Re: Conductivity as measured in MircoSiemans

[David Sanchez <barbax2@yahoo.com>]

Some very good questions Bill. American Marine has a
inexpensive one for about $100 and it comes with a 2
year warrenty, on the down side it does not have a
replaceable electrode so that may shorten it's life
span in the long run. The American Marine model is
easily available from most mail-order pet shops and
even some better LFS. If you really want a good
quality meter I would get one from a place dealing
primarily with meters. E-mail me privatly and I will
send you some of these links and telephone numbers or
just search the web.

To the secound part of your question thats a bit
tougher simply because no one value may be acceptable
to all species.In this regard we may not generalize.
One source is some of the better quality books out
there on Dwarf Cichlids that list the Counductivity of
the native waters, like the one by Linke & steack.
That is our starting point. However tolerances are
varied depending on the species we are talking about
and whether they are tank raised or wild. One thing
you can do is test your source water and then see how
it changes over time. The microsiemens go up as the
water is polluted with nutrients. For example my
source water has a microsiemens of less then 10. In my
breeding tanks it stays at about 30-40, for my more
demanding species I like to keep it under 50. That
means water changes! I am currenty accumalating data
in this regard and will be posting it on my web page
as a resource for the serious dwarf Cichlid keeper.
Check back with my web page for the whole story and
continued updates as I can go on and on this subject.
e-mail me privatly for any specifics for the species
you may be working on and I will be happy to help you
out. Good luck.


===
David Sanchez
Casselberry, FL
http://www.mindspring.com/~barbax
barbax2@yahoo.com
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