High light, planted tanks, and pH crashes

["Derek Wingert" <dwingert@MNIC.net>]

To everyone who replied to my post "High light = Apisto shyness?", I thank
you.
The answers have been quite complete and [ahem] enLIGHTening. In this
message
I will attempt to address people's concerns. Please feel free to use
criticism on any
of my replies, and/or add to or correct things.

     Nearly all the replies to my question stated that I would have to do
frequent, near-
daily pruning of the plants to keep it looking aesthetically pleasing. I do
realize there
will be a lot to do. I ordered one giant hygro along with a few other
fast-growers in order
to quickly sap the water of nutrients -- this in hopes of not allowing alga
to gain control
(my greatest fear thus far). I had to order my plants mail-order from
Arizona Aquatic Gardens,
so I plan that there will be a few plants that must drop their leaves before
growing again
due to stressful shipping conditions. However, once they do get going, I am
ready to prune
daily... especially the fast-growers. Later on, I plan on getting rid of the
super-fast growing
plants to replace them with slower growing beauties... thus taking care of a
few problems.
Yeah, I will still have to snip regularly, but luckily, I will be able to
find homes for the snippings
quite easily.... to some degree. I  will be able to get rid of many at my
LFS, but some will have
to be either transferred or thrown out.  Example: I have some Java Moss to
root to some driftwood
which I'm sure will be coming out  in daily handfuls. I don't think pruning
will be a problem, as I am
not afraid of getting my arms wet. My only setback would be if the Apisto's
spawn. After a quite
alarming bite from an angry Betta, I am now fearful of fish bites :-)

     Alex Pastor had some very good thoughts about potential water chemistry
problems. He
stated
        "...unless you have CO2 and if you plan to keep lots of plants, your
pH is
going to start bouncing around at some point when all the dissolved CO2 is
used up and the kH starts to drop."
     I totally agree with Alex. I had actually thought of this before. I am
not planning on
having CO2 injection, since I refuse to spend that much money on a "real"
unit and the
2-liter  bottle method has always caused me problems. Luckily, I have
purchased
a canister filter for the tank so as to preserve CO2 to some degree. Still,
I realize
that Dwarf Cichlids are no Zebra Danio when it comes to water parameter
tolerance.
With the amount of plants I ordered and a low fish-load, CO2 will be quickly
exhausted
and carbonates will begin to be converted via the plants. Since most Dwarfs
need very
soft water, this action would quickly obliterate a soft-water buffering
capacity. The natural
biological process, along with the slow release of tannic acids into the
water via the three
pieces of driftwood I have in the tank would cause problems. Horrible pH
crashes would
certainly occur, killing any unsuspecting Apisto. But what if I could get
around this? I
believe I can.

     I chose to house only Apistogramma cacatuoides in this particular tank.
This species
of Apisto is more tolerant of water parameters than most other Dwarfs. A.
cacatuoides
also comes from the silty waters of Northwestern South America, near Rio
Ucayali
which is between Quito and Lima. The water there has a pH of 7.6, a GH of
12* dH and a
kH of 14*. It was reported in Linke and Staecke's book American Cichlids 1:
Dwarf Cichlids
that,
        "The question of water-quality is of special interest. So far, the
opinion was predominant
that soft and acidic water would be advantageous for an optimal husbandry of
these fish.
Examination of their natural habitats however confirmed the presumption that
soft to mod-
erately hard, neutral to slightly alkaline water are more suitable for a
successful long-term
keeping."

     I have the pH in the tank set at 7.3 - 7.5, and a GH and kH nearly
matching  A. cacatuoides'
natural habitat (although a little lower). When CO2 is low, the water will
have enough buffering
in it to keep the pH quite stable despite the plants for a period of time.
Most fish don't die due to
a slow decrease in water hardness, so I am taking a gamble on assuming that
this Apisto will
be no exception. I plan on doing a 25% water change every three to four
days. I think this frequency
should be enough to keep the hardness parameters within a safe enough range
to prevent pH
drift and pH crashes. Do you agree? Note for the concerned: I am able to
monitor pH closely
thanks to a digital pH checker.

    Most Apistogramma love to hide. However, as some said, if there is
sufficient cover, they can
be quite gregarious and will even come out. One person reported a loss of
shyness due to
an abundance of floating plants. This does not surprise me, because in
reading a few books,
I have found them to state that, while aquatic plants are scarce,
overhanging and floating plants
are found readily in some places. Apistogramma can be found regularly
here... swimming among
roots and stems. I don't know who, but I remember a list member reporting
catching them in an
area like this. I have thus decided to let the plants in the "open swimming
area" of the tank grow
to overhang and shade this area for the good of the good ole' Cockatoos.
Don't worry... I'll find
a way to make it look good. I have a lot of good tricks up my sleeve from
studying various tank
aquascapes and biotopes designs.

    Thanks everyone, for your input. Oh, and Alex: I will certainly tell you
if the light housing melts
or cracks due to the bulbs. I do not expect this, however, since most likely
Perfecto got the bulbs
before the hoods, and probably designed it with the bulbs in mind. You don't
see Halogen fixtures
with Nylon lampshades, do you?  Then again, there are a lot of shoddy
products in the aquarium
industry. I will surely report on the tank regularly.

Thanks all,

-- Derek Wingert
dwingert@MNIC.net



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