London Nitrates

[Liam]

Most fish cope fine with London water, I agree with CFC and Bloo that German/Gold Rams and Apistos don’t do well. Bolivian rams seem to do okay though. I haven’t had trouble with most of the tetras, I kept cardinals and rummynose in London water for a year and a half before they got RO water. Many of the rainbow fish love harder water and of course the African lake cichlids need hard water.

Some plants like the one I mentioned will grow in low light, Egeria Densa will grow in not very low light and hard water, its sold for goldfish tanks in most petshops, its often called pondweed. As CFC say it would need higher light to really eat up the nitrates. But its tough and cheap so you could give it a try.
Have any of the other fish had problems besides the cichlids, if so its probably not the nitrates or the hardness of the water.

 

[joloco]

whaaaaaat!

i was told by quite a few people on this site that it really wouldn't matter if the ph and nitrates were high in my tap water as fish bought from a local place would be aclimatised to it.




yes the gourami, but they all seem much more lively this morning and are all feeding so now i'm confused

i've bought some frozen blood worm and dapnia to give them a more varied diet other than the flakes and pellets they were getting before, the internal parasite syptoms have disappeared overnight it seems and they all look quite happy.

i'd be very sorry to loose the apistogammas as they've become my favourite fish in the tank

 

[Bloo]

In most cases yes - or when the difference isn't too great - but London water is quite extreme and fish that require very soft acidic water are just unlikely to adjust to exactly the opposite. Your apistogammas, gold ram and possibly also dwarf gourami will almost certainly die within the next few months - or at best start looking unwell. That has been my experience with these fish anyway.

What internal parasite symptoms ? Could you see worms ?

 

[joloco]

no - fish are thin looking and the gourami had long white poo hanging from him but now seems to be pooing normally and is as active as he was before. i've oredered some wormer plus and i think i'll dose the tank just in case anyway.

looks like i could have quite an emtpy tank at some point then