Breaking The Rules!
I would look to another source for Blue Rams or wait until I saw them available, maintained in parameters closer to yours. Your playing with chemistry that you don’t fully understand and/or that may not work as planned with your water. You may try it, and I hope you’re successful if you are intent on it, but to do so is to put the fish at risk.
I did recommend your being able to boost and maintain your present parameters, including your pH, up to no more that pH 6.6 — and via the slower but more stabile (”permanent” — except with PWC’s); Cuttle Bone will also work towards this end, as an intermediate of somewhat faster results, both being stabile in supporting these parameters. I did not — and would not recommend the baking soda which you used, which you encountered your problems with — and advised against it early on. I would still recommend what I’ve said here if necessary to initially help adjust fish to your water, even though you’ve chosen not to change the parameters at all — which would be the safest course to follow in the long run. I would not recommend trying to adjust fish found in such high values to your negligable KH — unless you had a token amount (1/2 the volume of your tank) of this much harder water to place the fish in and adjust from over several days. It would be different if the parameters were the other way around, with your having the harder water, even though it would still require adjusting time. In your present situation, the osmotic pressure difference (between your GH 1 and their GH 200 - 400 TDS), your osmotic pressure being on the low side of the scale in your case, is even of more concern than is the pH difference, and we know just that’s considerable.
Seachem’s products are generally most useful and the company is to be respected, as are Kent’s — but any products intended for changing the water chemistry has their limits — and these limits are stretched the further one’s water deviates from what they are trying to do, only increasing the potential dangers of using them. Unless your parameters are at least somewhat closer (i.e., has more buffering capacity, AND at least a nominal level of GH) to what these products are intending to change and maintain your water at, I would not recommend them — even though I’m sure they are designed to work, at least within limits. These buffers are designed with carbonates as their active ingredients, which do not address this hugh difference in TDS. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
