How to lower pH and GH for breeding

I want to set up a breeding tank for my rummy nose tetras and I read online they only breed in low GH and pH. How would I go about that? My tap water has 8gh 3-4kh and 7.4ph. I don't want to invest in a RO water system. Would I be fine to just use rain water? And then how would I go about lowering the pH and keeping it constant without shocking the fish? Also would I need to drip acclimate my fish to this change of water parameters?

 

If you are collecting rain water from a good source then you could use it, but for breeding I highly recommend buying ro system because its just more convenient and save you time.

To breed rummynoses in that tank you need to have the gh and ph set up for breeding before you add the fish in, if you try changing it with the fish in the tank it will cause ph changes and will negatively affect the fish. I recommend using a tds tester, or a ph gh kh test kit.

 

If you are collecting rain water from a good source then you could use it, but for breeding I highly recommend buying ro system because its just more convenient and save you time.

To breed rummynoses in that tank you need to have the gh and ph set up for breeding before you add the fish in, if you try changing it with the fish in the tank it will cause ph changes and will negatively affect the fish. I recommend using a tds tester, or a ph gh kh test kit.

How do I know my rain water is a good source? Also I was planning on getting the water ready before my question was if I need to drip acclimate them to this water due to the pH and GH being different

 

If you don't want to test your rain water for pollution (some rain water has mercury for example), then just run an aquarium filter with charcoal on the rain barrel to filter the water before using it with your fish. I would definitely drip acclimate the fish to help the little kidneys adjust.

Will be so cool if you crack this nut and get these guys to breed! It's my understanding that they react to the start of the rainy season for breeding, so using rain water is exactly what may do the trick to get them to breed.

I once spawned neon Tetras by accident. I think the live food is key. I was feeding flightless fruit flies and I have soft water. I used peat moss too. Baby tetras are really cute.

 

T

If you don't want to test your rain water for pollution (some rain water has mercury for example), then just run an aquarium filter with charcoal on the rain barrel to filter the water before using it with your fish. I would definitely drip acclimate the fish to help the little kidneys adjust.

Will be so cool if you crack this nut and get these guys to breed! It's my understanding that they react to the start of the rainy season for breeding, so using rain water is exactly what may do the trick to get them to breed.

I once spawned neon Tetras by accident. I think the live food is key. I was feeding flightless fruit flies and I have soft water. I used peat moss too. Baby tetras are really cute.

I'm using a sponge filter so would I just lay some charcoal sponge or charcoal bits on-top? Also the females are super plump. I've been feeding them BBS and blackworms daily for a few weeks now. How do you use peat moss to lower pH? How much to use and where is the best place to get it? I live in Australia fyi.

 

Peat moss won't do much unless you have very low KH. KH keeps your pH stable, so if you put peat moss in RO water (KH=0), it will lower the pH, but the KH you have in your tap water will work to prevent the pH from dropping if you add peat moss.

If your serious about breeding I would make the investment in the RO.

Have watched You Tube videos? I believe there are some for breeding Rummys

 

T

I'm using a sponge filter so would I just lay some charcoal sponge or charcoal bits on-top? Also the females are super plump. I've been feeding them BBS and blackworms daily for a few weeks now. How do you use peat moss to lower pH? How much to use and where is the best place to get it? I live in Australia fyi.

The peat is not really for adjusting the pH but for adding natural chemicals.

The peat adds the natural chemicals into the water that the fish clue in on, and helps with general fish happiness (tannins). I use this: https://www.amazon.com/Sera-Super-Peat-500-grams/dp/B00F0YN6NY

It's basically dirt, but it does float at first, so you can put it in a little mesh bag, or pantyhose and just stick it under a rock where there is some water flow. After a while it wont float and you can just mix the peat into your substrate. You can presoak it too until it sinks then just mix it in with your substrate. You want to use it where the water gets a little brown tinge. Looks like the natural water where these fish hail from.

You don't need charcoal unless your rain water is polluted. Check your local environmental folks to see if you have any issues with pollution. They would know. Where I live we have mercury in the rain water. So we run little HOB filters on the rain barrels to remove the pollution before putting into the tank.

They make carbon pads. You just wrap these around your sponge filter so that the water flows through.