Good TDS level for Tetras/Barbs

[rrkss]

My tap water ranges from 254-340 ppm of Total Dissolved Solids. If I wanted to, I could pretty much bottle my tap water and legally be allowed to sell it as mineral water since it contains 250 or more TDS in it. I am lucky enough to have a RO/DI system installed and would like to use it to start reducing the TDS levels in my Tetras and Barb tanks. I will supplement kH with baking soda and dilute the tap water with my RO water to generate much purer water for the fish. What would be a good TDS level to aim for if I would like to see some breeding activity in the tanks (I love the colors of fish when they are actively breeding. Since they are all egg scatterors, I won't have to worry about fry since my barbs are pigs and will love to have the free caviar).

Do you think 100 ppm TDS is good or should I go lower? I will gradually adjust my tanks with 25% waterchanges every 3 days until I reach my target TDS level. After that I will resume my 50% every week waterchange schedule.

 

[Roan Art]

I doubt you are going to get much of a response to this, rrkss. FW people don't usually have TDS meters and, from what I gathered in another conversation about them here, there are no standard target levels. It's just not something really used in FW aquaria.

I know Daveedka was thinking of buying one and running some experiments. I bought one and have been playing with it to see just how much fert additives change the TDS of the water and how much my tank water differs from my tap and so forth.

You might try searching the web for some actual numbers.

Roan

 

[RTR]

Why?

If you are planning to breed the Tetras, lower TDS is helpful. Especially lower GH seems important, KH and the resulting TDS from that relatively trivial. The barbs I have bred do fine in my tap water at ~150-200+.

But if you are just keeping the fish, I would not bother. I have keep both neons and cardinals with an average lifespan >6 years in >200 TDS water without any issues. Rummynose and Lemons will show a bit better color with some tannins in the water and a dark substrate, but both of those factors are independent of the TDS for me.

 

[rrkss]

Pretty much I am interested in breeding. My barbs do lay eggs but they never get fertilized and my Tetras don't even consider breeding. I assume that if I lower the TDS of my water and supplement kH with baking soda, I will probably be able to change this. The reason I mentioned caviar is because I would like to control when I want to rear fry. This is easy because I could just throw in a spawning mop and take it out before they eat it or breed a selective pair in my 10 gallon hospital/qt/breeding tank.

 

[Roan Art]

Why not just contact a successful breeder and ask what his or her GH, KH, pH and temperature are, as well as their routine/placement for spawning mops et al?

If you get all that information and are able to duplicate the conditions, you should be able to get a sucessful spawn -- assuming those fish have been bred in captivity before, of course.

The above is what I plan on doing with my gertrudae.

Roan