Ok guys I have already recieved and put to use some good advice from you all, now I need some more. I get the big tank tomorrow and to recap it suppose to be 100+ gal but I have not seen it technically so i do not know for sure but, it is like a year old with pump, filter, and so on and it is free so i am not complaining. Anyway, I now, have one 6 inch long nose and i was wondering about water maintinence. I am new to the scene and ignorant in the ways of all you gar masters, but I am currently a Water Plant Operator and before that worked in our lab so I have been taking care of water for 10 years now and... I am a bit of an expert in water quality, we can talk PH, Alkalinity, Hardness, NTU, MBAS, N, NO2, NH3, NH4, Cl2, bla, bla, bla, and so on. What I want is specifics. It is simple what would you do? Hind sight is 20/20 so spare no details I am a gluttin for information.
Give me your $0.02 worth
- Thread starter Doctari
- Start date
I'm not sure about specifics but I know out here we don't have the greatest or cleanest tap water but I just use tap water with some Prime water treatment and then a little salt.
PH around 7 is usually OK.
I've had my oldest gar about 6-7 years and he is doing great in these provided conditions.
PH around 7 is usually OK.
I've had my oldest gar about 6-7 years and he is doing great in these provided conditions.
I do water straight from the tap plus Prime. I don't bother checking pH, or any of those other numbers, but then I've been doing it for a while and I can tell just by looking if something is off in the tank.
I would say use tap + Prime, and for the first 6 months, test pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Once you get an idea of where those should be, you can test less frequently, or not at all.
Gars are pretty hardy fish, so I don't think you'd need *perfect* water quality, like you would with something like discus. Of course, you should always strive to make it the best you can for the health of the fish.
Just go slow, don't overstock, and make sure you get the tank cycled correctly. There are a lot of bacterial supplements to help jumpstart the system now, and most of them work pretty well from what I've heard (and I've used some as well and had good results).
I would say use tap + Prime, and for the first 6 months, test pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Once you get an idea of where those should be, you can test less frequently, or not at all.
Gars are pretty hardy fish, so I don't think you'd need *perfect* water quality, like you would with something like discus. Of course, you should always strive to make it the best you can for the health of the fish.
Just go slow, don't overstock, and make sure you get the tank cycled correctly. There are a lot of bacterial supplements to help jumpstart the system now, and most of them work pretty well from what I've heard (and I've used some as well and had good results).