Re: [Killietalk] Water conditioningmedia

[<fishkillie at gmail_com>]

My water is Los Angeles city water with Amquel + added to remove chlorine 
ect.  It is quite hard, although I never worry about PH so I couldn't tell 
you what it is.  I add salt to the tanks, giving a hardness range of about 
800-1000 tds.  I purchased a handy electronic hardess meter from Ron Harlan, 
and so I can easily gauge the tds difference between my tanks and the water 
in bags of newly aquired fish.  I slowly acclimate until the tds in both my 
water and the water in the bag is about the same, then I put the new fish in 
their new home.  I've found that relying on tds gives better results than 
relying on PH for acclimation as it reduces the posibility of osmotic shock.

One of the advantages to hard water is that baby brine shrimp live all day 
in the tanks.  I simply feed a large amount in the morning and the baby fish 
snack on them all day long.  This results in great growth rates and 
constantly full bellies.  The bad thing is that some species seem to have 
low fertility ratios in the hard water.  I've found that Blue Gularis, 
striatum, chromaphyosemions (biv "Funge"), and a few others generally have 
low fertility counts if I don't soften the water...at least that is what I 
think is going on.  However, I have great luck with most fish in hard water. 
Gardneri (of course), Aplocheilus species, lampeyes, Epiplatys dageti, 
Nothos, and even "soft water" fish like Betta channoides and neon tetras 
seem to spawn just fine in it and the eggs hatch well.  I don't know why.  I 
do keep a relatively low fish mass in each tank and change the water every 
week (usually) or two (sometimes).  My experience seems to indicate that 
clean water is more important than soft/acidic water for many "soft water" 
species.

Anyway, I like the fact that the bbs live a long time in it.  It seems to 
help the fry grow well.

Cheers,
Dan Hodnett

P.S.  I'm thinking about accepting a position in a program at KU in 
Lawrence, Kansas.  Any killie folks around there? 

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