fw ray's and water

[sephir420]

this is a general. how important is the ph, gh, and kh as far as normal levels. for example where i live the water is hard and has a high ph close to 8.

cant remember what the hardnes is but its hard. would that be a big problem?

[rayman45]

umm
if your gunna try go for a more hardy ray (motoro's,hystrix)
with my rays i never checker kh or gh
only ammona ph and the n's

[The TRUST]

I remember I saw a site before with some guy saying his water is really high pH out of the tap and he does nothing to change it and his rays were doing great.

[redtailfool]

Rays are very adaptable to their environment as long as the water quality
is stable. PH of 6-7 are normally taken by rays with no problems at all. Problems
ensues when the PH fluctuates.

I would only stick with hardy species such as motoros and leos with a PH
as high as that. I would acclimate for a few hours and make sure the ph shift
is gruadual. I have even heard of motoros breeding in PH of 8.2!

[we have sound]

I think in general stability is something you should be more worried about than the actual readings.

[sephir420]

i dont think that stability is going to be a problem with my water chemistry. i have never had a ph swing even in a crouded tank. with the hard water acting like a buffer it tends to prevent the ph change. so im pretty lucky on that end. the reason i asked is i had 2 reticulated ray's (and if this sight existed then i would have consulted you guys) they wouldent eat. they lasted about 3 months and croaked. i was pretty upset. (they where a gift and they are kinda hard to get since they are eligal in utah). i read that they where soft water and more acidic and asumed that thats why they dident make it. now i have read some postes hear i should have kept them dark for a wile till they could adjust.

thank you for the info. :)

also for future reforence can you keep other fish with the ray's?