I'd like to start off by thanking everyone on this forum! I've found all the information on here to be extremely useful. I also apologize if this is the wrong section for this post. That being said, I think I screwed something up on my new 30 Gallon Tank.

Is there a way to test for poisons in my tank water?

Can very hard water be bad for fishies or possibly kill them?

The tank has been running for about 2 or 3 weeks. I used a few cups of water from my other established 10 gallon tank and also transferred some gravel to speed up the cycling. The new tank is also planted with a few cabombas and african sword plants and has a Aqueon Waterfall style filter meant for 50 gallons running. I also did a 1/2 water change a day ago.

A few days ago, one of the cichlids from my established 10 gallon became very aggressive so I pulled him out of the tank. I figured 3 weeks was enough for the new 30 gallon to cycle so I dropped him in. Poor guy didn't make it 20 minutes... Now, I know it was a mistake not properly acclimating him to the new tank... but I'm afraid maybe the water in the 30 gallon might be poisonous and heres why:

After much research and reading I decided to make a DIY Background out of polystyrene and cement. After all the work I think a store bought background would have made my life much easier. I followed the instructions I found on a few forums and made sure to use silicone I not II.

I used Peat Moss with a layer of HomeDepot Pea Pebbles as a substrate which I thoughrorly washed and rinsed and washed again. (Now i'm reading pea pebbles may have been a bad idea.)

Anways, maybe i'm just being paranoid and need to wait longer for the tank to cycle but there are a lot of variables at play here. Using test strips, everything reads fine EXCEPT for water hardness, which is reading absurdly high... off the scale high.

nitrate - 0
nitrite - less than .5
GH - 300+
chlorine - 0
alkalinity - 80
pH - 7


I know this is a lot of information but I figured someone may help curb my paranoia or give some advice. Thanks in advance!

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30 Gallon - FW


1 Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami
2 Albino Paradise
3 Harlequin Rasbora
3 Glowlight Tetra
6 Long Fin White Cloud
4 Kuhlii Loaches
1 Long Fin Albino Cory
1 Peppered Cory
+50 Ghost Shrimp

you used cement? I'm not sure exactly, but i'm pretty sure cement is toxic.

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"Being ignorant is not so much a Shame, as being unwilling to learn".-- Benjamin Franklin

Cement can take up to 8 weeks I believe to fully cure. The cement will be very alkaline or acidic I dont remember what way and either raise or lower your PH and that can cause you problems. I see you tested with test strips but I wouldnt trust them as they can be very inacurate so you should pick up a liquid test kit IMO. I know we use to use cement to make rock work for reef tanks but we would keep the rocks we made in a tub and do 100% WC's every couple days till the PH would stabilize low.

Just wondering... how many fish do you have in the 10g? A Cichlid is too big for a 10g and you said one of them was acting weird...

Or, are you moving them all to the 30g when it's fully cycled?

How are you cycling the tank? Just letting it sit and running the filter for 3 weeks isn't cycling the tank. You need an ammonia source. Have you though of Fishless cycling? There's a sticky in the forum on how to do it. It's great, because you don't risk the lives of any fish.

As for the cement, I don't know... I wouldn't use anything that isn't specifically for aquarium use.

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__________________
30 Gallon - FW


1 Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami
2 Albino Paradise
3 Harlequin Rasbora
3 Glowlight Tetra
6 Long Fin White Cloud
4 Kuhlii Loaches
1 Long Fin Albino Cory
1 Peppered Cory
+50 Ghost Shrimp

I slowly acclimated a few tetras and they seem to be doing fine. We'll see if they make it through the night.

I really hope the cement I used isn't poisonous. I got the idea from a few different DIY Posts on different forums about Polystyrene / Cement Backgrounds. It sure was a pain in the butt to make.

__________________
30 Gallon - FW


1 Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami
2 Albino Paradise
3 Harlequin Rasbora
3 Glowlight Tetra
6 Long Fin White Cloud
4 Kuhlii Loaches
1 Long Fin Albino Cory
1 Peppered Cory
+50 Ghost Shrimp

Does the water have a rainbow colored sheen on top of the water? If you suspect the water of having something in it from your work, do a very large water change (>70%), let it run a day and do it again. Does the water have a scent to it?

Whats the ammonia level?I have read up on doing a background as you did(its very pretty BTW)I think I read the cement will lech ammonia levels for a few weeks as well as the PH being extremly high.Many builders would do 100% waterchanges on a daily or every other day,for about two weeks and then do very large ones until the readings were normal.It does take time.

In any case,I do hope it works out well for you and your fish make it.If they do not,then I would do the heavy changes and then do a fishless cycle before adding anyone else to it.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Hmmm, I'm not sure what the ammonia level is. I just realized the strips I have don't test for ammonia. The tetras made it through the night! I guess the water quality is much better now.

The water looks and smells fine JRMAN. No oil slick like coat to be found. I did do a 2/3 water change a few days ago.


About the 10 gallon tank with the cichlids, I got them reeeeally tiny but they are starting to get too big. I also have an African butterfly fish in there. I was hoping to have the 30 gall ready before the fish got too big.

I want to have 2 groups of 3 gourami in the 30 gall. I did some research and I think they should be find with a butterfly and two small cichlids, what do you guys think?

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30 Gallon - FW


1 Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami
2 Albino Paradise
3 Harlequin Rasbora
3 Glowlight Tetra
6 Long Fin White Cloud
4 Kuhlii Loaches
1 Long Fin Albino Cory
1 Peppered Cory
+50 Ghost Shrimp