Fish For 20" long (10 gallon) tank?

Olympia

That's interesting. 9.3 is crazy high, sounds like overkill from the water company to me.
Is this a case where water should be aged before being put in the aquarium, so the pH can lower?

Byron

As far as I know, the pH will not lower much without something to impact it. If I leave my tap water sit out, the pH does not fluctuate. But in the aquarium the biological processes quickly change it. Water changes with pH 7 water in a pH 5 tank, and half the tank, only cause a slight rise for a few hours, maybe .2 or .3, then its back to 5.

Nemo the Clownfish

@Olympia:

I like the idea of a centerpiece fis, like a Dwarf Gourami, with a small school of smaller fish,but there's also the appeal of 1 or 2 schools of little fish. What do you like for a 10g.?

Steve

Byron

Be careful with Dwarf Gourami, this is a fish many donot recomend acquiring due to health risks. Many stores (reputable anyway) won't even stock it if they don't know its origin. Profile explains this a bit.

Centrepiece fish in small tanks (anything below a 20g is small in this regard) usually do not work. Anything large enough to be a "centrepiece" will likely be too large for the tank, or be inappropriate for the other fish that are suitable. The impact on water alone from such larger fish in a small space is significant, as well as the physical space.

Nemo the Clownfish

Byron,

Thanks for the heads-up. Thinking about the impact on the waterquality, it sounds like a small school would work out the best that I know of. Tell me if you have any thoughts about it.

Steve

Nemo the Clownfish

Hi again, Byron. I'm wondering at this particular moment whether it would be good to have no surface agitation, just water movement, in the tank. I have an Aquaclear 30 (150), and I'm sure you know what they do.

Steve

Byron

Answering your last two posts, last one first. If there are live plants, I would go with minimal water movement. In a 10g I use a single sponge filter, the Hagen Elite is my favourite because it can be attached to a rear corner at any hight (is adjustable). I use this in my 10g, and a dual Elite in both my 20g and 29g, and the tanks are crystal clear.

To the earlier question on fish, with your soft water I would have plants and some of the "dwarf" species that do so well in 10g tanks but get lost in larger. I think this came up in another thread, but if not just have a look at the Cyprinids section in the profiles, the characins (Ember T, some pencilfish), Badids, Anabantids and Atherinids. There are some dwarf species in all of these.

Byron.

Nemo the Clownfish

Thanks Byron. Why do you use only one sponge on your 10? I use two. I guess it's because the bacteria compete with the plants for oxygen. I'll have to take the second one out after I get the tank set up with plants.

I was trying to put a pic I took of my tank, but it gave me a prompt for an Internet address and I couldn't get it to work.

Steve

Byron

When you click "Manage Attachments," the window that pops up has a "Browse" button at the top, this will take you to your PC files. Find the photo and click "Upload."

Nemo the Clownfish

My poor startup tank:

Hope ppl can see the attachment picture.

Attached Images

My Tank.jpg (63.1 KB, 11 views)