German Blue Rams

[Excoastie]

Considering getting a pair of German Blue Rams for a 10 gallon heavily planted tank. On inhabitants at this point are a pair of albino coreys and a pair of ottos.

Here's what I got:
pH 8.5
dH 8
kH 14
NH3 zero
NO2 zero
NO3 less than 30 ppm
temp about 78

Tap water is out of a well with a pH of near 9, which settles into the 8.5 listed above. There are also lots of disolved minerals that create lots of buffering and make pH and hardness adjustments next to impossible (even peat doesn't reduce the pH levels).

I'm a firm beliver that the actual value of the pH isn't as important as the stability of the pH. I believe the same to be true for water hardness. Most fish will adjust to the levels in your tank, provided that they're given the time to slowly do so. I slowly aclimate any new fish added to any of my tanks over a period of a couple of hours, slowly replacing the LFS water with my tank water....

Here's my question. Will German Blue Rams make the adjustment to the levels in my tank? I like the looks of the Rams, and the fact that they stay pretty small, but don't want to get any if all I'm going to do is kill them. Haven't seen any other cichlids (dwarf or otherwise) that have caught me eye AND won't soon out grow the 10 gallon that I wish to put them in.

Thanks in advance

Exco :roflmao:

[StirCrazy]

Hi, while I don't agree with some of your statements I know it can happen, the part I do not agree with is that

"Most fish will adjust to the levels in your tank, provided that they're given the time to slowly do so. I slowly aclimate any new fish added to any of my tanks over a period of a couple of hours"

yes they will make it through.. but is this good for the fish? I don't belive so.. i feel that this puts a tremendous amount of stress on a fish and can impact its quality and lenght of life.. having said that, about the Rams.. blue rams are one of the less hardy and they are fussy about water quality.. I think you would have a better chance if you aclimated them over several hours.. to days but that would require a lot more store water than comes in the bag (maby you could but a 5 gal jusg of RO water and slowly add your water to it till you got to your 8.5 over a couple days..

the otherthing that "could" cause probles is your nitrate level 30 ppm is pretty high especialy for a heavy planted tank.. i dose nitrates every day to my planted tank and I can barly keep it regestering on the test kit.

I personaly would go with african cichlids with your water (I do a lot of SA cichlids as my water is 17ppm hardness and a ph of 6.4 from my tap) but I have seen other fish such as SAE in african tanks so yes it can be done.. should it?? well thats for you to decide I guess..

Steve

[Toirtis]

Mostly agreed with StirCrazy on this one (I also believe in the value of a constant pH with many fishes), but first find out what the pH values are at the LFS....they may be not that far off yours, and with a little peat, you can easily drop the pH in your tank a value or two to better accomodate the rams.

[Excoastie]

if my memory serves me correctly the LFS has a pH of at or around 7.5, which is of course considerably lower than what I've got in my tanks.

peat has little or no effect on our pH. It's been tried in other tanks. Our water is just too heavy in disolved minerals and other buffers as to have any effect.

have numerous barbs, coreys, 3 bala sharks, and a brittle-nosed pleco in our 75 and they're triving...

same goes for the angels, coreys, and ottos in the 25

ditto for the guppies and dwarf gouramis in the 12

all the tanks have almost identicle parameters, though the temp and nitrates due vary to an extent.

most of the fish were purchased at the same LFS, and after slow aclimation have done great.... only casualties we've had have been with the ottos (but from what I've read this is not unheard of regardless of water parameters) and those that have been picked on and totally stressed out by the barbs.

thanks for the info, I think a bit more research may be in order before coming to any decision

Exco

[angel]

I have kept German rams successfully in a mixture of tap and RO water - using RO water is a good safe way to lower the hardness and to some extent the pH of your well water. Do not use any pH lowering chemicals as these just temporarily lower the pH and it bounces back up to original levels, which stresses the fish.

You may be more successful using peat to lower pH if some of the water is RO water.

One of the main considerations of keeping Rams is that they are sensitive to dissloved organics and nitrates - I did 50% water changes once a week to keep them healthy.

Bolivian Rams are not quite as colorful but are slightly more hardy and easier to keep.

Rams that are used to alkaline pH such as is found in many fish stores will thrive in such conditions as long as extremes are avoided i.e. the pH does not have to be below 7, but should not be over 8.