adjusting hardness?

[panboy]

can u adjust hardness on a tank?
the water here in arizona is extremely hard, but i want to keep a blue ram, which needs soft water...

would big changes in hardness affect the fish, like ph?
thanks

 

[Doggfather]

if i remember hardess slightly affects the ph, for example, soft water has a tendancy to be acidic, and hard water has a tendancy to be alkaline...you can adjust it using what you get in a test kit...or using things such as bog wood in your case to make the water doft and acidic

 

[smileandnod]

Complicated area this so I'll point you to this link......
http/www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html

Altering your water chmeistry in any way, has all sorts of knock on effects, and should always be done with care.

Cheers.

Ian.

 

[Mamaschild]

Panboy. Please be aware, on that website, down where it says "ways to decrease GH", it states filtering water through Peat will do so. THAT'S NOT TRUE.

I did a test on a 20g. Ran it with Peat for a week or so, then tested.

Prior to Peat test results:
Ph 7.0
Gh 11
Kh 6

After Peat test results:
Ph 6.4
Gh 11
Kh 4

It DID NOT lower GH, only Ph, and Kh making it less stable. I have had NUMEROUS conversations with people stating that Peat will not, ever, lower the "hardness", only the Ph.

The best way to acheive the affect you are after is by using part RO (reverse osmosis) water in your tanks. This reduces the all around hardness, because RO removes the minerals completely. Adding tap water to the RO makes it healthy for the fish by adding some of the minerals back that the fish need to survive. DO NOT use straight RO water unless you plan on adding minerals to it for your fish. They do sell additives for this purpose, but it seems a waste? Just put part tap, part RO.

Hope this keeps you from going through what I did.