My Electric Blue Rams

[Californialivin]

Hey guys figured I'd start up a thread here to show everyone how things go with my two new rams so far everything seems good. I introduced them to my tank yesterday and they're being active, they've found most of the caverns in the tank and stay near the bottom portion of the tank. I think they like eating my cories sinking shrimp pellets more then the tropical flake food i have been feeding the rasboras in the tank. Everyones getting along well too. I'm slightly worried cause I just got my TDS meter today from amazon. My water which is now softer then my tap is not very soft at all. 300PPM range when my tap is coming out at 353ppm so our water is pretty hard the ph of the water is closer to 8 then 7 which im sad to find out. I know i should've found out all of this before introducing the rams If i do a 50% RO water change i should be able to cut the ppm in half the RO water comes out about 6.5 ph too so it would drop the ph a good bit. Is a 10 times more acidic envioment dangerous to fish though? Everyone seems okay I don't want to freak out the corys and harlequins trying to change up the chemistry for the rams. Everyone is doing good so i think im alright for now.

 

[Jebbwardo]

I am be going to get electric blue rams in a week or so i have finished setting there tank up and i am getting a breeding pair. do yyou have any tips as you are a owner of the fish heres some pictures of the tank.
 
 




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[fluttermoth]

I'd rather see rams kept on sand, tbh; their Latin name means 'small earth eater' and they do like to sift through the substrate.

What's the pH, hardness and nitrate level of your water? What temperature will you be keeping them at?

 

[Jebbwardo]

my ph is 6.5, my water is soft and keeping them at 82 degrees, i could change my substrate to sand.

 

[fluttermoth]

That would be good

What level is the nitrate in your tap water? Rams do need very low nitrate; less than 20 ppm, IMO.

To answer the OPs original question; you'll need to do smaller water changes with the RO to bring the hardness/pH down gradually. 50% would be too much of a drop and would shock your current fish.

 

[Jebbwardo]

ill check ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in half an hour and tell you, ill also check my ph and i have no fish in the tank, i checked my ph before and its on 7 so but some 6.5 buffer in then and gonna check in 30 mins then if its still not 6.5 gonna do another dose until its perfect. might need to do a water change if the nitrates are high but i dont have no fish in and have live plants would i be okay with leaveing it and letting the plants feed on it?

 

[Jebbwardo]

my ph is 6.5, my ammonia is 0.50ppm, my nitrite is around 0.5-0.10, my nitrate is around 40ppm but i have no fish so dont mind about the nitrate at the moment i will just do a water change. my water is at 82 degrees too.