Re: [Killietalk] Re: to RO or not to RO...

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net>]

Charles Harrison wrote:

Responding to Bill:

> > Which killifish have you bred in 300 ppm water?  My tap water is 
> > 280-290 ppm, year round, and I've bred guppies and bettas in it, and I 
> > can get Aphy. australe to spawn, but without putting the eggs in R/O 
> > water, I can't get them to hatch.  Thus, I'd like to try another type 
> > of killi, as I don't like maintaining a tank of R/O water (since I 
> > have to buy the R/O water).
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Bill Wallace
>
>
>
>
> Bill,
>
>  take a look into my Fish page at http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish
> you will find group pictures of annulatus, australe and riggenbachi all 
> from the St Louis area tap water. I don't own a RO unit.
>
> The WAKO photo essay is in the group of links at the bottom of the page 
> BTW.
>
> Charles H

I bred all kinds of killies in Santa Clara, where the water was 450ppm 
and the hardness was 300 ppm of that. BIT, BIV, Notho, Lampeye, Pupfish 
you name it! I also bred large numbers of catfish, Apistos, and (once, 
by mistake in a community tank) Neon Tetras!

I did find that some Wild and F1 rainforest fishes probably did better 
when I diluted the local water with some RO. Most "domesticated" 
killifish did just fine in it. Nothos and Fp. simply loved it, and 
Aphyos sorta tolerated it. The trick, as Charles says is to do enough 
small, partial water changes that the fish are basically unstressed, and 
they will adapt.

I moved to Fremont, where they diluted down the local well water with 
Hetch-Hetchy (Sierra snow runoff), so I had about 300 ppm tds with 200 
ppm of hardness. The only "special" water I had was brackish for some 
Lampeyes. I did use a lot of RO for special purposes, but normally my 
fish lived and bred in the tap water, filtered through carbon to remove 
all chloramine.

I always felt sorry for the poor folks that had too-soft water. They 
spent their life trying to make chemical soups that were never constant 
enough for good husbandry. [Now I live there! 80 ppm out of the tap. :-(]

IMHO, many fish have a hard time living in really "pure" water (RO, 
distilled or DI). Osmotic pressure must be very high (stressful) to 
maintain bodily fluids at proper salinity. pH stability is way harder to 
maintain, so ammonia poisoning or acidosis are constant threats. Salt 
becomes really deadly when proper cell metabolism is missing the balance 
of potassium, calcium, etc.

Be grateful you have nice tap water, and use it.

Wright

--
Wright Huntley -- 760 872-3995 -- Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514

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