Re: conductivity= water quality explained

["Chris Jewell" <chris@jewell68.freeserve.co.uk>]

Hi Teresa

I'm certainly no expert, but your tapwater is pretty much like mine, si I'll
say a few things before the big guys come along.

What methods are you using to soften your water? You must remmeber than
lowering the kH wont lower the pH, it will just make it easier to change (
for example my R.O water, with zero dissolved minerals has a pH of 7is), as
the kH is the bufferingcapacity (resistance to change). Once you have
lowered the kH, from my experience you still have to add a source of
acidification to the water to  lower the pH to the desired levels ( which
may also lower the kH slightly). You can get products for this, such as pH
down or specific R/O treatment chemicals, and some people even use acids,
such as phosphoric. I mix 3 parts tapwater to 2 parts R/O, add a 1 drop per
litre of "PH Down", to give me  pH of around 6.5, kH 20-30ng/l, gH 50mg/l.

Thats just my method, and my take on things, I'm sure someone will correct
me if thats wrong. I use that for all my south american tanks, with discus,
appisto,s corys, plecs etc, and it seems to be stable, my cacatuoides and
previously borelli msange to raise fry in this, allthough for a true
breeding attempt the hardness is still too high. R/O units are pretty easy
to set up in my opinion.

You must remember that if you run C02 on your tank, you cant really have a
kH below 4 (about 7oppm), as the carbonic acid produced by the C02 will try
to acidify the watre, and requires buffering against. With hardness much
below that, its possible that the buffering capactity will be too low and
you may geta pH crash.

With your rams, therea a few things to consider
1) the water may indeed by too high - what appearance do the eggs take on?
2) the pleco, and perhaps activity around the tank are disturbing the
parents who eat the eggs.
3) the pair are still "learning", or dont get on too well.

Hope thats some help, I'm sure if I'm off the mark I will be corrected.

Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: <TD7894@aol.com>
To: <apisto@listbox.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2001 7:33 PM
Subject: Re: conductivity= water quality explained


> Hello, thank you for responding.  These are the parameters that I could
get
> on my softest tank.  This is the one with the rams.  This tank has nine
parts
> distilled water to one part tap.  ph= 7.6  kh= 30 PPM  gh= 60 PPM
>
> These are the parameters of my tap water right out of the tap.  Ph= 7.6 kh
60
> PPM gh=140 PPM.
>
> All of my tanks have a pH of 7.6 no matter what the mix is.  I can't
change
> it.  Strangely enough, I have a pair of rams in straight tap and they lay
> eggs also but I never see fry or wigglers.  It could be water or the
rubber
> head pleco : ).   I hope you can advise me.  Surely I am not doomed to
keep
> only the easy fish.  Do you think an airhead can figure out to hook up and
> operate and RO unit?  Christmas isn't far off you know.  Thanks in advance
> Teresa.
>
>
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