Apistogramma Q's

[aquaradio]

hello,
I would like to keep Apistogramma species in my aquarium here is my info:
population:discus,angel,5 kind or tetra packs, some shrimp,some coroydos,2 plecoes..

setup:
alot of plants some wood.
tank info:
100/70/45 cm 333L + 60L sump +150W T8 bulbs(soon adding 3 EL 45W bulbs), CO2 pro system with 8L canister..

ph- 6.8-7.4(shifts, cause the ph goes up when the CO2 and lights go off and ph go up when they go on..)
Kh- 13

that is what i dont get!!! KH=13!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WTF? could it affect Apistogramma species?

 

[Tiffi]

Sorry, posted answer in wrong thread .

 

[aquaradio]

what do u mean? where did u write it?

 

[BrianNY]

If I understand your question correctly aquaradio, all of your fish would be in trouble as the pH lessens. How are getting the CO2 into your tank? Do you have a pressurized system with a bubble counter?

 

[aquaradio]

yup 100 bubbles per sec...

 

[mattrox]

To me... and I don't have a CO2 set up ..........100 bubbles per sec sounds very high............

 

[BrianNY]

Well you're forcing much too much CO2 into your aquarium. I also think that's the reason you're getting such violent pH swings. The calculations indicate 62 ppm of CO2 at a pH of 6.8. I wouldn't consider anything over 33 ppm safe for fish and I'm surprised they aren't at the surface gulping for air.

I have my bubble counter set at 1 bubble every 3 seconds. I'm maintaining a very constant 6.7, 6.9 pH with a KH of 6. Please reduce the bubble count to under 1 per second. I think your pH will stablize and your fish will thank you.

 

[aquaradio]

ok i'll reduce it... but what about the ph night to day swing? when the light and the co2 goes off the ph goes up and when the day start the co2 and lights go on and the ph drops.... is it bad?

by the way do you think 13 KH is ok?

 

[BrianNY]

Good questions aquaradio . A KH of 13 does seem high to me but I don't think it's necessarily harmful. Not knowing anything about the Israeli water system I'm curious about whether you live near a farm or get your water from a desalinization plant, or limestone aquafer. Another thing I would suggest is buying another KH test kit. They go bad with age. That's just to check your readings.

It's normal for the pH to shift a bit from day to night. The plants are only using the CO2 while they're photosynthezing.

 

[aquakev]

if your ph goes all the way to 6.8 and your kh is at 13 you have too much co2 going into your system actually, more than double what is recommended by experts and what is considered harmful to fish in the tank.

Most likely, with the amount of co2 your injecting into the tank, you are only getting maybe! half efficiency. Try like 2-5 bubbles per second.-seriously, you want your co2 at 20-30ppm at most. not 60.

Go here to figure out the right level of co2 in your system and what your system is at. http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm

I just lost a young pair of apistos, due to what I believe is 1. they werent getting enough food with the discus because they were too small. 2. rearranged the tank and kicked up a bunch of silt. and 3. added a huge piece of drift wood that lowered my ph by too much.

Apistograms do pretty well in a balanced planted tank. That being said, I would get your tank balanced before getting any apistos.

By the way, I do not follow with the metric system so I do not know how big your tank is but make sure you are not over crowded, because all of you fish demand good water quality.

 

[aquaradio]

ok first of all thanks for the great replays!
now my tap water kh is 9!!!! and because i have over 20 kg of lava rock(i use it as bio filter) i cant use the kh/ph chart to determine how much co2 i have cause if you have somthing in your tank(in my case lava rock) that is not inertial then the chart cant be used so now i dont know how much co2 i have, so i thought i would just put as much as i can and watch if the fish r ok...
and they seem ok....

 

[mattrox]

BTW 333 L ~ 85 US Gals and 60L ~ 17 US Gal.