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General Hardness

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Falina 
#1 ·
Hi All,

My girlfriend and I have owned a 30l Biorb for about three weeks now. We set it up as instructed and unfortunately our first fish died of finrot. We couldn't work out if the goldfish was too large to be our 'first' fish, or maybe he was stressed from the move.

It was very sad but now we're left wondering if there was anything specific about our tank. We bought some test strips (some results i'll post later - i'm at work) and the one that stood out was that the General hardness of the water was quite high.

Have any of you had problems with this?

Last night i removed the plants we had, and changed the filter for the first time. I've changed about a quarter of the water but am hesitant about changing more if my tap water is hard. Would it be better to add water that's been boiled?

I do not wish to overstock my tank, in fact it's my main concern. I just want a healthy environment for my future fish.

Also now that the tank is unoccupied i would imagine the filter bacteria has died, i'm not sure.

Any advice?

PostScript: We have no light and no longer any plants. I appreciate the fish will get stress so i will buy some plastic plants.

Thanks!!

Px


Details:


1. 30l BiOrb
2. Freshwater
3. ~3 Weeks
4. There was one goldfish
5. There were two of the bushy ones and a grass
6. Standard BiOrb Filter
7. Are you using a CO2 unit? No
8. Aquarium would have recived some sunlight during the day, but not much, and not direct.
9. We've been taking water out fairly regularly but never more than 7 liters at a time
10.pellets that sink slightly - supplied with tank
11.No Aquarium light, though for some time during the night the tank was next to a little night light that cnaged colour slowly.
12.What specific concerns bring you here at this time? My fish died, i'm worried about it happening again.
13. Water are your water test results for:
pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

Will post tonight - I'm pretty sure the only one i was worried about was GH which was >15
 
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#5 ·
fantail goldfish? they will grow pretty big as well. all goldfish do really. is there a reaosn youre going for coldwater fish rather than tropical? if you got a goldfish of any sort youd only be able to keep him there for a certain while as eventually hed get too big. if you didnt give him away when he got too big he could end up deformed (curved spine for example) or hed just die) if it was me id put some small tropical fish in there as 30l is really a very small tank. i think its referred to as a nano tank actually. maybe some tetras or microrasboras??
 
#6 ·
How big does these fish grow? I mean surely a biorb for a litle fantail is lots of space. I appreciate their advertising may be slightly off, but i've read stories of people with many goldfish in one biorb and on theire packaging there are 2 or 3 fish. My local fish shop in london has two fantails in a BABY biOrb of 15l.

I'd happily get some minnows also.
 
#7 ·
Rez84 said:
How big does these fish grow? I mean surely a biorb for a litle fantail is lots of space. I appreciate their advertising may be slightly off, but i've read stories of people with many goldfish in one biorb and on theire packaging there are 2 or 3 fish. My local fish shop in london has two fantails in a BABY biOrb of 15l.

I'd happily get some minnows also.
fantails go to about 8-10 inches fully grown, any tank smaller than 30 gallons (100 liters about) is inappropriate in my eyes as well as lots of other people, goldfish are actually hard to take care of since there specific needs arent always provided by the owner. I have an article written about them in the article section of this forum. No species of goldfish would fit in a tank like this.
 
#8 ·
yep, they might fit when theyre small and sure, when theyre babies youve got plenty room in your tank but it wont be long until they grow, or in this case, die because they cant grow. not only will they reach 8-10 inches, theyre quite round fish so actually take up more space than another 10" fish with a more tetra shaped body for example.

hope you know what i meant with the last statement there - think i explained it badly.

id go with a small group of minnows :)
 
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