Hard Water And High Ph

[CHWKBruin]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forums but have been reading all the great information for a while. I have a couple of questions.

I have a fairly new 29 gallon tank that has been cycled. The latest water specs are as follows: Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5mg/L, Ph 8.0, Kh 140mg/L, Gh 200. The tank has the following fish: 2 marble angels, 2 scissortails, 2 brilliant rasboras, 4 harlequin rasboras and 6 neon tetras.

The water is crystal clear and all the fish seem happy. My concern is with the Ph and hardness. If the fish seem to be doing okay should I be concerned? Is there a safe natural way to reduce the Ph? I imagine making the water softer is not an easy proposition.

My other concern is I have what looks like brown algae growing on my decor really quickly (almost overnight). What is the best way to get rid of it or should I be concerned about it?

Thanks to all the posters for providing so much helpful information in the newbie section. I would have been totally lost had I not found these forums (and I'm sure my fish are thankful that I found it too!).

 

[Tolak]

Welcome to TFF! My pH is 7.6 to 7.8, the hardness is almost identical to yours. Most fish acclimate to a wide range of pH & hardness, playing with pH & hardness is tricky at best, and deadly at worst. If the fish are behaving normally I wouldn't worry about it.

Try leaving the lights on less if you are having an algae problem, this and overfeeding is often the cause. It's better to underfeed than to overfeed.

The only other problem I see with your tank is the compatability of neons with angels. When the angels get larger they may see the neons as a tasty snack. Some people get this combination to work by starting out with young small angels and mature neons. If the neons start to dissapear you will know where they are going.

 

[Griz]

I don't have anything to add to Tolak's reply except to agree with it.

Oh, and to welcome you to TFF.

 

[CHWKBruin]

Thanks for your response. From what I've read I know it's not good to change the Ph quickly and since the fish all seem to be happy I don't want to do anything drastic. I am mainly concerned about any possible long term effects this might have on the fish.

As far as the angels and neons are concerned, the angels are quite small yet and they don't seem too interested in the neons at all. Hopefully things stay that way! The only reason I have the neons is because they add some colour to the tank and my kids like them.

Should I pull the decor out and rinse the algae off before putting it back in? I will try to feed a little less to see if that helps.

 

[Tolak]

I can't think of any long term effects on the fish you have. Rinsing the algae off the decorations is fine, I do it with my show tank in the living room.