Is my water apisto friendly

[degrassi]

I have always wanted to get some Apisto cacatuoides and i was wondering if they will do ok in my tap water. I know apistos like low ph and soft water but i know many people keeping them in our water and even breeding. I wanted to get your oppinions and a little bit of info about my tap water.

I checked on our city's water quality website but i'm not sure what it all means. Usually when people talk about fish they mention GH and KH and TDS but I didn't see those specific things on the site. Concerning hardness i did find these numbers

Total hardness- 164mg/l
Total alkalinity- 117mg/l
ph- 7.8
calcium hardness- 114mg/l
http://www.epcor.ca/Customers/HomeSmallBus/Water/Water+Quality+Reports/

I am unsure what this info means. Do i have hard or soft water? Will Apisto cacatuoides do well in this water? Do you think they might breed?

 

[mooman]

your water would probably be considered moderately hard. That doesn't mean you can't get apsitos to spawn in it successfully though. I would bet that cacatuoides will certainly spawn in your water. Borellii would probably do fine as well.

 

[apistoireland]

A. trifasciata will do fine as well but the fins will not develop as well as if you were keeping it in soft, acidic water.
Try using moss peat in your filter. This will bring down the hardness and Ph. You could also try rainwater. Test your rainwater before using it. If you live in an area with lots of industry your rainwater might be heavily polluted. Try to collect rainwater only after it has rained for a couple of days since most pollutants will have come down by then. Don't know about the rainfall in your area but here in Ireland it is no prob. I am trying to keep things cheap as you are just setting up. If you really want to push the boat out buy a RO unit and peat granules.This is the expensive approach and if you have to pay for your water by consumtion, costs will rocket.