RO water with peat moss or Indian almond

AnythingShiny

AnythingShiny

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Oct 17, 2010
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I will be acquiring a reverse trio of apistogramma trifasciata next week. They will be going into a planted 20 long. My water is anywhere between 7.6-7.8 and is fairly soft. I also have RO water that is at 6.5 pH and very, very soft.

I know that trifasciata appreciate peat moss or Indian almond leaves, but how much would they bring down the pH? With such soft water, are the tannins really necessary? My concern is lowering the pH to a point where it destroys the biological filter. Should I be concerned about this?
 
A pH below 6 will kill off the nitrifying bacteria. But I wouldn't worry about it ever falling that low. You'd really have to neglect your tank (or overfeed and overstock the fish) for that to happen. A combination of RO water and regular water would be a good balance for Apistos. But the plants would probably do better with some water hardness. If you starve the plants of nutrients by using water which is too soft, you may end up with algae or green water problems. My philosophy with a planted tank is to give the plants priority -- keep the plants growing and the fish will thrive, too.
 
I do have fertilizer tabs in the tank. If I use purely RO water, would the plants still have plenty of nutrients? I have a fluorescent light overhead.

Thanks for the article by the way. It says my water is moderately soft.
 
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So, you don't add anything back to the RO water? RO right or anything of the sort? A mixture of RO and tap usually works best since RO is too "pure" for most fish and plants - both of which need minerals and electrolytes, which the RO system strips.

You can either use something like RO Right and RO water, or RO water and tap. The only reason to bypass your tap and use RO only with some sort of remineralization formula (such as RO Right) would be if you felt your tap water was of very poor quality. Most tap, once dechlorinated, is perfectly agreeable to fish, although to breed fish like this it usually must be adjusted (diluted with purer water)

I would say, determine the pH, alkalinity and hardness you are striving for when it comes to breeding your fish, and figure out what mixture of tap and RO you need, stick to that ratio and change water on a regular basis. Then you can use the conditioners such as Indian almond leaves...which do more than just acidify the water, they have beneficial humic acids and other properties :) Alder cones will work in a similar way to Indian almond leaves. I don't know if I would recommend peat since it can be hard to control...you can boil peat and make a tea, which is preferable than adding chunks of peat moss, IMO!

What do you planning on feeding your breeding pair? Do you have some live food cultures going already? The fry will probably need some rotifers or other microscopic foods.
 
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I have just about frozen everything lol, from bloodworms to mysis shrimp to baby brine shrimp and others. I just use regular tap now, as I'm only keeping guppies and goldfish. These new aspistos that will arrive next week were what got me thinking about my water conditions. My tap water is actually around 100 GH, 160 KH, and 7.7 ish. My RO water is around 15-25 GH, 20-30 KH, and 6.5 pH. Would it be better to do peat moss or IAL with the tap water than mix tap water and RO water? Thanks for the response!!
 
I think mixing your tap with RO 50/50 would be perfect, and you can add some Indian almond leaves as leaf litter on the bottom, or in the filter's flow path if you prefer to keep it out of sight. (I guess not feasible if you are using a sponge filter)
 
I'm using an Aqueon 20 gallon filter. I'll run some tests with a 50/50 right now and get back to you.

a 50/50 mix gives me a pH of about 7.2-7.3, a KH of about 95, and a GH of about 15. How's that?
 
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Try it - that might be just fine! Have you seen this brief article?
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-exc...l/cichlid-forum/apistogramma-trifasciata.aspx

I’d suggest relatively soft water since in the natural habitat carbonate hardness is around 4 degrees KdH (that’s about 72 ppm of CaCO3). Luckily, pH tends to be a little on the alkaline side at about 7.4 to 7.6, so you will not have to worry about lowering the pH as you might have to with a lot of other ApistogrammaA. trifasciata comes from quite southerly latitudes in South America, southern Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, you need not keep it as warm as you might some of its Amazonian counterparts; I’d suggest a temperature in the range of 75 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit.

I think given your water chemistry results, you have sufficient mineral content to safely introduce IALs or alder cones without worrying about compromising your biological filtration.

I saw your breeding log :) I say that you add some simple floating plants, maybe a few Echinodorus species (I'm a big fan of Echinodorus tenellus, aka Pygmy chain sword) and you'll be all set!
 
Oh, look at that, I had no clue they needed slightly alkaline water. Me and my stereotypes lol! Thanks for looking at the spawn log. I'm in the process of acquiring some frogbit for the surface and I'll look into the pygmy chain sword. I've heard its name thrown around, but never really looked into it. Thanks so much for all the help, it's greatly appreciated!
 
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