Lowering conductivity...

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 3:57 pm

How quickly can this be done?

I went from 600us down to 420us in one water change yesturday
Can I safely do another one tonight?

what sort of end figure should I be aiming at? (about 150?)

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 4:57 pm

I take it you are simulating a rainy season, if this is the case I would drop the conductivity to between 120us and 150us for a two week period by making daily water changes. If nothing happens let the conductivity increase up to about 400us before attempting another rainy season.

The aim is to quickly drop the conductivity in a short period but not to keep it at that level indefinitely. This is more important for the first spawn after that they pretty much continue without any further triggers. I was doing rainy sesons on my zebras once a month for about three months and nothing happened so I gave up and guess what they spawned. I still think that the rainy season simulation was responsible, I may not have been leaving enough of a gap in between each one.

Good luck.

Adam

Shell231 · Post by **Shell231** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 5:56 pm

people manage to spawn with out doing any of that though dont they! it is amazing how some people just get lucky and others try for ages!

jerms55555 · Post by **jerms55555** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:12 pm

Hey smithrc,
I was doing a rainy season for about a 1 month span....The water was at first 800!!! and its in a 60 gal tank so i would change the water 15gals every other day...but it took about a month to take it down to about 170....I was also lazy a couple of days also!!!...now my last water change was on a friday from a 250 to a 175/150 and on Sunday two of them were in a cave!!!!

and they were in their for two days.....now the male is in there and has been in there ever since...so lets hope!!!!!!......

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 6:25 pm

cool - another one tonight it is then

Sunday two of them were in a cave!!!!

Fingers crossed for you

[edit] were down to 340us now...

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:31 pm

Shell231 wrote:people manage to spawn with out doing any of that though dont they! it is amazing how some people just get lucky and others try for ages!

Not exactly true Shell, I think you will find that the people that spawn their zebs without any stimulation tend to be blessed with soft water right out of the tap(the Scottish Contingent), For the rest of us who are cursed with hard water you have to put the extra effort in or it's highly unlikely to happen. That said there are reports of the occassional spawn in tanks with less than favourable water parameters, however these are few and far between. The choice is yours wait for a chance spawn or stimulate them into spawning.

Jerms, things are looking good mate. If the male is remaining deep in his cave and is not half hanging out the chances are that he is sitting on spawn. I don't even have to use the flashlight these days a male's behaviour will tell you whether he has eggs or not. Fingers and toes crossed for you mate.

Smithrc, keep up with the water changes and continue to lower your conductivity. Don't expect immediate results but the method is tried and tested.

Adam

Shell231 · Post by **Shell231** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 8:05 pm

what is your ph / hardness of water from your tap or do you not know? i have a tap water of ph 7.0 i dont think i am too hard but slightly hard but i will look into lowering it by RO when to time comes

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 10:37 pm

Shell231 wrote:what is your ph / hardness of water from your tap or do you not know?

The parameters of my tap water are irrelevant, it is the methodology discussed that you should be concerned with.

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:15 am

poo... I forgot to put the RO unit on this morning....
I've got enough for one more change at the moment.

How soo after this drop do I need to raise it back up?
Am I ok to do this with tap water?

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:31 am

Hi smithrc,

Keep the conductivity low for say two weeks by performing daily water changes. 80% RO water to 20% tap water mix should give you the required conductivity. After the two weeks is up you can slowly start to increase your conductivity again by increasing the percentage of conditioned tap water you mix in.

Adam

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 10:51 am

will do

Thanks for the pointers guys and girls.

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:05 pm

missed the change last night - but tonight had a realisation....

its like the frog jumping across a lake... each jump is half the distance he has left to jump.... He'll never get to the edge...

as i do these changes it is diluting the remaing solids...

tonight I'm at 270us after another 20% change... (approx 25l in a 125l tank)

I'll do a 40% tomorrow I think...

smithrc · Post by **smithrc** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:31 am

I dropped it to about 150us a week ago now - I've been feeding lights too - only twice this week (bloodworm and tetra prima)

They havent shown too much interest but i havent really been watching - just letting them get on with it if they want.

I've made some more slate caves up for them as I am convinced the caves in there are too big