 ppm. Some folks just prefer to leave it and let nature take it's course, but I prefer to not waste money on dead fish so I try to keep them alive. 

I don't guess I understand your gravel question...


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Yep a fish-in cycle can mean daily large waterchanges to keep ammonia in check. pH doesn't really matter as long as its not super high or low. 

As far as the bulbs, fluorescent tubes have standard wattages. I'm guessing you have 2 18" 15 watt bulbs. All the 18" T8s are 15 watts, so good luck fitting a higher wattage in your hood as it will be longer then 18". Even if you could fit in a larger bulb, the ballast or transformer that drives your bulbs only supplies 15 watts of power. If you modified the fixture and attached a larger bulb to it, it wouldn't make a difference. Nothing is going to fry, but the higher watt bulb will still only be getting 15 watts of power. If its a starter type hood I'm not even sure if it will light a larger bulb.


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

1 - for lives plants, my tank came with 2 hoods and 2 bulbs, if I were to change the bulbs will my fixture handle the extra wattage or will it fry it.

Buy the appropriate bulbs for the fixture. Those hoods have a bad tendency to fail early due to condensation getting into the electronics. I despise them, and tend to buy glass lids and a separate light fixture.


2 - When my ammonia is too high, I have to do a water change?

How high is too high? Do frequent water changes during cycling. Test daily. If you detect any ammonia or nitrite, do a partial water change, 20-70% depending on how bad.

3 - What do I do if the pH is not at 7.0? Do I add a piece of driftwood? I heard most plants need a pH of 7.0

Do you care more about the fish or the plants? The best thing to do is make purchases that match your tap water conditions, especially as a beginner. Keeping hard water fish with soft tap water (and vice versa) is likely to burn you out before you get going. 

Stick with hearty plants as a beginner. You purchased hard/alkaline water fish, so you want hard water and you want a pH between 7.5 and 8.5. that means you need plants that can tolerate those conditions. Additionally, if you find you can't get the hardness up, you should add some marine salt (not aquarium salt despite what Petco/Petsmart will tell you, aquarium salt lacks trace elements). How much to add depends on how hard your water is. My water is liquid rock, I don't need to add any, but mollies are brackish fish so they need hardness.

4 - I know its not a good idea to disturb the gravel/substrate but I wanted to add more gravel, currently i have layer of substrate on top, can I move that to a side and put the newly bought gravel on top and then cover it up with the substrate ?


It really depends what you have in there. Can you be more specific? Regardless, I'd remove the fish to a 5-gallon bucket (with airstone and heater) until the inevitable dust cloud settles.


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