10 Goldfish... now what?

[rfeiller]

Welcome to the forum. You are lucky your water is very soft, much better for plants sand your goldfish. Read about nitrification, your fish are about to get hammered with ammonia. As you will read you can set up your system for nitrification several different ways.

[wh33t]

I read the 4 primer guides. I'm kind of confused though. That's a lot of information.

I gathered from the 4th guide that my PH should be lowering as my fish get used to their new environment and begin eating. My ph is actually rising. It's 7.7 and occasionally dips back down to 7.6. My PPMs are 20. My Fish look happy I do not have the flood and drain system connected yet.

What should I do next? Get a bio filter? Start cycling the water through hydroton?

Edit: I've also updated my profile to state where I'm located. My tank is inside anyways though.

[wh33t]

Ok guys, well I went ahead today and purchased some plumbing parts.

I built a bell siphon which seems to work pretty good. Although once in a while it gets stuck in this weird pump-siphon loop where the siphon just doesn't seem to break. I think it happens when the clay pebbles get stuck in in the holes. I'm going to build some kind of mesh thing around it so that can't happen anymore.

I'm going to attach two files.

[keith_r]

nice little system there! my ph took 8+ months to drop from 7.6/7.8 down to 6.6. i say at least 8 months because it was pretty steady from may to november, and my next test in feb is when it showed the drop

[urbanfarmer]

Many factors can affect the pH. For a new system, I would suggest keeping the pH JUST UNDER 7.0 because this will prevent unionized ammonia in the water (which is what kills fish). This will make the bacteria take a little longer to reproduce, but the plants will pick up some of the slack by absorbing some of the ammonia directly anyway. Shoot for a pH of 6.8 to 7.0. Alternatively, you can just let the system run wild and "Darwinize" the fish. The hardier fish will survive, and you can replace the weaker ones at 20 cents a fish... The remaining fish should handle the extremes of an experimental AP system much better

[RS_]

wh33t,

With as small a system as you have, you can get a Activated Charcoal Filter from the hardware store, to run the Tap water through to remove most of the Chlorine or chlormides before using the water in your System....... Vs using the Dechlore. chems. Be sure to let the Tap water trickle through the Filter Very Slow, so the the Dwell time is long enough to remove most of the nasties......

[wh33t]

Many factors can affect the pH. For a new system, I would suggest keeping the pH JUST UNDER 7.0 because this will prevent unionized ammonia in the water (which is what kills fish). This will make the bacteria take a little longer to reproduce, but the plants will pick up some of the slack by absorbing some of the ammonia directly anyway. Shoot for a pH of 6.8 to 7.0. Alternatively, you can just let the system run wild and "Darwinize" the fish. The hardier fish will survive, and you can replace the weaker ones at 20 cents a fish... The remaining fish should handle the extremes of an experimental AP system much better

I think I'm gonna have to go with the Darwin thing. The PH is sitting at 7.7 right now. It's going up and down a point or two. It's just a test experiment. I do want all of my fish to survive though. I have some basil that is gonna be going in shortly too.

[wh33t]

Many factors can affect the pH. For a new system, I would suggest keeping the pH JUST UNDER 7.0 because this will prevent unionized ammonia in the water (which is what kills fish). This will make the bacteria take a little longer to reproduce, but the plants will pick up some of the slack by absorbing some of the ammonia directly anyway. Shoot for a pH of 6.8 to 7.0. Alternatively, you can just let the system run wild and "Darwinize" the fish. The hardier fish will survive, and you can replace the weaker ones at 20 cents a fish... The remaining fish should handle the extremes of an experimental AP system much better

Can I grow plants in water that has PH around 8? I didn't think I could.

[badflash]

Sure, you just need to find the right plants. Check for plants adapted to high pH.

[wh33t]

Sure, you just need to find the right plants. Check for plants adapted to high pH.

Well I was hoping to grow Basil, Bok Choy, Maybe some Mint. If I choose to grow a plant that will tolerate high PH, will it keep the PH high or bring it back down?