Something to think about......

[Rastapus]

Hey everyone,

I have been in this hobby for roughly 26 years. I say this because I want people reading to this to hopefully realize that although I am a LFS owner I genuinely love this hobby. When I moved to BC some 16 years ago or so, I was shocked how the hobby was here in comparison to Toronto. No abuse please, it's a great city . Anyways, it took me until last year to fully understand why. When I arrived here hobbyists were still running undergravel filters in marine aquariums and a Sanders skimmer was the best you could do. I was already running natural reef systems at home in Toronto and selling Tunze Skimmers at $900.00 each which at that time was their fair price.
It seemed odd to me that a great city like Vancouver that was so modern and stunning would have an aquarium hobby that was so behind. Things have come a long way here since then but still nothing like I expected, and there were many hobbyists repeatedly getting out of this great hobby.
It remained a mystery until last year when we discovered the relationship between our super soft water and it's negative effects on freshwater fish here. It hit me like a ton of bricks to be honest. It explained so many issues that had haunted me for years, unexplained deaths, cloudy water, poor recovery from meds, and others.
We took a huge step in trying to get this message across to our clients but also on this forum. We openly admitted that this issue had affected us negatively over the years and we were proud to be able to remedy it not only for us but our clients.
We were always aware that the pH was unstable and that the hardness was 0 yet because this is such a unique set of circumstances in BC water supply, we simply corrected the pH with coral, dolomite etc and continued on. I can remember when we used to sell 1 lb bags of dolomite to correct this problem. Of course, this did nothing for hardness but improved the problem of the pH crashing to 5.
It took us nearly 15 years to learn the negative impact the low hardness had on our fish and on our client's fish. When we told hobbyists with more experience then myself they were also shocked and noticed immediate improvement in their fish.
This forum is a great additional way to get the message out but like a new hobbyist who fails, they are more likely to toss the aquarium then to continue killing fish and wasting money of course. They end up feeling this hobby is simply too difficult for them, or fish keeping is just not for them, they then tell their friends the same and so on.
Once again there has been a thread on this issue started from a hobbyist that is confused about it and every reply stated buffers are unnecessary. I beg to differ. If this problem is not properly addressed, this hobby will continue to be stagnant in this province. There needs to be more consistent advice dealing with this issue and it needs to come from those who already agree with this. It is unfortunately not as affective coming from me as a few have commented in the past that I am just trying to peddle unnecessary product.
Of course if you take a poll on MFK which was mentioner earlier or other forums that have members that are not in BC, they will likely say it is unnecessary because they too have never had to deal with water parameters like ours. If it took me 15 years I can see how they would not find it very important. Even a Seachem representative was surprised to hear of our water parameters here. Buffers were generally created for hobbyists who wanted to match their parameters to specific levels, not to keep their fish alive.
The thread in question started recently was from a hobbyist with both a guppy aquarium and a goldfish aquarium, two examples of some of the hardest water fish in our hobby. In the wild no, but we are not dealing with wild, we are dealing with pond raised fish with extremely hard water that have been so going back many many years.
Osmoregulation is key to a fish's survival, without the proper minerals in our water this cannot be attained in the majority of fish we import. Some say they adjust their water by the actions of their fish. This forum deals with hobbyists of all different levels, many are beginners and many are more experienced but so was I. Please keep in mind that your comments are being read here by many other hobbyists and if you are truly an avid hobbyist, you should be keen on helping others to advance as well and allow this hobby to flourish as it should in this great province. I ask those who have had positive experiences with raising their hardness to comment to help others in making their aquarium keeping easier and long lived.
Thank you.

[CRS Fan]

I have been using buffers for 5 or so years now. I swear by Kent R/O Right and Kent PH Stable. I use both of them in all my tanks. I just buffer the water up to discus levels and this adds enough stability to my tanks to keep many fish and plants happy.

Best Regards,

Stuart

[gmachine19]

I've never had PH problems before I came here to Vancouver too. I was shocked why its hard to keep some tropical fish 'till I bought a test kit and found out.

[kevin22]

and Yet the local water is awesome for some fish, such as most black water fish requires PH 4 and hardness 0. when ppl in other part of world invest so much money and time in RO water, we simply fill with tap water.

[Marius]

Thanks for the post Grant, and for making my little hobby/addiction going from bad to worse :P. I remember the words my wife uttered when I got home with 12 brand new 75gals.

[rescuepenguin]

Grant,

If I may, I am a regular in both your stores, I too have answered questions from confused customers about the hobby, I feel that having a small rack in your stores with information like this written in noob language will go along way to helping people understand some of the problems. This is one issue you write about every now and then, and would be a good topic. You can also outline how your branded water conditioner can help keep the fish alive. If customers are allowed to take this info home, they may get a better understanding of it. Don't forget an area of your website info too.

I have seen the large boards that you have with a quick blurb about it and to ask staff for more info. That's great, but a lot of people won't ask, for various reasons. The info you post for us, really needs to get in the hands of your customers who are not members of this forum.

Steve

[Rastapus]

Thanks Rescuepenguin,
Actually we do have a hand out specifically on this topic. I agree a poster etc would be helpful but we find it is a topic that needs to be explained person to person for them to fully understand. The problems we have had getting this point across to hobbyists on this forum is proof of that.
Thanks again for the suggestions.

[Algae Beater]

Thanks for the post Grant. Vancouver's granitic water reservoirs are great for drinking water ... not so much for fish.

[teija]

Grant: This is an excellent post. Perhaps I will put my renewed efforts into monitoring & buffering the water - maybe that is the underlying problem I have had all along!

[RD.]

Well said, Grant.

Osmoregulation is key to a fish's survival, without the proper minerals in our water this cannot be attained in the majority of fish we import.

And there you have it in a nutshell. Discus breeders learned a long time ago that while they got greater hatches in softer water, the juvenile fish grew at far greater rates when raised in hard water. Freshwater fish kept in hard water (>250 mg/l alkalinity) will spend less metabolic energy on osmoregulation than fish kept in soft water (< 100 mg/l alkalinity) - thus providing more metabolic energy for growth.

So if one tweaks their water properly, not only will they experience better overall health in their fish, they will also see better gains in growth. Ultimately what one spends on the effort to maintain ideal water parameters, will be somewhat saved in overall feed costs.

An all around win-win for both the fish, and the fish keeper.


Neil