hi how do you get gh and kh down?

[minh]

i cant find the harness thread... well anyways i have a gh of 23 and kh of 13... it was 19 on both on the previous test.

i was wondering what methods are there to reduce this? as i intend to get some cardinal tetras.

i heard bog wood may help and think there are chemicals...
i would prefer something that lasts in the long term and cheap as possible. thank you for any advice.

 

[zeo]

lol i was wondering if i could replace my tank water with bottled mineral water?
as it seems like we have high gh in my area

 

[Chenz]

Using boiled water will reduce the kh so i have been told. ( not tried it )

you could also try mixing some RO water say 30 % , which you can purchase pre treated from most good LFS.

I personally use SERA Morena to reduce GH... but it will Tan the water as it uses a peat extract. Morena is ideal for Cardinal tetra, Rams, Discus & all soft water acid loving freshwater fish.

Should be able to pick a bottle up at your LFS & most shops that stock it will do a cheeper refill if you keep the bottle.

If your LFS does not stock SERA products they may offer another brand that does the same job.

Also bogwood & Filter peat will help keep your hardness levels down.

Hope this gives you a few options.

Chenz.

 

[Alien Anna]

Water hardness does tend to naturally drop as a tank matures, particularly if you put lots of bogwood in there (bogwood is an absolute must if you have tetras IMHO).

However, lots of people keep cardinals in hard, alkaline water with apparently no problems. The trick is to get fish already acclimatised to local water conditions (ie. not straight off the plane, but in the LFS or suppliers for at least 5-6 weeks before sale).

My experiments have revealed that mucking about with my water is more likely to lead to disaster than leaving well alone and letting the fish get used to the way things are. Some of my cardinals are 6 years old (80 in human years) and for most of that time there previous owner kept them in rock hard water with a pH of between 7.5 and 8.5.

Some advice I did recently receive about cardinals flies in the face of what others might suggest: don't use a quarantine tank where you're adjusting the KH, GH and pH downwards over a period of weeks. Each transfer (from the wild, to a transport box, to the LFS quarantine tank, to a bag, to your home quarantine tank and finally to your main tank) has a risk of losing the fish so it is better to reduce the number of changes as much as possible. The best LFS around here recommend to put the fish bag in the main tank and swap over a cup or so of water every 10 minutes until they are used to the new conditions. I tried it the "proper" way once and lost loads of fish, and I've tried it his way and not lost one. YMMV.

You could also try peat filtering - either pre-filtering before adding the water to the tank, or peat granules in your filter. However, if your LFS has hard water with a high pH, that may be worse than doing nothing at all. Bogwood, OTOH, would acidify and soften your water gradually. Get it a couple of weeks in advance of the fish so you can have it pre-soaked and ready to go in when they do.

 

[minh]

ty for that advice.

well i bought a piece of wood i saw in a fish shop and it says mopani decorawood. i am not sure if this actually helps reduce the gh???

if the cardinals can survive in fairly hard water then well i guess i dont have to reduce the hardness then. gave up trying to treat a piece of wood i found. lol

 

[Alien Anna]

well i bought a piece of wood i saw in a fish shop and it says mopani decorawood. i am not sure if this actually helps reduce the gh???

if the cardinals can survive in fairly hard water then well i guess i dont have to reduce the hardness then. gave up trying to treat a piece of wood i found. lol

Mopani wood is dreadfully expensive, but also among the best for reducing KH and pH without staining the water (unless you like the weak tea effect, which I do personally). If you can afford it, I'd say go for it, but in future you might want to look at Ebay because you can pick up some real bargains there.

Basically, if you have cardinals, stuff the tank with wood!

I don't quite know how, but my tank's GH has dropped as well, since I've added the bogwood but anyway, GH is less of an issue for the fish as it is for the owners - I get a lot of chalking-up on my equipment and glass. But that's simple to clean up with some white vinegar and a cloth.

Purists would probably balk at the idea of cardinals in hard, alkaline water but after fretting about it for months I eventually concluded my fish didn't care what the books said. They do hate an unstable pH, however.