Even at only a couple degrees GH and/or KH? (I'm leaving TDS out for the moment). Any better dwarf cichlids for water harder than rainwater?You can acclimate the usual suspects basically every LFS sells to harder water. Especially the colour breeds. Only downside is they tend to not be very healthy in hard water and sudden deaths can happen.
Can you give any examples? For example, is A. borellii such a clear water species? (EDIT; My tap is less than 1 GH and KH...I have to add minerals to increase them above 1).Most white- and clearwater apisto species should breed at this hardness.
Don't bother hardening it? When I first moved here I lost a lot of fish to this uber soft water - danios, desert gobies, a dwarf gourami, a mystery snail...I guess it's just habit. The tank has a lot of artificial plants, so I guess I have no need to harden it?A. borellii is a white- & clearwater species, as are A. trifasciata, commbrae-complex species, many macmasteri- and alacrina-group species. I don't understand why you harden your basically distilled tap water unless your plants need it. Natuaral processes feeding, waste, plants, etc. will raise the hardness a bit.
I don't know why they died, and they are organisms that prefer harder water. It is horrible when your fish die, but I would say to you the single factor that makes fish keeping easier is the presence of growing plants.When I first moved here I lost a lot of fish to this uber soft water - danios, desert gobies, a dwarf gourami, a mystery snail...I guess it's just habit. The tank has a lot of artificial plants, so I guess I have no need to harden it?
I'm pretty confident the snail and desert gobies, at least, died from how soft my water is. I wound up adding a small (1/4th tsp per gallon) amount of marine salt per gallon once I realized how soft my water was, and that ended the unexplained deaths (I even spawned Microctenopoma fasciolatum in such salty water, though the resulting fry died at the 2 month mark of an ammonia spike due to me missing some water changes). My black paradise fish that I had raised from birth before the move suffered no losses from the uber soft water...not bad for F1, not really domesticated fishesHi all,
I don't know why they died, and they are organisms that prefer harder water. It is horrible when your fish die, but I would say to you the single factor that makes fish keeping easier is the presence of growing plants.
I'm not trying to be funny, but just ignore what LFS, forums web sites etc tell you about pH stability and hardness, it is nearly all wrong and often based upon a desire to sell you a useless product.
cheers Darrel
OK, there could have been a number of reasons for that. Marine salt is alkaline because of the bicarbonate (HCO3-) content, and has some dGH from dissolved Ca++ and Mg++ ions. The sea "salt" (NaCl) doesn't add any hardness (either dKH or dGH), or change the pH, but it does raise the conductivity, when it dissociates into Na+ and Cl- ions.I wound up adding a small (1/4th tsp per gallon) amount of marine salt per gallon once I realized how soft my water was, and that ended the unexplained deaths
I'm not a salt fan, mainly because I only keep planted tanks and only a small range of plants tolerate elevated sodium levels. One of the reasons for having plants is that they give you a lot more wriggle room when nitrification is potentially compromised.fry died at the 2 month mark of an ammonia spike due to me missing some water changes
The aforementioned fry tank had heaps of duckweed and substantial amounts of java moss and hornwort. It still wasn't enough to control the spike (the fry tank was overstocked and overfed in retrospect).Hi all,
OK, there could have been a number of reasons for that. Marine salt is alkaline because of the bicarbonate (HCO3-) content, and has some dGH from dissolved Ca++ and Mg++ ions. The sea "salt" (NaCl) doesn't add any hardness (either dKH or dGH), or change the pH, but it does raise the conductivity, when it dissociates into Na+ and Cl- ions.
I've kept Parosphromenus "Bintan", but not the Macropodus or the Microctenopoma, and I didn't successfully raise any fry from them, although they did spawn.
I'm not a salt fan, mainly because I only keep planted tanks and only a small range of plants tolerate elevated sodium levels. One of the reasons for having plants is that they give you a lot more wriggle room when nitrification is potentially compromised.
cheers Darrel
They are all <"plants I like">, and ones that are <"tolerant of hard water"> and some salinity, but even with plants you eventually reach the tipping point, if you have enough bioload.The aforementioned fry tank had heaps of duckweed and substantial amounts of java moss and hornwort. It still wasn't enough to control the spike (the fry tank was overstocked and overfed in retrospect).