Above the Tavern with Parka!

[Parka]

To me the first thing to figure out is what kind of tap water you have.....

According to the Gwinnett Co. Ga. website the tap water has a 7.26 pH and a Hardness of 1.5 gpg. Grains per gallon, I never even heard of that measurement. I have never even measured for pH before, NOT EVER! In Ohio where I grew up we had good municipal water and the same thing here in Ga., I never had to deal with well water. Gwinnett gets their water from Lake Lanier.

I check nitrate levels though, ever since I started keeping Goldfish and Koi.

 

[duanes]

7.25 is pretty closs to being neutral, and 1.5 grains, is soft.
There are a number of ways hardness in water is measured, grains per gal is just one of those ways
When using Grains per gallon as a measure, 7 grains is moderately hard (medium), 10 grains is very hard water., 1 is soft
So using those measurements, your water seems reesonally good for Oscars, and other standard Amazonian species.
I wouldn't go buying wild caught oscars from the Rio Negro.....but aquarium strain LFS oscars should be fine.

 

[Parka]

To me the first thing to figure out is what kind of tap water you have.....

Back to this, I picked up an API pH test kit and I was surprised because the tap water tested at 7.4 but my tanks were in the 6.4 looking range! And the Goldfish tank had the lowest pH , here, a picture.


On the right is fresh tap water
Center is the Goldfish - 280 gal.
On the left is the 890 gallon community tank. I'm pretty sure that Goldfish prefer a higher pH than 6.2... Is it normal for tank water to get more acidic than the source (tap) water is?






Okay now we have to look at the nitrate readings from tap water, Goldfish tank and the Mighty Chicago. Here is what surprised me most, the nitrate levels in the Chicago have always tested around 10ppm but this time it tested at well under 5 ppm, maybe one or two. A second smaller surprise is how high the nitrates always get up to in the Goldfish tank and this tank even has a houseplant trough that uses tank water instead of soil, so cool! But I thought it would put a bigger dent in the nitrates.




I wanted to Show Off the Backyard Amusement Center!

So far the only ride is my Silver Power Wheels around the circuit, we got some trail & path grooming to complete before it's open for biznit.

Look at all the extra pallet lumber to build camp furniture, I'm gonna spend the night out here!



Now this last pic, notice the new Courtesy Fence, polite yet rugged!

We have a Water Attraction

We have a Fire Attraction, AKA a camp fire. Plus the ride and other upcoming Attractions! Good EVENING!