Hard Water

[Zeno]

My water is very hard and my PH is high. How do I lower both of these?

 

[McMurray]

My water is very hard and my PH is high. How do I lower both of these?

depending on the size of the tank you could add a peat bag to the filter system. this will redduce the ph and kh levels

 

[sinistral]

I'd be interested to know what your GH, KH, and pH are. Do you have specific reasons why you'd prefer softer, acidic water?

 

[Zeno]

Here are the results from the water test I did 5min ago.

GH 300
KH 60
PH 8.4

I woul like to make my water softer because my water seems to be to hard for most fish to handle according to most fish profiles.

 

[garraty]

Here are the results from the water test I did 5min ago.

GH 300
KH 60
PH 8.4

I woul like to make my water softer because my water seems to be to hard for most fish to handle according to most fish profiles.

Were these test from your tank or from fresh tap water?

 

[Zeno]

The test was from my tank water.

 

[dwarfgourami]

A ph of 8.4 is not unusual, that's what you get in a lot of southern England for one thing. Most fish can handle it perfectly happily, and livebearers and African lake cichlids positively like it. The fish you would want to avoid are discus, rams, neons and rummynoses (and others could probably think of a few more). If you have absolutely set your heart on keeping these, you might want to look into RO (reverse osmosis) water. If not, I would leave well alone- just avoid anything that might raise it further (like certain rocks or seashells in the tank) and maybe add some bits of bogwood.

 

[dthoffsett]

Depending on the size of your tank, African Cichlids would be perfect for your water parameters.

 

[Zeno]

I have a 29 gallon tank just in case you wanted to know.

 

[nmonks]

There is so much that does well in hard water, both plants and fish. Brackish water stuff is one option, and then there are rainbowfish, livebearers, halfbeaks, and glassfish, all of which thrive in hard water. Most cichlids will be fine, simply avoid those that need soft water (mostly the Amazonian ones). The African lake cichlids, Central American cichlids, and the Madagascar cichlids will all do very well in hard water.

Among plants, things like Amazon swords, Bacopa, Vallisneria, Elodea, hornwort, and Sagittaria all do better in hard water than soft. Because they extract carbon from the hardness salts, they don't need CO2 fertilisation to do well. Hard water is actually a blessing in disguise, though many people don't see it that way.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[Ayanna]

i had very hard water a couple of weeks ago. i tested the water out of the tap
which came out as very soft water, whcih ment there was something in the tank making it hard
so i took all the features out apart from the live plants and put each one in a bowl of water so that
i could test them to see which one it was. i also did a water change and added peat. since then the water hardness has come down.

 

[Harif87]

Hey threadstarter, is your tank cycled yet? because if its not cycled yet its better to have a lower pH.

 

[Zeno]

Yes my tank is cycled.

 

[Harif87]

Yes my tank is cycled.

The thing is if you have ammonia in your tank (whether its cylced or not) its better to have a lower pH because the type of ammonia present would be more of the nOn- toxic ammonia (NH4+) instead of the toxic kind (un-ionized, NH3) But if you dont have any ammonia problems then you shouldnt worry so much about pH only that you should avoid pH swings ...in which case its better to have hard water which prevents it...but like u said u want to keep discus...

 

[Zeno]

When did I say I wanted to keep discus?