Hardening Soft Water For A Rainy Season

[Andrew C]

From Barbie:
Both of my zebra groups are on the end of a month long dry cycle to try to stimulate them to spawn. I've been adding RO Right for 2 weeks now to harden the water and everything.

Right after I do a few RO changes to get the TDS back below 500.

Barbie after reading a recent topic i noticed you now have soft water and harden it using RO Right, before doing a rainy week.

I also have very soft water out of the tap, it has a PH of 7.6, TDS of 44 and a Electrical Conductivity of 88, though the PH ends up below 7 when in the tank.
The tank readings from the last time before i started a rainy season were; PH of 6.9, TDS of 44 and a Electrical Conductivity of 88 .
To increase the TDS/EC of my water i used Bi-Carbonate Of Soda and Epsom Salts over a week and a half, and my tank readings are then; PH of 8, TDS of 167 and a EC of 325.
I leave it for a week and then start daily 50% water changes with my tap water, but nothing yet, this is the way i have being doing rainy seasons for a while, though not too regularly.
I do leave a space in between trying rainy seasons to let the fish rest a bit, as i seem to be putting the fish from one extreme to the other, but from what i understand to initally start them spawning you really need a good change in TDS/EC, and Bi-Carb & Epsom Salts is was the only way i could of think of hardening my water until i saw your post about RO Right.

I am going to try using RO Right on my tap water, i have a 2G bucket of tap water settling to test the RO Right on, and am hoping it will increase the TDS/EC without pushing up the PH as much,if this is possible, as i am a bit worried about such large changes in water chemistry for the fish.
As you can see from my readings using just bicarb & epsom salts, to get a TDS reading of 500 with my water, would make it alright for african rift cichlids ?

Can you please tell me what your water tank readings are before you start a rainy season and how long a period do you use to get the TDS up to 500, and is it straight RO Water that you then use for your water changes, and also if you leave your fish to settle for a while ?

Just checking i am doing this alright and that i am not unduly stressing this fish ?

[Barbie]

Hi Andrew,

Sorry I haven't replied to your pm yet. I wanted to do it when I had time to really sit down and detail an answer and, well, that still haven't happened yet, but here goes!

I tried salt, rift lake buffers, epsom, and baking soda, all at different times during the dry seasons for my fish with no luck. I don't know if that's due to the fish not being in the mood, or me not getting things just right though, to be honest. The RO Right doesn't cause the pH to climb as fast as most everything else did (I DID overdose with salt once and cause a spawn that was then infertile, oops).

I've had many people tell me that my weekly water changes were the problem with the "dry" season and that I needed to let the water quality deteriorate farther. I now have a 3 week dry season with very minimal water changes (I can't bear none at all, tried, can't do it!), and for the last two weeks I add RO Right in small amounts directly to the tank every day. It doesn't seem to vary the parameters much, it just builds up over time.

The fourth week I do 30-40% water changes daily with RO water that's cooler than the tank water for at least 3 days (I shoot for 7, but realistically don't always get there). This brings the TDS down under 100. I leave them alone for 2 weeks after that, then start the RO Right and teeny water changes cycle over again. I don't monitor my pH daily, but it's always stayed above 7 with this regimen, even at the end of the "dry" season when the tank looks the most unkempt.

Does that help and answer your questions?

I really am sorry it's taken me this long to sit down and answer the questions for you. It's no excuse but my family just left after staying here for a month long visit so I'm hoping I can eventually get caught back up with all my online stuff I got behind on .

Barbie

[Andrew C]

Thanks Barbie, no problem and no need to apologise, i know what it's like to be busy

Forgot to mention, over the first week when i add the Bi-Carb & Epsom Salts, i lower the tanks water level by 1/3.
So i would be better to just lower the tanks water level for the first week of the dry season, then over the next two weeks add a small amount of RO Right daily to each tank and try to get TDS to near the 500 mark, then start the rainy seasons large daily water changes on the the fourth week.

I do have a mixed bunch of zebras in two seperate tanks, the smallist one is 2 & 1/2" in size and there is definately a adult male and some plump fish in each tank.
Though, a couple of them may not be mature enough yet, as they have not filled out like a certain fish in each tank (not the adult male), which i think/hope is a mature female.

Thanks again, you have answered my questions well and helped greatly