Water for German Blue Rams

[steve b]

what water parameters do you use for breeding the Rams.

Ph Gh Kh TDS Temp

[LizStreithorst]

Same temp water as Discus.

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Steve, as a starting point what are your water parameters now?
Pat

[steve b]

Tap water: Ph7.6 - TDS 352 - 30ml Nitrate - 9 Kh

Nitrate resin filtered water after 24hrs aeration: Ph7.6 - TDS 445 - 0 Nitrate - 3 Kh
Want to use this water to remin my RO/DI water.

[Second Hand Pat]

Are you thinking of using mostly RO water? If yes, you might consider adding enough tap to target a TDS of 80. This is what I do for my wild discus.

Of course the second question to consider is do the rams need any RO water? The rams are domestics right?
Pat

[steve b]

Rams are domestics but want to breed them. Tap water has high Nitrate. If I take it down to 80 TDS there is a 0Kh i've tested it at 50 TDS. I know there is no way to add Kh and not raise the TDS? If there is let me know.

[Charlyc11]

Rams are domestics but want to breed them. Tap water has high Nitrate. If I take it down to 80 TDS there is a 0Kh i've tested it at 50 TDS. I know there is no way to add Kh and not raise the TDS? If there is let me know.

If you do daily water changes the KH is not an issue I been doing that with my eruptions for a couple of weeks now to keep the egg from turning white and so far the PH is been steady at 6.9 - 7. When I did the black rams I removed the eggs from the main tank reg tap and put the eggs in a a specimen box with RO only for artificially breeding. If you remove them from the high TDS within a couple of hrs the will be ok. You can give them back as wiggles and sometimes they would be ok and not eat them or continue with artificial. I also added 2 drops of MB.

[steve b]

Thanks

[Charlyc11]

Sorry Steve I kida left some info out, the KH is not a issue if you use RO with your tap mix to get it down to the TDS you want I do a 80% RO with 20% of my 190 TDS tap to get 40 - 50 TDS. This was based on a recommendation from Al and it's been working out so far and yesterday the had a nice spawn. I will be posting a pic on Once upon a time.

[steve b]

Nice, wished my tap was as low as that.

[Charlyc11]

Nice, wished my tap was as low as that.

I still need to mix RO and tap for egg to hatch it's not low enough and also no KH just GH of 6. Well water...

[steve b]

So got my waters ready, what do you think best to breed Rams.

Filtered Tap : Ro-Di water

1:1 220 TDS 1Kh 9Gh 7.2Ph
1:2 150 TDS 0Kh 7Gh 7Ph
1:3 112 TDS 0Kh 5Gh 6.9Ph
1:4 87 TDS 0Kh 4Gh 6.8Ph

[LizStreithorst]

1:4 should work a treat.

[steve b]

Thanks Liz, knew you would not let me down, By the way 0 No3, Black sandy covering. I have a white background on the glass, do you think I should paint it black?

[LizStreithorst]

I breed rams in a BB tank and all my tanks have a painted background, not that it should matter to the rams. BB is really better. Rams can be amazingly sneaky when it comes to hiding their tiny wigglers. They can even be hard to spot in a BB tank, at least until you get more experience watching them and learning what their behaviors are telling you. Discus are the same, except that being large fish, it's harder for them to be terribly sneaky.

I wish you great luck despite your crappy tap water.