Ram Cichlids

[curbyzcul]

Right I bought a pair of Rams (one male one female), looked around on the Internet (more!) and some places are saying they should be kept at one pH, some places another (ranging from 5 through to 8!!!!). I could do with some opinions from people who have successfully kept them. The fish store owner said that they are babies, and as such there is not much colour in them at the moment. My pH is 7, and am worried about them dying. What pH can they successfully be kept at?

[curbyzcul]

Oh btw they are German, if that helps.

[AtodaJ]

7 is just fine. Don't worry about that PH. Enjoy!

[TankGirl]

At least for me, Germans are trickier to keep healthy. My water tends to be on the slightly hard, alkaline side, higher than yours, so I prefer to stick to Bolivians, which tend to be hardier, but that might be a situation here in the States that you don't have there.

However, with a pH of 7 you should be in good shape. I would definitely avoid messing with your pH in an effort to try to lower it for them, because it is hard to keep it stable when you do that and the fluctuations are much harder on them than adapting to your water. If your LFS water is similar to yours then they should do just fine. Enjoy them, they are one of my favorites.

[bungle]

Originally Posted by TankGirl

I would definitely avoid messing with your pH in an effort to try to lower it for them, because it is hard to keep it stable when you do that and the fluctuations are much harder on them than adapting to your water.

TG, does this opinion include the addition of peat in order to lower PH? i'm asking because i may face a similar situation and want to know before i go and put peat in my filter. gracias

[Menagerie]

Peat is natural and safer than the chemicals. Plus peat in the filter comes in contact with all the water as it filters.
The drawback is when you add tap water with the higher pH. I suggest only a 20% change at a time.

[bungle]

which would also mean a higher frequency of water changes, correct?

[AtodaJ]

Just to throw my 2 cents in. Yes that would mean smaller water changes but what happens if you have a huge ammonia spike or some other disaster that requires you to change more water... like 50%? Using Peat assumes you'll never have a major water parameter problem and I just think that is unrealistic. Just an opinion.

[patryuji]

You can still handle a bigger water change. Just don't use your python and dump the water in fast. Get a bucket, take a small silicone "air" hose and syphon the water from the bucket into the filter through the peat (unless you have a canister filter...) and slowly refill. That should allow a more incremental change in pH and the new water passing directly through the peat will be "peat filtered" right away.

Since my tap is 7.4pH and my tank is 6.6-6.7pH (CO2 induced) I always slowly refill my tank with the new water aimed directly at the CO2 bubble counter. Of course my water is also very soft and drops in pH very fast...but I do about a 30-35 percent water change every week.

[Menagerie]

Originally Posted by bungle

which would also mean a higher frequency of water changes, correct?

Not necessarily. If the tank isn't overstocked, once a week should be just fine. Rams are not as messy as their larger relatives.