water chemistery?

[The Fish cellar]

HI everyone,
i'm new to this forum so i wanted to say hello ! and ask how could i get my water perfect for dwarfs ?
I have a fish room in witch i usually breed larger cichlids and such but now i want to try my hand at dwarfs i'm quite unsure how to get my water perfect, I usually mix minerals in to my 200l ro butt and it takes my parameters to :
pH : 6.5
kh : 1-2
gh : 2-3
tds : 80 - 100

I know dwarf come for places with a very low pH and a almost no existent Kh and tds so how do i achive this without having wild swing of pH ? Thanks for any help.

Alex

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Your present water mix is fine for all non-black water Apistogramma spp.

I know dwarf come for places with a very low pH and a almost no existent Kh and tds so how do i achive this without having wild swing of pH?

You can just add less of the normal salt you add to your RO, and then add some humic compounds via Indian Almond, or Oak, leaves or Alder cones. As you have a TDS meter you could aim for about 30ppm TDS. A lot of members use RO for more exacting black water species and just condition it with sphagnum peat before use.

Personally I ignore pH readings in very soft water, this is because pH is a ratio and as you approach pure H2O it becomes less and less meaningful.

Have a look at these threads: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/ro-water-open-to-debate.11624/#post-62906> & <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/ok.12048/>

cheers Darrel

 

[Frank Hättich]

Hi Alex,

with KH already low, it should be easy to lower the pH by use of peat. At least for me it works just fine.

Frank

 

[The Fish cellar]

`Cheers lads ill stick to my original mix for most with adjusted ro for black water species ,just threw some bitaeniata in a blackwater with the 30 ppm and loads of leaves hope it works haha i want them to pair ....

Alex