I began this journey around the beginning of January of this year, and have made quite a few newb mistakes. ie; not researching enough, cycling with fish, listening to the LFS (local fish store) and probably a few others that I can’t recall at the moment. At any rate, I’ve already battled Ich which I treated successfully with high heat and aquarium salt. Up to this point I had been doing a 20% PWC (partial water change) every other day, and performing water parameter tests right before the changes. Happy to say that the cycle has fully completed and all params are good. PH is a bit high right out of the tap (8.0), and has stabilized in the tank to roughly 8.2. I’m not going to add any chemicals to lower it as it would be a never ending battle that would get too expensive. The fish are happy and eating well, and from what I understand they will acclimate to PH levels as long as they remain constant and aren’t fluctuating.

Now that I know that Tiger Barbs require at minimum a 30 gallon tank (and I’m now attached to the little beasts), I’ll be moving them to a new setup soon. The new Fluval C3 filter and some items for cycling by Dr. Tim should arrive sometime today. However, I cannot begin to set up the new tank until after Doug and I swap out our offices this coming weekend. Kind of excited about that as I’ll be getting the loft that overlooks the living room downstairs for my office. The office I’m currently in just gets too hot in the summer, and Doug wants to be able to have a closed off room for conference calls. Being able to shut the door will allow for a quieter space for him.

Everything you need to know about my current setup and the upcoming new setup can be found on the Aquatics page.