water quality v. hatch rate

[discusalex]

Hey all,

I just got back into the hobby after a some decade long layoff. I used to keep Discus in the SF area where the water was good to go right out of tap. I'm now in the So. Cal. area where traditionally we've had very hard water.

Anyhow, I have a young pair of pigeon bloods that recently started spawning. Out of a very small clutch, I have just five wigglers (the rest of the eggs either turned white or were eaten).

So to my question: Does the fact that there are even five wiggler mean that my water is good as is (I don't have a water test kit), or can water quality (too hard or too high ph) affect the hatch rate?

Thanks!

Alex

[Moon]

Alex
Your water may be too hard. I have real hard well water and get a very poor hatch rate. When I switch to RO water the hatch rate improves significantly.
Get your self a test kit or a conductivity meter.

[discusalex]

In lieu of an RO unit, is there a quick and dirty way to lower ph/hardness?

[Chad Hughes]

I'm in San Diego. Out water is about 500 ppm TDS. There is no buffer that I am aware of that would bring water this hard down to good breeding water. I'd say go RO. It's not expensive and if you are serious about breeding will pay dividends in the end!

Best wishes!

[yim11]

In lieu of an RO unit, is there a quick and dirty way to lower ph/hardness?

I guess you could always buy the 5 gallon jugs of distilled/RO water at the grocery store, but I can't really see that being very cost effective.

[Jhhnn]

You may be able to soften your water and reduce the pH by using peat in a box filter in an aging barrel. Years ago, I used "pure canadian peat" (the black crumbly stuff) from my hardware store in a homemade box filter between layers of foam. IIRC, ~1 cup/30 gals of water for a couple of days definitely lowered pH and hardness. Exactly how much, I don't recall, because it's been almost 20 years. It'll give the water a strong golden tinge, as well. I kept peat wet in a snap lid plastic bucket, changed it out of the filter every time I used the water. Check the pH before using the water, start easy, don't do huge water changes at first, so as not to cause pH shock.

It's mostly fallen out of favor among hobbyists because the price of R/O units is now a lot lower...

[discusalex]

Well, the pair has a spawned a few more times since my initial post, and this time there are probably around 30 wigglers out of 100 eggs. So maybe it's not the water after all.

Still need to splurge for a test kit, but perhaps I won't need a RO unit!