Re: Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no

["Stan A. Rogge" <stan@rogge.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nuno Prazeres" <rute_p@hotmail.com>
To: <apisto@v2.listbox.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 4:27 PM
Subject: Re: Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no


| Thanks!
|
| So my lady will have to be convinced to have a RO under the kitchen
sink...
| :-)
|

I was luck in that I have a house with a basement with room enough for
my RO/DI unit and two 44 gallon trash cans (on wheels)....and a 1/4
horse water pump and 100 foot hose......... If I was trying to do this
in the kitchen........No Way!

My wife was not a fan of any of this...until we got a grandchild, whom
we babysit for quite a bit.  She is now very happy using this RO water
for the baby's milk and other water needs.  Although I bought the RO/DI
I do not use the DI cartridge....I use this position for final carbon
filtration....  At $200 for the unit...it has been well worth it.  The
rest of the stuff was like $300.  The sediment and carbon block
cartridges run me about $20 - $30 per month.....but its worth it to me
to have clean/soft water as a choice.....  My water here is very hard
and alkaline....not as bad as many others have.......pH 8.2, GH 9   KH
8.5   .  I would hate to even get into the other impurities as this area
was recently farm and I am near the Mississippi River.  City water is
from deep wells and I g
have my own well, also......My well has the same parameters as the city
water except for the Chlorine and Flouride ....and whatever else they
use as treatment......

Good luck with your tank.
|
| >From: "Stan A. Rogge" <stan@rogge.net>
| >Reply-To: apisto@v2.listbox.com
| >To: <apisto@v2.listbox.com>
| >Subject: Re: Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no
| >Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 08:00:49 -0500
| >
| >My advice would be to go RO.  Not sure that using peat is going to
| >soften your water all that much...in fact I fear it will raise the
| >conductivity even higher.  Peat tannins are a nice touch (I think),
but
| >as a water conditioner to soften I personally feel its not that
great.
| >An RO unit would offer the most flexibility and control.  Naturally a
| >conductivity/TDS meter is a must have.  The TDS meters on the market
are
| >actually just conductivity meters with a built in conversion factor,
| >usually 0.5.
| >
| >For breeding a TDS level under 40 is nice....... For pH I would just
let
| >it drift downward to low 5's, but really would not take specific
action
| >to set it or buffer it to some specific value.  Naturally you would
not
| >want it much lower than 5.0 or so....but I suggest worrying about the
| >conductivity a lot more and the pH I do not see as something so
crucial
| >that you pour in any goop to fix it to some level like 6.8.
| >
| >My 2 cents for what its worth.
| >
| >----- Original Message -----
| >From: "Per Wigstal" <per_wigstal@yahoo.co.uk>
| >To: <apisto@v2.listbox.com>
| >Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2003 3:46 AM
| >Subject: Re: Corys, otos and ditherfish - yes or no
| >
| >
| >| Hello Nuno!
| >|
| >| I noticed that you haven´t got any replies yet.
| >| Here are some thoughts from me at least:
| >|
| >| 1. I think that the tank is much too small for keeping agassizi and
| >Macmasteri. they are both fairly big apistospecies. And especially
the
| >Macmasteri can be very aggressive.
| >|
| >| 2.I do not think that these species ever share habitats in nature.
| >Read about the species, and where they normally are collected. That
will
| >give you a better understanding about the fishes.
| >|
| >| 3. The  fishes you mentioned are all alright as company to apistos.
| >| Perhaps add a couple of fastswimming tetras to keep the apistos
calm.
| >|
| >| 4.  Read about the species, and where they normally are collected.
| >That will give you a better understanding about the water
requirements
| >of the species you intend to keep..
| >|
| >| Best regards/ Per
| >|
| >| Nuno Prazeres <rute_p@hotmail.com> wrote:
| >| Hi!
| >|
| >| I am preparing a 95 gal tank (with additional capacity - 30 gal
from
| >the
| >| sump) to host two trios of apisto - agassizii + macmasteri complex
(do
| >they
| >| share habitats in nature?). The tank will be set up with driftwood,
| >rocks
| >| and plants. The goal is to watch the inter and intraspecific
behaviour
| >of
| >| these fish in a quite low stockage environment.
| >|
| >| Giving this goal, is it appropriate to use a few small species
corys
| >| (hastatus???) and otos as cleaners and typical ditherfish like
pencils
| >| and/or hachet fish? Would those fish interfere in the behaviour of
the
| >| apistos or they will just contribute to make it more evident as
they
| >are
| >| said to work as a sort of assurance there is no predator threat
| >arround?
| >|
| >| Another thing...
| >|
| >| How acid should the water be?
| >| How hard should it be?
| >| Mine comes from the tap at 100 ppm General Hardness and 7,4 pH
which
| >is not
| >| too bad - is a smaller setup a bit peat filtering and CO2 are
enough
| >to get
| >| it to pH 6,2 and 60ppm GH.
| >| Should I use peat and/or CO2 or get serious and go straight to RO?
| >|
| >|
| >| Thanks for any help
| >|
| >| Nuno Prazeres
| >|
| >| _________________________________________________________________
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