ideal ph, gh, kh...

All posts regarding the care and breeding of these catfishes from South America.
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smellsfishy
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ideal ph, gh, kh...

Post by smellsfishy »

From reading around I've found that ammonia and nitrites should always be at 0. Nitrates should be below 20 ppm.

But what about ph, gh and kh? I getting pygmy cories and want to make sure they have ideal water conditions before they arrive.

Also, what test kits do you recommend that will test ph, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, gh and kh? is there such a thing?

Thank you
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smellsfishy
Posts: 13
Joined: 21 Aug 2006, 01:40
Location 1: Southern California, US

Post by smellsfishy »

also... and kinda off topic... but do corys like glosso? I know that glosso can grow in kinda thick, cutting off the view of the sand. is this bad for corys?
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MatsP
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Post by MatsP »

Can't comment on glosso. They are generally happy with plants as long as they can sort of get down to the substrate at least in places. Mine [C.sterbai] have no trouble swimming under decorations and between plant-leaves to get there...

Ideal pH-range is listed on .

There is also a comment that they like soft water (like nearly all South American fish), which means a low gH. kH needs to be high enough so create a reasonable buffering capacity, so something like 3-4 is a good starting point.

From what I understand, almost all corys are fairly tolerant to water being "not exactly ideal", so unless you have SERIOUSLY hard water, I would just use whatever comes out of the tap, at least until you get to the stage where you're actively trying to breed them.

If you have fish in a community setup (I can't remember if you have discussed such a setup, or if it was someone else), then you obviously also want to take other fish's ideal setup into account and find some "happy medium" where all are equally happy(unhappy?).

--
Mats
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