tank setup water quality

barberandbrew

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Feb 15, 2012
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gosford
is low kh or soft water preferred by all bn to get them into breeding mood mainly peppermintsd , orange spots and calico?
is this achieved by leaving your water change water for a few days before using or is there something that should be added to water or tank
 

MIX02u

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Jan 22, 2010
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Forster, Mid North Coast, NSW
From the colonies I have kept, BNs just dont like super pure water.
I used straight rainwater, RO with additives, tap water with additives and had varying results. As soon as I switched back to tapwater with only dechlorinator added, BOOM - so many fish I couldnt get rid of them fast enough. They didnt care about the pH either.

Others may have different experiences but this is how my colonies have behaved
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Burrum Heads, Queensland, Australia
You need some sort of kH or the pH may crash if tank is left unattended with wc for a week.
If you have plants in the tank, they will like some level of gH too, not zero.
If doing wc once a week then a kh of say 2 and gh of 4 to 6 is adequate. KH will drop to zero by the time a week is up and wc is due again.

How high the kh/gh doesnt seem to particularly matter as long as its not very heavy mineralised bore water. The higher levels can sometimes trigger off higher pH as well and this can include salt content.

Its all a balancing act and town water usually suits just fine as long as its not like ph 8.2 like some areas can be. If your town water is that high you will need to use rainwater or a reverse osmosis unit to dilute the town water down into suitable levels for L number.

If you use all rain or RO water, then you have to start adding some kh/gh in as those are usually zeroish in pure water.
 

Clarkey

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Aug 28, 2011
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Central Coast, NSW Aust.
Mate I'm at Narara so I'd have the same water as you, all I do is siphon water out, clean filters and stick the hose in and fill it back up. I then add a bit of prime. My longfin bn, peppermints, 397's, Aussie and New Guinea Rainbows continually have eggs or fry. Only thing not breeding at the moment are the 333's but they are a fairly new addition. Some people may say Im crazy but I don't own test kits of any kind (never have in 25yrs of keeping fish on and off). I just use good filtration, weekly to fortnightly water changes dont overcrowd and most importantly leave my fish alone. I find by doing that my fish thrive.
 

Bigjohnnofish

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Apr 15, 2010
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Perth, Western Australia
hey bren if your ph is that high 8's from the tap you just need to add more wood... especially wood that lowers ph.... eg... grapevine :)

a small piece of grapevine keeps the ph in one tank at 6.5 while all others are 7.2 (even ones containing other types of wood)....

there are some types of malaysian woods that do same thing....

im reluctant to use chemicals to lower/raise ph.... rather use substates and wood to do the job for me....
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Burrum Heads, Queensland, Australia
I havent moved there yet but the town water at my beach house is 8.2 on a good day. Unfortately being beach front means salt spray drift on the roof turns the rainwater to 7.5 as well.

I'll just dilute it with a bit of RO water no probs. Too many tanks to wc to try and drop pH over time with wood and peat is so fiddly.