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View Full Version : suggested corrections to my setup?



GnarlySalamander
1st Dec 2010, 07:02 PM
dont you love when you write up a thread and your browser decides it's time to refresh? >(

anywho, about a month ago I moved my 11 CRS into their own 10g tank in hopes that being by themselves they'd be more likely to breed and come out of hiding. they are now all very active, but i've yet to see any berried females. most of them are hard to tell the difference between, but there are at least 2 that i'm 98% positive are females.

my water parameters are as follows:
temp - 72 degrees Fahrenheit
ammonia - 0
nitrates - >5
nitrites - 0
gh - roughly 100ppm [my test kit only has marked colors for 75 and 150]
kh - roughly 100ppm [same problem, shows colors for 80 and 120]
ph - 7.2-7.4 [lower when light is off]

i'm using just a basic black gravel, no ADA or anything like that, and have java moss, moss balls, duckweed, and one amazon sword as plants. there's a piece of monapi wood in there as well. the filter is a HOB marineland penguin 100 with a sponge prefilter over the intake.

the main problem i'm having is with the gh and kh, as i don't know how ppm converts to whatever unit of measurement everyone else on this site uses? most posts i've seen use numbers describing these in single digits, are you all not using ppm or is your water actually that low??

could it just be i haven't given them enough time to adjust to the new tank? i see them swimming like crazy anytime someone sheds a shell and i'm always very hopeful, but so far, nothing. i also realize my pH may not be *ideal* but i've seen multiple accounts of success within the range i'm at.

suggestions anyone? this is my first run with the CRS and i've yet to lose a single one, so i'm hopeful that i'm at least CLOSE to where i should be to get them to breed. feel free to pester me with questions if there's an important aspect i didn't explain.

GnarlySalamander
2nd Dec 2010, 07:37 PM
woo hoo!!! turns out, all it took was for me to post this thread, and as of this morning i have *drumroll please* TWO berried females! *excited*

killer007
2nd Dec 2010, 10:43 PM
hahahahah than post more

i think you should be okie, just make sure ph stable and patient is the key @.@....

GnarlySalamander
2nd Dec 2010, 11:44 PM
haha, yeah, i probably should. i had a feeling it'd happen because they were doing the "crazy love swim" as i typed it up.

for a while i'd been buying bottled water to do water changes with, because my house has liquid rock with a ph of about 8.4 ... i recently did a test of my boyfriends water just for the heck of it, and turns out his is nearly the same as my bottled water [soft, 6.2-4] so we swap [he has african lake malawi cichlids] ;]
i haven't gotten it to stay down [did the initial fillup with tap, then as it cycled i did waterchanges from there on with the bottled stuff] so i do small water changes every other day or so just to keep it from bouncing