Recent content by smallfry53

I have had wigglers with my ph being 7.4-7.6. It seems to me it isn't impossible to hatch eggs with a ph around 7.5, however I'd guess lowering it with peat would probably yield better results.

x2 Very neat project.

That's awesome. Interesting that it seems like these black rams are way better parents than gbr. I think it would be awesome if black rams are better parents if they could be incorporated into the gbr line to get gbr to "remember" how to raise their fry.

So.... I know in the automotive world if you are talking about a rubber line, the I.D. is the measurement used. If you're talking about a steel/copper line it's the O.D. I think it depends on the material you're using. That probably doesn't help to much though....

Excellent info. I'll definitely try to keep that in mind when purchasing tanks in the future. Thanks.

Very interesting. I knew feeding lots of "good" foods would/could result in fish spawning, but never thought it could effect viability. I guess it makes sense though. I suppose it's not much different than prenatal vitamins. Talking about feeding the best foods and fish not eating them...

Tom, you're saying diet will affect the viability of eggs? I thought that was pretty much just due to water parameters and I suppose the male being fertile.

Man, if it helps any, I'm frustrated for you. Sounds like you are doing everything right to me. Do you know what the parameters of the water they were breed in are? I wonder if getting closer to those parameters would be better than the "ideal" parameters.... just a thought. Probably a bad one.

I appreciate it. I'll probably have some questions for you soon. I have only stole the eggs a couple times, I was giving them a chance to try to raise them on their own... which as expected didn't go that well. The first time I stole the eggs I put my breeder box a bit too low and had an...

Thanks for everybody's input. I kind of wonder if the HM 3 isn't more accurate. Probably 3/4 of my ram eggs have been fertile, and if my tds was over 200 it seems as though I wouldn't have that many fertile eggs (if any). Now if only I could get them beyond the wiggler stage... lol I'll pick...

Right.... I understand that getting a baseline, and watching fluctuations is probably the most important part. So they aren't totally useless, but with that much variation from one to another it makes the actual value pretty useless. I guess with almost everything in this hobby consistency is...

Both are ppm.

In the last year I've tried to get a better understanding of water parameters. I used to just test nitrogen, and ph. Lately I've been testing gh, kh, and tds, which from my reading seem like they are at least as important as ph. Anyways, so I bought an HM EZ tds meter. Then a few weeks ago I...

I really think TMaier is giving solid advise. You'll be amazed how much more your fish will pop with a black background. I say give it a try. It'll cost $5-$10 and if you don't like it you can go back to the one you have, but I doubt you would. I was skeptical of using a solid...

BBA. Changing more water, feeding less and or reducing the length of time the lights are on should help. I'd remove as much as you can manually as well.