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719 views 14 replies 5 participants last post by  martym 
What species of rainbowfish? All rainbows need minerals in the water, theyre not soft water fish. My guess is that is the issue, if they are not otherwise sick, and are eating. Raise the GH.
 
In addition to using equilibrium to raise the GH, consider using some crushed coral in the substrate or in a bag in the filter to help prevent PH crashes. Equilibrium will not increase KH. Crushed coral adds a bit of slow release insurance by providing a bit of consistent KH. Baking soda could be used but its easier to mess up and accidentally cause a nasty swing.
 
Agree with BDam about it dissolving slower, but still dissolving. The crushed coral is more to prevent PH crash if your KH runs out... which can easily happen if youre just running metro Vancouver water, which has barely any carbonate hardness from the tap. If PH does manage to begin dropping, it would dissolve faster. With metro van water being so soft the PH is very easy influenced in any direction. Ph was brought up to 7.6-7.8 or so not too long ago by the water works people adding if memory serves me 20ppm calcium carbonate to the water to help prevent damage to pipes. One degree of hardness is 17.9ppm.

A little bit in your filter is definitely not enough to bring your GH up to 10dGH to keep the fish happy. If you run straight aragonite sand or crushed coral 1-2" thick as your substrate you could likely get away with using less equilibrium but using equilibrium is easy enough.

Corydoras are south american soft water fish, they shouldn't be bothered by the tap water at all. They should handle the increase in GH as long as its not crazy high... the rainbows and corys kind of have opposite preferences for water parameters but should be adaptable if extremes are avoided.
 
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