pH, KH & GH

Something's not right.
I've just done another check on last night's kettle water with the NT Labs kit and the hardness is showing reduced levels as indicated yesterday, ie around 11 on the chart, indicating something like 195ppm.
However, a check with the TDS meter shows at 334 ppm still.
I'm guessing that the TDS is more likely to show the true figure as it relates to the total mineral content in the water, whereas the NT Labs kit will primarily test for the calcium and magnesium as Essjay mentioned.
So it looks like the Tesco bottled water is the way I go now. Completely and not diluted/mixed with kettle-water or tap water.
Bit of a bugger really but unless Essjay has any further comment on the hardness findings, I'll just have to stick with it. Must get a Tesco clubcard......

What's the TDS of the bottled water? TDS measures everything, organics as well as minerals.

If the TDS of the bottled water, and the pH and hardness, are OK for the maculatus I would use just that. Stick with the same brand of bottled water as water from different sources can be very different.

I use bottled water all of the time. When I had my 5 previous 60 litre aquariums I used Buxton, Evian, Volvic and Celtic Spring...one brand in each and stuck to it.

For my current aquarium, a 200 litre, I use Iceland's White Rock. They come in packs of 24 x 500ml for £3.25 per pack, I order online for home delivery so limited to 4 packs, I do not know if there would be the same limit on packs bought in the shop.

This is the analysis



The fish are perfectly healthy, I have not had any issues whatsoever with the water...I have a right mixture of fish, Rams, an Apisto, BNs, Danios, Ottos, Cardinals, Cories....they are thriving, breeding and generally creating mayhem. They have been in bottled water since I bought them tween 3 and 6 years ago.

Essjay said:

What's the TDS of the bottled water? TDS measures everything, organics as well as minerals.

If the TDS of the bottled water, and the pH and hardness, are OK for the maculatus I would use just that. Stick with the same brand of bottled water as water from different sources can be very different.

Click to expand...

You said you had the maculatus previously Essjay. Did you use the tap water from down your way, or something else?
Also they prefer a very low pH but I believe that presents problems with ammonia control and beneficial bacteria

I used tap water. Back then my water was softer than it is now (5 dH, it's now 7) and the pH hovered around 7.0. For some reason, you seem to have the only hard water in Northumbrian Water's area


The only thing with acidic water and bacteria is that they don't grow well below pH 6.5. But that isn't a problem because at that pH all the ammonia is ammonium which won't harm the fish. Our test test kits measure ammonium and ammonia combined so ammonium still shows up in the test but is harmless. And if there are live plants, they remove the ammonium faster than bacteria.

Lynnzer said:

Your assumptions are all fine. So, it looks like I have to do a re-think on fish or do something about the water.
I really set my heart on the neon green rasbora albeit I had originally thought about the chilli rasboras.
My tank is this one, 30 ltrs. I really can't go for the fish recommended by Lajos, as they are just too big.
I'm really thinking that I go for the neon greens and fill with bottled water instead. I'll have to check out the chemical makeup of some to see if it's a good idea.
Take a look at the Asda 5ltr bottle and see if it would be OK if you don't mind

Click to expand...

I was obsessed with getting em myself at one point but unfortunately my waters pretty similar to yours. Ironically Im expecting to retire to a SR postcode eventually. At least I can take my fish with me!

SR covers quite a big area though. Make sure you check the full postcode on Northumbrian Water's website. I'm just a few miles south of Lynnzer, though in a different postcode area, and I have soft water

I’m up there this week helping my mam move house. I’m gonna take my testing kit to check both houses supplies!

I bought another dozen 5ltr bottles of Tesco water yesterday. I did a 40% water change on the small maculatus tank yesterday morning but as the tank's still being "run-in" and has driftwood, leaves and sphagnum moss in it, it was showing bad readings for nitrate and nitrite. So, thinking this out, and perhaps to the initial detriment to the fish, I did another 40% water change last night with tap water. Once the water chemistry calms down then I'll start using the bottled water.
For what it's worth, I got 6 chilli's yesterday from Fish Alive to put in another separate tank which has my velvet blue shrimps, and I tested the water that was in the bag. It was more or less the same as my tap water. I have no idea how it happened but when I was testing the water on one of my other tanks, a 60ltr, I noticed a maculatus swimming idly by along with the ember tetras. How in hell's name it got there I have no idea. It's back with the others now though.
Here's the little tank

I think I'm going to have to take out the bit of wood. Despite a couple water changes daily the ammonia is OK but the nitrate/nitrite are showing red on the NT Labs test.
I set the tank up with a filter taken from a larger tank and have added Easystart since so I gave it as good a start as possible.
I really want the bottled water in the tank but it'll be a waste until I get the correct readings.

