Spitter33 said:
I'm not sure what TDS salts are, but when she said they were salt water she basically told me to buy a bag of aquarium salt and then add a spoon full of it to the tank. Wait a week, then add another spoon full and then it should be good. And when I said I never knew they should be in salt water, she pointed at the tank and it said "Salt water fish" on it. Very confusing. Glad I came here before listening to her!
And about the water hardness, I live near Vancouver, BC. I'll have to check our water levels. If my water isn't hard enough what can I do to increase it? I'm guessing there's some drops of something I could add.
Will the guppies also try and eat the platy fry as well? When I was at that fish store there were a bunch of fry guppies mixed in with the other guppies. But it was weird because they were in there with the male guppies. So it wasn't like any of the males gave birth of course, someone had to have added them in there. Did they add them in there to be eaten?
OK, now that I know you live in my area, we can get to the bottom of all this faster. First, may I ask what store this is? There are stores here where I will not even darken the door because of highly diseased fish, and there are some excellent stores too.
TDS stands for total dissolved solids. This except from an article I wrote a few years back will explain it.
Total Solids basically refers to organic and inorganic matter that is either suspended or dissolved in the aquarium water.
Total Suspended Solids (TSS) refers to the amount of solid waste, decaying fish and plant matter, etc. that can be captured and held by a filter.
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is a measure of the combined content of all inorganic substances contained in the water in molecular, ionized or micro-granular (colloidal sol) suspended form. Generally the operational definition is that the solids must be small enough to survive filtration through a sieve the size of two micrometer.
Fresh water by definition contains no more than 1500 mg/l of TDS. Brackish water contains 1500-5000 mg/l, and marine (salt) water has more than 5000 mg/l of TDS. Note that mg/l is basically equal to parts per million (ppm), and also that this is not suggesting a level of 1500 ppm in an aquarium; these are just the approximate figures for the three categories.
TDS is connected to GH (general hardness) because like GH, TDS includes the calcium, magnesium and other “hard” mineral ions; these ions are what we measure with our GH test kits. But water hardness correctly considered is more than this; both GH and KH can affect hardness and TDS levels; however, the reverse is not necessarily true. Aquarium water can have a high TDS level but a low GH and KH (Jensen, 2009). The TDS for instance also includes sodium (salt) ions,
chemical substances, etc. which are not reflected in the GH.
TDS is basically everything dissolved in the water: chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, phosphate, salt, hard minerals (GH), bicarbonates (KH), etc. And almost every substance added to the water will increase TDS: water conditioner, fish foods, plant fertilizers, calcareous substances, medications, water adjustment products, etc.
As for your water hardness, if you are in the Lower Mainland you will be getting Vancouver water from the three reservoirs. The GH and KH are near-zero, so very soft water. The pH varies (they add soda ash, or sodium carbonate to raise the pH to around 7.0 as this helps prevent corrosion to pipes and appliances from acidic water which is what the water is naturally) but this is not permanent and in the established aquarium it quickly falls. You have two options, the first of which is maintaing soft water fish for which you will have to do nothing to the tap water except dechlorinate it. But if you want livebearers, they will not be healthy nor last without doing something to raise the GH of the water. You can buy products to do this, but this gets expensive as they have to be used at water changes. I prefer to use a clacareous substrate (one made from crushed coral and aragonite is about the best). This is permanent. It will add calcium to the water, raise the GH and pH, and be ideal for livebearers. CarribSea make one I have used; just be sure it is not the marine or salt water sand mix, as that also contains salt and you do not need that.
On the fry in the guppy tank, who knows. If this is the same store that said these are salt water fish, anything is possible. But any fish will eat or attempt to eat small fry in the tank, it is a natural reaction as they are programmed to eat small invertebrates like worms, crustaceans, insect larvae and insects. This is not healthy (eating fry I mean) long term. Fish are not nutritionally balanced as food for other fish [large predatory fish is a different matter], plus the numbers of fry will mean gross overfeeding, and that is another set of problems for the fishes' health.
Do let me know the store, I am intrigued. I know the owners of most of them, except the two chain stores that I won't set foot in anyway.
Byron.
