updated - need help with hardness

[gingerbeer01]

I have tested my water from the tap. Got a gH of 120 (about 7 degrees hardness) and a KH of 80.

I understand that the only thing I can do to adjust my gH is boil or reverse osmosis, or some buckets to catch rain water. Peat and driftwood will not reduce gH and alternative like the softening bags and chems, just replace with other elements and increase - something or other to do with conductivity.

I have driftwood galore in my tank and pH is sitting nicely but hardness is exactly the same as tap - well as far as test kit is concerned.

Any comments/advice on water conditions appreciated.

I currently have my aggies and a lone cactoides male so no problem with them. I am planning on getting some Boreli and Rams. I guess I will drop my desire for checkerboards as water will not be soft enough to breed successfully.

Any comments/advice apprecieated.

Currentyl Aggies are in 6 footer. Water is changed from them into small breeding tanks/rearing tanks. couple about 2 foot and a couple of 14" tanks - one with killies at the moment. Idea is to stabalise in big tank with plants and driftwood and ensure breeding/raising tanks as stable as possible.

Steve

[fishgeek]

I am abit concerned that your measurements are incorrect to start with

gH and Kh are both measuremnts in german degree's i believe
i have never seen a reading of much above 30 for either of these and think prehaps your suggest of 120 is a ppm or millmole/litre or more standard measurement

the degree's thing is very outdated and is just a old hobby standard that has never been updated

if you have Gh of 7 then this is not a major issue

occasional purchasing of r/o water would give you the opportunity to drop the dissolved solids in your smaller breeding tanks if you needed to try and trigger a spawn, though i would have belived that & gH would work for a good number of apisto's

certainly cacatoides borreli aggisazi will all be fine
the ram may benefit from some r/o purchasing and mixed in to get spawn or at least fertilising egg's though i woud suggest that you will be able to keep them

andrew

[gingerbeer01]

Sorry - both hardness measured in ppm, conversion 120x.056 to take it back to the degrees thing for comparison with german books- like romer. Or at least that is what I am told.

Steve

[Rod]

My solution to soft water fish in Queensland is to maintain a few small tanks(max 40litre) with soft water(50% initially and rainwater every 2nd water change) for breeding and hatching of eggs. Rainwater collected with 20l buckets off a downpipe diverter($20 at bunnings)...WHEN IT RAINS!!! :D

Use larger tanks with aged tap water for raising fry...way too hard in my opinion to maintain a 6ft tank with soft water.

Ro is good water but given the amount of waste I believe it's use is not responsible given the current water crisis in Queensland....but might be ok if you have a lot of Rift lake cichlids as well to use the waste water.

[gingerbeer01]

As we had a little rain I did a 50% wate change on my small tank with my killies in it.

I am testing with Nutrafin carbonate and general hardness kit. The kit tests general hardness in steps of 20.

My tap water and inital wate in this tank tested at 120ppm gH (about 7 degrees)

After 50% water change got a reading of 100ppm gH (about 6 degrees)
rain water tested at 40ppm gH (about 2 degrees)

So after change as change 50% you would expect to achieve 120+40 /2 = 80ppm so fits within accuracy of test.

Hence only way for me to get soft water is wait for a lot of rain or RO, hence will stick to those fish that are OK in harder water.

Down in Nowra where I lived before from the tap had gH 80, kH 50. Much more friendly.

Steve