Loaches Online Forum

You're making a two wrong assumptions: - firstly - that temperature of the air equals the temperature of water - secondly - You place those fish in one place, forgeting that loaches are migrative species. And what's more - searching for those species in cool landclimate/cool climate is definitely wr...

Reaching 5C or even 10C in winter will be definitely too cold temperature for them - river species can't stand that high annual amplitudes. On the other hand - wintering them in this tank is really bad idea because of their dimensions (but if You say about only that winter - that's ok). Can't You us...

Wowowow! Great! Congrats for You and Your "sweet lil' loaches"

It's highly probable that You have some Parabotia sp. . It can be P. fasciata or P. lijiangensis . It's hard to specify precisely, because Your fish isn't clearly coloured (You can compare by looking at some photos of fish I wrote above). In October, I visited a fishshop, and they had a nice group o...

Hmm, could You specify what exactly worries You in this behaviour? Clowns generally loves digging in sand

You didn't add anything new ;) You just didn't understand me and that's the reason. Sure, KH (so alkalinity) is not the same as "buffer capacity", but we call it as buffer, because it's our protection to keep pH stable. Of course we can use other buffers as citric, acetic, phosphate or tannic (other...

Wow Redshark, great clowns! :) How long is the biggest one? Algaes rules! :lol: Bis, to be honest, keeping high temperature just after introducing loaches to a new tank can be really helpful to avoid white spot disease, which often attacks loaches stressed during transport. But generally not more th...

pH is determined by hydrogen cations [H+] and hydroxide or hydroxil anions [OH-]. It’s not just the hydronium ions that determine pH levels. A pH below 7 indicates an increase of Hydrogen cations [H+] - making the water more acidic. Reversely, a pH above 7 would mean an increase of hydroxide anions...

Osmotic regulation is tied to the mineral content of the water, as in the gH, not the pH. You're of course wrong. It's all about ions. And what is pH? Concentration of H+ ions (H3O+ to be precise). I'm very slowly lowering my pH but I cannot do it quickly or I'll wipe out my whole tank. That's impo...

Could we stop bickering over the pH and acids right now? It's not relevant. I haven't had a single explanation for the sudden deaths. Yes, the ideal pH for kuhlis is below 7 but these guys have been living in my tank for three years. I can lower the pH but not now! The kuhlis had all been in the ta...

. Do you bring the ph down to around 7 or leave it as it is. If I can lower the ph what is the best way to do that. When I do the water changes twice a week, how I manage to keep the lowered ph. Of course I bring pH down to about 6,65-6,85. In conditions like that i see they are happy and grow fast...

Hello, Bis :) PH 8.2 (too high?) Definitely tooooooo high :cry: Clown loach requires pH value lower than 7. That's so important, because it's connected with osmotic regulation which is very influential on the fish health. pH like that will shorten life of Your clowns dramatically. I will also reccom...

Other forms of organic matter that we are discussing here include coarser materials like leaves, alder cones and wood. With a large chunk of something, or smaller surface area, they are less likely to do much ion exchange. That's not true. Humic acids doesn't do any ion exchange - they only neutral...

"...the reverse..." How so? You just reworded what I said: Organic matter might help, but is better if you reduce the mineral levels first. Then the organic acids will work, and are a better option. Oh, so I really don't understand why You present two opposing statements in one message? Peat moss c...

Adding acid can lower the pH, but it works better if there are less minerals etc to fight, first. I would sure try adding the leaves, peat moss or wood to your current tap water. Easiest. Thats exactly reverse :D Natural acids from leaves etc. are too weak to remove a substantial amount of minerals...