Tony s

Oh, and THANK YOU for that. going to be so much easier than i planned

Okay. was going to have to turn it off to move them. never dawned on me to leave it off until they hatched. I may even have a round prefilter sponge around somewhere to protect the parent angels

Hi! Got myself in a bit of a pickle. I had 6 juvenile angels in a 75g. community. ended up with 2 breeding pairs, which was fine for a year. mildly territorial until one of the females switched partners. Then that male who was peaceful, became something of a murder missile. unpaired angles are out of tank. Praecox are leaving. They even went so far as to push the other pair to the opposite side from where they had been laying their eggs for a year. And then they promptly laid eggs on the fx2 canister intake (on the side of the grate). Have always been very nervous about removing the eggs. But have no choice at this point. As soon as they become wigglers, they're going to be toast. Have an in-tank breeder box, but how do you safely move them. Have only had a couple of batches of surface swimming fry. And am very sure the praecox had them for lunch. (another reason they had to change tanks). So how do I keep them alive and growing?

I think just from where it’s at, I might start him on something. Possibly Maracyn. And salt. Hopefully it’s nothing. But if it is, near the eye/brain could be dangerous quickly. There are fish vets in some locations that could help.

And we learn things. Crushed coral and aragonite adjust both kh and gh. But if you’re fighting high gh neither may be helpful.

The other thing is that wondershells by themselves have little to no effect on ph or kh. Just raises gh. I believe same thing with crushed corral and aragonite. Using just alkalinity buffer without acid buffer on a 0 kh water still allows the ph to swing . But now only in one direction. Better to use 2 parts alkalinity buffer to one part acid buffer. That gives you a complete buffered product with a neutral ph. Without moving the gh at all.

I have found out the hard way. The calcium and magnesium that make up dGH do not really evaporate. so doing just water top offs will increase the GH over time. Since I use RO water, I was adding Equilibrium to each water change as well. So over time I went from normal gh to liquid rocks. So now it's just straight RO for top offs. KH is slightly different. KH gives the water's ability to resist ph swings. Water with no KH has changes ph very rapidly. Since I use RO water, I add both an acid buffer and alkalinity buffer to target a neutral ph. I use Seachem products. there are other brands that can do the same thing. But basically, I add so much acid buffer to a certain amount of alkalinity buffer and the result is a buffered water solution of the ph I want. For lowering Gh naturally, I believe adding things like peat moss to a hang on back would work over time. possibly catapa leave as well?

Honestly, I haven't had experience with the severum yet (they're on my list of things to do). But there is a good video from Prime Time Aquatics (youtube) that goes into their requirements. They're supposed to be on the less aggressive side for a cichlid. But being a cichlid it goes down to individual personalities. Possibly could try and find males and that would eliminate pairing. Now, i have done multiple anglefish together in a community. Ended up with 2 pairs. Which was okay for a year. They were territorial, but not extremely so. Which changed when one of the females decided to change partners. New partner is a large marble angelfish, who was very peaceful until then. When he paired, he turned into a murder missile. Even drives the preacox rainbows down to the bottom. Had to remove the unpaired angels out and currently working on removing the rainbows. So even with peaceful cichlids it can change. But I have seen multiple types together. But more than likely single sex.

Your water (2dkh and 8dgh) is what I would consider almost perfect. You could have an amazing South American cichlid tank. Geophagus would be good, Oscars would work. Electric blue Acara. If you’re not tied to planted tanks severum would be good. Temperature is mostly the key. 74 would be good for a lot of these. You couldn’t do discus or rams cichlid because they need much hotter water and slightly softer water. As would a few subspecies of geos. For cooler water eartheaters how about gymnogeophagus balzani. I wouldn’t sweat the 8dgh. As long as your water is stable and consistent most soft water fish will adapt. So will the ones needing slightly harder water. personally I want a tank full of severums. All colors. An Oscar, a chocolate, and geophagus altifrons

Yeah, it will show up, which threw me. My usual reaction was , Ok now what did I screw up. But it absolutely takes time and personal experience. YouTube helps but it’s not going to be the same. Most fish keepers learn by losing fish along the way. Which can be very discouraging. But you’re never going to do something that someone else didn’t mess up first. My first reactions to things like ich was immediate panic. And overdoing things. At least that’s how I learned.

I have done the exact same thing when starting. Besides frequent water changes, it would be helpful to grab a bottle of Prime and follow the dosing directions. It doesn’t eliminate the ammonia or nitrite, but it binds it into a non-toxic form so it’s not damaging your animals. Needs to be redone every couple of days until the bacteria have had a chance to grab hold. I still keep a bottle on hand just in case

Okay. Great article. apparently i should be shooting for a dKh of around 4. And dGh of around 6 would work. Which I can do by adjusting my equilibrium and both buffers. The hard part becomes at what levels do the other animals prefer. which requires more homework. Which was why I was trying to stay as neutral as possible Honestly, if i didn't have to strip my water down to nothing, I'd probably just stay with hard water/ high ph fish. As for fish sources online, I know nothing about them. I usually buy from a lfs in Indianapolis or Lafayette, In. was my first time buying any animal online. Ended up buying from a source in florida that had a black friday sale. They are relatively large and i like what i see, but don't know they're reputation. But that seemed to be okay as well. Thanks DC16!

Okay. Bit confused then. 3 dKh is equivalent to ~54 ppm kh. That seems relatively soft to me. How do you keep your ph stable then?

I should actually ask a question. Does anybody have any idea of how to keep rams thriving and alive? I would appreciate any ideas as to what mistakes I'm making. Only been doing fish for 18 months and find it fascinating and relaxing. but i really don't want to be harming my animals.

typo kh of 3 gh of 6

Hi, completely new here. Not sure I’m in right place or not. got in 4 gbrs from online (I. T.), put them in 20 gal quarantine tank at 86 degrees. Was my Daddy Platy tank so has been running for a year stabile. Gh 5 kh 6 0 ammonia 0nitrite 5-10 nitrate. (Lots of hornwort) dwarf sag and swords. Ph 7.6 apparently. Have now lost 3 of 4 very frustrated with this. Angels in same tank also quarantined. And 2 rainbows for a short bit. They seem fine, worried about the lone ram. Trying to set up stabile water for 100 plus animals of all sorts. Most tanks are moderately planted. One 40 gallon dark tank. With lots of glow fish. My daughter likes glow fish more info… on well water. Very hard water with iron bacteria in the well. To the point it turns sidewalks rust colored when watering the grass outside Running 240 gallons of aquariums by ro water only. Using seachem equilibrium, acid and alkaline buffers trying to produce neutral stable water ph around 7 . Kh of 3, gh of 7. Apparently missed on ph of 7. everything is mostly stable. Fish loss is minimal. Water changes should be more frequent. But water changes are a no joke ton of work. (Also relaxing, but I farm and water changes come after work) Have thought about putting system in the basement to reserve 150 gallons of ro. Using 30 gallon tote now.