Fish and Very Hard Water.

[Lewis H]

I am starting my first aquarium. Its 48x15x11 (inches) about 140 litres. I was planning on having pearl gouramis and kuhlis, was undecided on the rest, but just found out i have very hard water.

413.5 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium Carbonate
165.4 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium
28.78 °C egrees Clark
41.35 °F egrees French
23.487 °dH egrees German
4.135 mmol/l :Millimoles


What fish would be best to keep with this water as i dont want to mess around with it too much. I plan on having driftwood.
A centerpiece fish, Loaches and some schooling fish ideas would be great. I love colours!

Thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Is your tank 15inches high x 11 inches wide?

Your water is ideal for African rift lake cichlids and livebearers. Rainbowfish will be fine in that water too but the tank is not that high so some of the bigger rainbows should be avoided.
The following link has info on rainbowfishes.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

 

[Lewis H]

Is your tank 15inches high x 11 inches wide?

Your water is ideal for African rift lake cichlids and livebearers. Rainbowfish will be fine in that water too but the tank is not that high so some of the bigger rainbows should be avoided.
The following link has info on rainbowfishes.
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

Hi its 15 wide, 11 high. Ok thanks a lot. With cichlids can they be kept with other species or not? thank you

 

[Colin_T]

smaller peaceful cichlids can but you have to check each species because can get real agro.

Google "shell dweller cichlids", Lamprologus leleupi, Julidochromis dickfeldi or Julidochromis species

 

[Lewis H]

Okay thanks! I know paradise fish prefer harder waters, but is mine too hard?

 

[Colin_T]

yes your water is too hard for gouramis and paradise fish.

depending on where you live you can make distilled water and use 50% distilled with 50% mains water and keep a lot more variety of fish.

Get a clean plastic storage container and half fill it with water. Put a clean bucket in the water and put some gravel in the bucket to hold it down so it doesn't fall over. Put a lid on the storage container and put a rock on the middle of the lid. Have the container out in the sun and as the water evaporates it collects on the lid and runs towards the middle of the lid. Then it will drip into the bucket. The water in the bucket will be pure and have 0 hardness, so you can mix it 50/50 with the mains and get water with a hardness around 200ppm.

 

[Lewis H]

Haha oh no im in england, not enough sun for evaporation haha

 

[Colin_T]

you can do it indoors near a heater

you can get reverse osmosis units that do the same sort of thing but they waste a lot of water.

Just stay with rift lake cichlids, livebearers and small rainbowfish

 

[Lewis H]

you can do it indoors near a heater

you can get reverse osmosis units that do the same sort of thing but they waste a lot of water.

Just stay with rift lake cichlids, livebearers and small rainbowfish

Would all livebearers do good in this water?

 

[Colin_T]

yes all livebearers will be fine in your water

 

[hobby5]

Paradise fish should be fine! Close to the coast they live in brackish water too.