Hard Water

[mooey65]

I moved house last month and lost a few fish all was ok until I did a water change and a few more died then the other fish looked ok and were well. Iv just been told I have hard water
and that's why the fish are sick what can I do to make the water better

 

[Tolak]

It's much easier to plan your stocking around your water than to plan your water around your stocking. What species & quantity of fish, what size tank, what is the gH, kH, & pH of your water, and how long has the tank been cycled?

 

[mooey65]

The tank was up and running nice for about 5months before I moved and it has now been up and running for a month all the filters and media was left in the old tank water for about 4hours some of the old water was put back in to the tank.
The tank is 130L Sand bog wood and plants.
At the time now there are
6 Platy's
4 Guppies
3 Panda Cory
1 Leopard Catfish
1 Paroon Catfish
1 Synodontis Catfish

Ph of 7.4

How can I test the hardness?

 

[mooey65]

Can any one tell me any good hard water fish?

 

[Davo86]

Can any one tell me any good hard water fish?

how far have you moved?
it would be more likely be down to a spike than the hardwater IMO, unless you have moved from a very softwater area and did a big water change

I must say you appear to have 2 potentially giant fish in your tank - the leopard catfish "assuming its a Gibbiceps" will get to just under 2 feet and the paroon catfish can reach upto 3 feet in tanks, and even bigger in the wild

 

[mooey65]

I know the paroon cat is small a the minute am saving up for a 600L tank just need more room iv only moved 15miles.

 

[LauraFrog]

Sounds to me as though you've been told some baloney as platys and guppies are hardwater fish and corydoras catfish are tolerant of hard water. Some species of synodontis rely on African cichlids for their breeding behavior, and African cichlids live almost exclusively in very hard water, so I would assume synos are okay with these conditions as well. Most plecos are okay in medium-hard water. I know nothing about paroons.

You can buy kits that test the water hardness, usually as one kit that tests both gH and kH. kH is the carbonate hardness, a measurement of the amount of calcium (as calcium carbonate CaCO3) dissolved in the water. gH is a measure of the general hardness, or the total dissolved salts - all of the minerals dissolved in your water. Usually when asking for the hardness we'd want a measure of both.

What are the fish doing? (In what way are they sick?) Judging by the species you have there, hard water would not cause sickness amongst all those fish. Could be an LFS grabbing at straws. If you've only moved 15 miles you are probably still on the same water supply, is this the case? If so it's definitely got nothing to do with a change in hardness, and if some of the old water went into the tank, the fish have had time to adjust anyway. Has the usual pH reading changed between your old house and the new one?

 

[rhostog]

Agreed, platys and guppies do well in hard water and your pH, panda corys will normally tolerate it, don't know about the other catfish. Where are you based? If you're in the UK (don't know about elsewhere) you can find out about your tapwater from the water supplier's website. Most have a postcode search facility, so you could compare the statistics for your old and new home. It's always possible that you've crossed the boundary between two water supply areas (even if the supplier is the same), and there is a change in hardness and/or pH - although most common fish will tolerate a range of conditions, a sudden change can cause problems for them.

I guess you've been monitoring the ammonia and nitrite levels, in case you had a spike after the move, but if not, that might be a more likely problem.

Hope there are no more problems and your fish settle happily in their new home.