Well I took the wood out and put it in a bucketful of clean water with an aeriator stone.
I did a check of the tank water again which still showed nitrate/nitrite pink. Then I changed about 85% of the water to Tesco bottled.
I also tested the bucket water which as expected was completely free of everything.
Come 8 hours later I checked both waters again. The tank water was more or less spot on. Very slight pink on nitrate/nitrite. The bucket water was free of all nasty things too so I out the wood back in the tank as I was happy that it wasn't the wood causing elevated N02 and N03 readings. I also put in a few more catappa leaf scraps to litter the tank bottom, and changed the filter to one that fits better, that was taken from a well settled large tank. The result can be seen on the Twitch chanel.
Now, as for the renewal of the testing chemicals, I opted to visit Horizon Aquatics and bought the individual bottles.
I JUST LOVE THIS PLACE. It's got to be the most amazing LFS in the north, yeah, and possible countrywide. They give advice that is absolutely perfect. I was looking for more shrimp and loved a particular species but they know I'm in a hard water area so advised against it. The shrimp/nano room is even set up with the tanks for hard water on the right of the room and softer water on the left. I even heard someone being told how to acclimate some shrimp he just bought by a drip of tank water a second into the bag so that they didn't stress the shrimp and possibly cause them life threatening changes.

Anyway, I hope this change in direction from the thread topic isn't offputting.

More or less as we, my wife and I, arrived, Nicole offered us both a drink. What service.
I ended up with another tank and half a dozen Chili Rasbora.

The tank I bought is on display fully aquascaped as on the picture. What a set-up. The light is also amazing. I had no idea how basic my own lights are.
I have been invited back where they will spend as much time as I need to plan the tank layout to achieve the same result.
You just gotta visit for yourself, if you can. I know they even collect incoming visitors from Darlington station if they travel to get there from anywhere in the country.

Ah. Rain has arrived at long last. So I put a dish out to collect some. Hey..... Ph around 6.5, HK shows no alkalinity at all. Not even 1drop. GH is 2 drops, ie 37ish ppm. I'd have thought that the Ph would have been lower though.
Water barrel here I come.
I mean, even at £1.20 for a 5 litre bottle of Tesco or Asda water, it'll mount up in cost as time goes by. A 100ltr water barrel costs less than £25. And rain is guaranteed.

I think this comment might have triggered the start of the first UK drought since 1976

Lynnzer said:

Ah. Rain has arrived at long last. So I put a dish out to collect some. Hey..... Ph around 6.5, HK shows no alkalinity at all. Not even 1drop. GH is 2 drops, ie 37ish ppm. I'd have thought that the Ph would have been lower though.
Water barrel here I come.
I mean, even at £1.20 for a 5 litre bottle of Tesco or Asda water, it'll mount up in cost as time goes by. A 100ltr water barrel costs less than £25. And rain is guaranteed.

Click to expand...

£18.99 at Home Bargains.

Guyb93 said:

When fish are locally sourced rather than ordering online they are often raised and bred in similar water conditions, acclimating them should be no trouble if bought within a local radius meaning these fish will have never saw there so called natural conditions , I always try to keep them to there so called natural conditions but the chances are the fish are 12th generation bred in local waters

Click to expand...

With all due respect, this is one of the enduring myths of the hobby.

Very few fish are bred locally, unless you live in the tropics near a fish farm. Local breeders can't compete for prices, and tend to only produce, the easiest, most common fish. How many posters here systematically breed their fish? A few out of thousands.
Plus if you do breed fish, you learn to breed the ones already adapted to your water from the tap. To try otherwise is frustrating, and usually unsuccessful. I've bred a couple of hundred different species over 55 years in the hobby, and only a handful were able to produce the number of fry they would in nature with more than a small variation away from the water hardness they evolved in. Usually, those were the fish no local breeder would sell, because they were easy to breed and the farms could sell them to stores at a fraction of what a local breeder could get.