> hard water. eg. hard water normally equates to higher pH. It also confirms
> my opinion that rainbowfish seems to be happier in higher pH water. I have
> found over the years that whenever I have problems with Rainbowfish &
> Blue-eyes almost always the water pH has dropped below 7.0 This includes
> velvet, whitespot etc.
I also usually advocate keeping bows in alkaline water. However, if you
want the most brilliant colours you need to drop the pH using something
that will leach tanic acid into the aquarium which the fish have more
natural tolerance to. Tanic acid also appears to suppress or prevent
bacterial diseases too I believe to a degree. The _type_ of acid is
important. Acids ain't acids.
Since you mentioned velvet..... I have found that to be another problem
that can be difficult to completely remove from a fish room. Rainbows
appear to be quite susceptible to it compared to most other fishes.
> Also if you maintain undergravel filters the pH of the water will naturally
> start to drop to highly organic/acidic conditions. Regardless of whether
> your water is hard or soft it pays to check your pH regularly and also keep
> up those water changes and vacuum the gravel at regular intervals.
I hate large undergravel filters and I don't recommend them for bows as
I've found them too difficult and too much work to keep really clean over
periods longer than a year or so. Irrespective of filtration type, I
still feel it's imprtant to regularly flush the filter out to remove the
organic solids.
Tootles
Peter