Hard akaline water and breeding

[Carol_Roberts]

Yep

[Mughal]

My GH is abour 12. Does this mean that I don't have to add RO water unless I decide to breed the discus? What about the discus's well being and stuff, does it really matter?

[KIWI13]

12 aint too bad, I keep mine at 9°gh, by mixing 50% ro and 50% tap, the tap water here had alot of mineral content and hence a gh of 18° so I have no choice.
12 should be ok as long as your not trying to breed em. The most important is not what degree be it ph or gh you keep em at, ( ofcourse being reasonable with the requirements of the species) its keeping the parameters stable thats the key to healthy fish. its fluctuations in temp, ph, gh, that weaken your fish and make them prone to disease.

sincerely

Jason

[Carol_Roberts]

Mine swim in GH 12 everyday unless I'm trying to get eggs to hatch. AS soon as the eggs hatch I start doing WC with GH 12 water to acclimate the new fry.

[Mughal]

Thanks alot, that makes me feel better about my GH plight

[tpl*co]

Well, I did all the suggestions prior to the Monday clockwork breeding time (female likes monday afternoons ). Did about a 30% water change Sunday, and another 70% Monday morning with about 80% RO mix and pH adjusted to about 6.6. Well, the eggs looked good, I added something to help the eggs not fungus and I think this stressed them out since the next afternoon all the eggs were gone (and these guys usually watch the white eggs till the cows come home). A cichlid expert at the LFS suggested I use an herbal fungicide/ich medicine (I think it's called Ich Attack) since it was more natural than the meth blue route. Could it be since the eggs looked good and weren't white they got confused and ate them? (they were getting little black dots in the center too .

[Carol_Roberts]

Hard to say what prompted them to eat their eggs . . . .