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The Loach Forum Archives (2)
KISS Principle
Posted By: Dr. Momfish <gkadar@idirect.ca> In Response To: Bicarbonate of soda (Nick)
Date: Wednesday, 26 April 2000, at 9:48 p.m.
It's 'keep it simple, stupid'. Dumping chemicals in a tank is not needed especially since the water from your tap sounds ideal (except you haven't measured the nitrate levels although by law they can't exceed a certain relatively low level. You didn't mention where you live, but here in Toronto the nitrate level in the tap water is zero.) It's nice and soft (so I know you don't live here. Sounds more like West Coast to me) just what these fish enjoy.
A 27 gallon tank is not very big at all and loaches eat a lot and produce a great deal of waste. Just for the sake of curiosity, what is your substrate? There are some which are pH neutral and do not buffer organic acids. One of these is Seachem's Fluorite. A lot of plain gravels have some buffering capacity to prevent pH crashes.
You shouldn't be too shy about doing water changes. There was an article recently in either TFH or FAMA (probably FAMA) outlining water changes. 50 percent per week seems to be the best although once you've got good water conditions you can change more than that just to give the fish great water. At 110 ppm nitrate you'll have to go a bit slower, as Fran suggested. However, once you've got your nitrates low (as in less than 50) you can go the whole hog and change up to 80 percent without fear of causing stress on the fish (provided you've dechlorinated and matched the temp.)
Fish show their optimum colours and growth when the water is clean. They recover from injuries quickly and are more active.
Good luck.
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