Just out of curiosity, does your tap water also have a KH of 9? And there's nothing wrong with a KH that high, in fact it can be a very good thing, because it will keep your pH very stable. Then again, that just means it should be fairly difficult to lower your pH (so as to induce breeding).sherrymitchell wrote:Chris, Yes it's nine. In other words, it took nine drops of the reactor drops to change the water in the test tube from blue to yellow. That's how my KH test kit works. That translates to 161 ppm KH/GH. The chart says that "suitable aquarium life" for this range includes: "most tropical fish including swordtails, guppies, mollies, goldfish". LOL, the guppies and goldfish breed like rabbits, so I guess my water is perfect for them.I'm also keeping dwarf puffers, neon orange cories, RDS, neon tetras and a convict in this water and they are doing terrific.
I think I'd have to have a KH of around 6 (100 ppm) to breed the gouramis. Perhaps the almond leaves would work, maybe not. I know Francine at CCA has used rain water in some of her tanks, so that's something I may experiment with at some point.....
Going back to my college chemistry, though, I would think doing water changes with rain water (or DI/RO water) should lower the KH, which would then allow something like the almond leaves (or driftwood) to begin to lower the pH. I would go gradually, though, so as not to shock the fish.
