Raising Babies

[Cocobid]

Hi I am new to this forum but not fish keeping. Ok a few months ago I had a stunning built in the wall 30Gt spring a leek and did thousands of dollars of damage to our home. In this tank were LFABP. We have a long running 20G so in they went. To my surprise a few months later filled with babies overnight.
Here is the issue our water here is treated heavily with chemicals, have struggled with this for years with the tanks. I keep impeccable water in the tank, but it appears after a water change the losses began with the babies.

He is my question we overnight had a fresh batch of babies, I am considering filling a small nano with basic sponge using RO water, feed & raise in there? They just will not make it in that tank with our water. All that is in the breeding tank are plecos.
This breaks my heart to see the losses they are just adorable to watch. I can add plants etc to tank and keep bare bottom.
That would you do?
Thank You Karen

 

[hinchles]

if your waters that bad and you can't sort it with your normal dechlorinator etc then you'd have to use ro not sure if you'd need to remineralise it or anything though

 

[Lornek8]

You can use RO but you can't use it straight. You need to remineralize it, pure RO is too pure to support life, its also highly unstable as any additions to it via food, fish waste, etc have a dramatic impact on water chemistry.

How often do you change water in your tanks and how much do you change?
Does your replaement water come straight out of the tap or do you store it prior?
What do you use to treat the tap water that you put into the tank?

 

[Brengun]

I would increase the water changes to the main tank and after a day, use the water from the main tank to fill and further wc the little tank.

Keep the big tank pristine and the water going into the little tank will be not quite as good as a fresh water change but probably much safer.

If you are diligent you could do a small wc to the little tank once or twice a day (using the big tanks water) and the fry will love it.