New To Freshwater

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

i'm too OCD.

You think you're OCD ... HAHA
Check my build

[reefgirl189]

Can you give some details on the system?

As with SW the care varies.

Planted or not?
Predator tank?
Size? Stock?

[Nano]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Oh? So tapwater with prime? I've got a sweet setup for filling those 5G jugs. Be a pain in the butt filling those water jugs outta the tap.

honestly, I would even spend the money on prime for FW. I have used tetra aquasafe for 10 years in my cichlid tanks with no problems what so ever, it does generally the same thing (I.e. removes chlorine/chloramine, detoxifies nitrates etc.)
Its about half the price and comes in very large containers.

Again if its planted or fish only that can help narrow down a few things to monitor, obviously, its very low maintenance, filter cleaning and minor substrate cleaning (depending on substrate, I leave my sand alone except for a slight stir of the top 1/2" when doing WC's.) you want to monitor nitrates, nitrites and ammonia, but dont go crazy on it, also depending on water quality, phosphates. I dont bother with ph, cause my sand buffers my ph, to a perfect level for the cichlids. If its planted, there are other things to look at like, co2 levels and lighting. All in all its quite easy, I spend maybe 2 hours once a month on my freshies, as well as top ups. I wash the decor down during WC's as well, with just hot water.
No biggie, its as easy as pie Good luck

[Nano]

also I find going over kill on filtration has worked well for me in FW, as you dont have live rock to handle Biofiltration. I was origninall running 2 AC110s the that along side a Marineland C-360 canister, now I just run 2 of the canisters, a total of 160(rated) gallons of filtration, In one I have all my biomedia, and chemical media, and the other is strictly mechanical filtration. For chem. filtration I am using, Chemi pure, carbon(lots ) phosban, which is a phosphate remover, and I cant remember the name of the other stuff, but its an ammonia absorber. my water is clear as crystal (now that I got an actual Light you can see it too ) Also depending on species, you may consider frozen/home made foods, my cichlids are of the herbivore species, so I feed them a frozen mush of spinach, peas, zuchini, broccoli, loads of garlic, and a bit of shrimp mixed in for protein, this diet has been used along side new life spectrum for 6 years, and the love it, never lost a fish in my tank I am happy to report!

[Madreefer]

I have yet to see either of these tanks as there is 3 of them. They did'nt know what size they were when I asked when she phoned. I'm going to go this morning and give them a quote for a monthly fee. I'm also to do a WC on one of the tanks so they can see my work. Whatever that means?

[reef-keeper]

I have a forty gallon Discus tank and I use RO-DI water in it. It is a planted tank so I just skim the surface of the substrate going deeper will damage the roots. Also I do 25% water change every other day due to the finicky nature of Discus. Most other tank are every other week except a goldfish tank they are a very dirty fish and require more frequent changes. Just my opinion.