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I thought the EU legislation says 0.5 ppm AMMONIUM for drinking water, and that it actually means TAN (Total Ammonia Nitrogen) ? If that is the case, then your 0.5 NH3/NH4+ equals 0.39 ppm (NH3/NH+)-N. For the low pH, I have disregarded the tiny amount of NH3-N.
Anyhow, I do not think it is correct to assume that NH4+ is “non-toxic”. I have seen aquarium fish suffer long time damage from exposure to such low levels. But of course, the damage would be much worse if it was NH3.I wouldn’t say a rise from 17 ms to 23 is spectular, when the water that was left in the tank held 30ms.
And it does sound like you have some carbonates in there, acting as a buffer and dragging your pH back up. It doesn’t take much when you operate at these low TDS levels.
Try using some alder cones and/or catappa or oak leaves to get the pH down. That will also stain the water nicely.
If the pH buffers back up, you probably have too high KH in your water, even if you use rain water. Or, there is something else in your tank that is leaching carbonates into your water, like sand/gravel or rocks ?I wasn’t talking about paper strip tests at all, but drop test kits. Strips are quite unreliable and prone to all kinds of errors.
Drop test kits that measure down to pH 4 are available, but with low resolution (0.5). The wider the drop test’s measurement range, the lower the resolution and accuracy.Edit : @Deepin peat : We seem to agree 🙂
I doubt pool testers would work. A pool will not reach the low pH-levels we are out to measure. They probably have no capability below a pH of around 6. That is, unless you buy a very expensive lab standard photometric analyzer. To my knowledge, there are no drop test kits that have satisfactory resolution at pH-levels much below 6. A pH-pen of reasonably good quality is a much better option, imho.
I can’t say anything especially when it comes to velvet, other than the fact that it is a debility disease. But I would not take the chance of installing paros in a tank where there has ever been any disease. Apart from that, prevention is always the best way to go…good routines and healthy fish in healthy water works most of the time 🙂
I was thinking…what value is there in such tests, if we dont have a rough idea of what is “acceptable” and what is “too much” for our fish ? Perhaps it could even be different between the different test sets ?
That is interesting. Trying Bucephalandra was an idea I had, too…but I have zero experience with them and didn’t have the courage to experiment with such expensive plants. They are also very hard to find here in Norway. Which sp. is this ?
Thanks for the input, yankadi ! From the other replies to this topic, I decided to leave crypts out. Now I have som java ferns, java moss and Ceratopteris thalictroides, which seems to work well so far. And roots, leaves (beech and catappa) and alder cones… 🙂
PraziPro is just a 5% solution of praziquantel, a classic de-wormer many aquarists use successfully. But, as has been said before, Paros are obviously not your “normal” aquarium fish. I can understand why you’re heartbroken.. 🙁
Thank you, Peter ! Then I will forget about the crypts. I had pretty much the same impression that you outline, and have no thoughts of making “pretty” Paros tanks. But just thought it might be somehow possible with some species, since it is recommended on this site.
