Re: water conditions for A, panduro & D. filamentosus

[cfonda@sentientconsult.com]

Peter,
Your water conditions sound fine for keeping D. filamentosus and A.
panduro.  If you are going to attempt to breed them, however, you may want
to bring that pH down a bit.  Your idea of peat in circulating water in a
30-50 gal container should do the trick (you will have to experiment to
find out how much peat to use... the good thing is that using more peat
than is needed should not harm your fish in any way).  As long as the peat
you bought does not have any additives (which it probably does not), it
should be fine.

With your water conditions, I would not bother getting an RO filter unless
the peat fails to produce conditions conducive to breeding.  I use an ANI 2
and a KATI 2 de-ionization system on my water, which gives me a pH of
around 5.5 in most of my tanks.  (I use this system because the parameters
of Baltimore city water can vary greatly from season to season.)  I have
also used do-it-yourself carbon dioxide generators (2 C sugar heated in 1.5
L water till desolved, allowed to cool, then placed in a 2 L soda bottle
with 1 tablespoon yeast and an airline tube going from the cap to the
tank.) to lower my pH on occassion with success... and the plants love it.

Hope this helps... have fun...

--Cliff




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@majordomo.pobox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@majordomo.pobox.com.
Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!