[Sir_BlackhOle]

I just got my new 75 gallon set up and would like to put some blue rams in it. The guy at my LFS says that they only use water from the local windmill dispensers. My test kit wont measure GH/KH below 20/10. I think that it is R/O water. He says that they dont add anything to it and they also use it in their plant tanks with no trouble. Does anyone else have windmill water stations in their towns and have you ever used it for fish/plants? I would like to use tap water but it is really hard (gh 160 kh 70) and ph about 8. I know that the plants would do fine, but the rams wont. Should I just buy a different test kit and check the windmill water? Anyone know of a decent/cheap test kit for GH/KH?

TIA

 

[Jay Reeves]

OK, I'll try this one. When you say your tap is really hard with a gh/kh of 160/70 are you really saying that is the degrees of hardness or ppm? Someone else might want to chime in here, but if the conversion is ppm / 17.8 to get gh or kh then your water is fine for blue rams as long as they are not wild caught. You will know if you have wild caught. Most are the Asian bred variety and they tolerate higher gh and kh. I have blue rams (Asian variety - locally bred) in a 75 with gh @ 5 to 6 and kh @ 3 to 4. This has worked out fine for me and my dealer tells me I can only put them in RO water.

That being said, I did see your tank in another thread and have the following thoughts - blue rams are somewhat expensive and sometimes have a short (2 years) life expectancy. I think you would have best success with these fish if you wait until the tank is grown out and you get some experience with it. You could keep your pocketbook busy buying a algae eating crew and some more plants. Jam the tank full of plants, let it get broken in, learn it's rhythm, and go through a few major prunings before spending the big bucks on fish. Find some hardy midwater fish that will be compatible with your eventual addition of blue rams. Rams are truly beautiful fish and have wonderful "personalities". any extra effort now will pay big dividends later.

That is just my humble .02's. Someone, please clarify the hardness issue if I have bungled it.

Regards,
Jay Reeves

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

My kit measures in mg/L (ppm) so my GH is 160ppm and KH is 70ppm. PH is about 8. I believe that comes to GH 8.9 and KH 3.9 german degrees. Correct me if Im wrong. Wouldn't the high PH also cause a problem with them?

It will probably be a while before I do get them, but I do want to figure out which way I want to go with the water...tap or bottle... pretty soon. I am taking some of the bottle water in to get tested this afternoon and will post up the results.

Thanks for the info!

 

[C_perugiae]

As long as the rams get a long enough acclimation period before being added to your tank (you might want to drip acclimate them for about an hour), they'll be okay. If you want to be really careful with them, get a small 10 gallon with a sponge filter and quarantine them for a few weeks. Rams are prone to gill flukes and it would be much easier to treat them in a bare quarantine tank than it would your planted aquarium. During that quarantine time, you could also transition them more slowly into your tank water.

I see absolutely no problem with rams in those parameters... I've kept them in water with a slightly higher KH and they were breeding, even. Of course, the eggs didn't hatch, but they grew well, had excellent color, and were active eaters. Those fish probably haven't seen super soft water in several generations and their bodies are probably more used to a normal tapwater now, anyway. Most fish common in the hobby are so removed from their native habitat that they can handle parameters outside of the "perfect" range as long as they're kept clean and fed well.

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

Sounds good. I think I will end up mixing some R/O water with my tap just to bring the ph down to about 7.5-7.8. I think that will be pretty easy (i hope!). Does anyone have any experience mixing r/o and tap? Anything I should know beforehand?

TIA

 

[C_perugiae]

I've got a bit of experience with that... if you want to bring your pH down to 7.6 without CO2, mix the tap and RO to get a KH of 3. A KH of 2 will get your pH 6.8-7.2, but that won't be as stable and you'll probably want to keep a closer eye on your KH to make sure it's not going to dip below 2. I don't think it's all that necessary to have a pH closer to neutral for your rams, so for your purposes, a KH of 3 will work just fine.

Again, that QT tank might be a good idea... gill flukes are not fun. It may be an uneventful couple weeks, but they will be worth it if your fish do come down with an infection. If you have the space, just chuck a 10 gallon in the corner. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now...

 

[Sir_BlackhOle]

Great! Thanks! Thats what I will shoot for. I dont have a quarantine tank yet, but I may be able to talk the gf into letting me get another tank I will let you know how things go. I should get it all done today I hope.