A species only 60L tank

[redpanda]

I've going to say you dont need to soften their water, most water suppliers list soft water as medium/hard when it's still below 200ppm.

Its the livebearers you will probably have to harden their water.... they need it over 200ppm



Example.
My water supplier claims our water is "moderately hard".
But my GH is 90-150ppm, which is soft range for fish! Pygmies are fine in this range, but livebearers are not.

So i have a bit of cichlid sand in a pouch in my filter to raise my GH slightly to 200ppm for my livebearers.

Ah right! Ok, so I will get the exact water number but most likely I need to harden it for my live bearers....hopefully I can get something from Amazon or my local pet shop can order me something.

 

[redpanda]

bronze can handle harder water so yeah thats fine to keep them together

Phew, that's good news.
Will the water hardness effect whether they lay eggs or not?

 

[redpanda]

For some reason, water companies make water sound harder than it really is. Does your give a number at all? Which water company is it?

Its seven trent, I am going to find out the actual number bc when I checked my postcode it just gave me a rough gauge. I need to be 100% sure for my babies

 

[redpanda]

Thankyou so much for everyone's advice and help so far x
(My fish say thanks too)

 

[Essjay]

Enter your postcode here

Check my water quality | Water Quality | My Supply | Severn Trent Water

Find out more about your water, what's in it and even dishwasher settings by searching with your postcode.

www.stwater.co.uk

You need the number for "hardness German"

Hardness German is the same as dH, one of the units used in fishkeeping. It can easily be converted to ppm, the other unit in fishkeeping.

 

[redpanda]

Enter your postcode here

Check my water quality | Water Quality | My Supply | Severn Trent Water

Find out more about your water, what's in it and even dishwasher settings by searching with your postcode.

www.stwater.co.uk

You need the number for "hardness German"

Hardness German is the same as dH, one of the units used in fishkeeping. It can easily be converted to ppm, the other unit in fishkeeping.

Wow thankyou that helped a lot, my hardness german is 16.10 how does that relate to ppm?

 

[Naughts]

Wow thankyou that helped a lot, my hardness german is 16.10 how does that relate to ppm?

You multiply by 17.9 to get ppm so 288ppm.

 

[redpanda]

I've going to say you dont need to soften their water, most water suppliers list soft water as medium/hard when it's still below 200ppm.

Its the livebearers you will probably have to harden their water.... they need it over 200ppm



Example.
My water supplier claims our water is "moderately hard".
But my GH is 90-150ppm, which is soft range for fish! Pygmies are fine in this range, but livebearers are not.

So i have a bit of cichlid sand in a pouch in my filter to raise my GH slightly to 200ppm for my livebearers.

I have my numbers they are 288!! I've taken my pygmys are they are in a separate tank with 4 snails and the 2 platy fry that were born during the quarantine of my platys
What should my next move be?

 

[redpanda]

You multiply by 17.9 to get ppm so 288ppm.

Hmm not good for my pygmys then...I always add tapsafe to my tap water when I do water changes will that be enough? They seem happy now they are in their own tank

 

[Naughts]

It would be better if you softened their water by mixing RO with tap water.

Corydoras pygmaeus – Pygmy Cory — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Retired Viking]

288 is too hard of water for pygmy cory, I use RO to soften my water for my tetras. If you want young you may have to soften down the water a lot.

 

[CassCats]

Yeah definitely need to soften that water a lot for your pygmies

 

[redpanda]

Yeah definitely need to soften that water a lot for your pygmies

Oh my goodness
I had to Google what ro water was ‍ new info is now tucked up in my brain
I'm not sure if I can get that so I wondered about spring water? I could buy that for the water changes.... I fell down the Google rabbit hole trying to research it and got so many conflicting results. Now, I *think* (please tell me if I'm wrong) that it is useful to lower the water hardness? Not to use exclusively, just for the water changes.....

 

[redpanda]

288 is too hard of water for pygmy cory, I use RO to soften my water for my tetras. If you want young you may have to soften down the water a lot.

I'd love to have young, and I'd get all excited when my girl use to get all full of eggs but that was as far as it got....
more than anything I want my fish happy so that is the goal. I think I may need to exclusively keep hard water fish in my big tank if I can't work out how to get ro water.

 

[ClownLurch]

You wouldn’t need a full tank of spring water just the % that brought you comfortably into their range, then the same % with every water change.