Indeed. Don't imagine having hard, alkaline water is intrinsically bad; it isn't. It has some advatages over soft, acid water. Specifically:
- Water chemistry tends to be very stable
- Gradual acidification by things like bogwood or decaying organic matter is inhibited
- Many plants use the hardness as a fertiliser of sorts (instead of using dissolved carbon dioxide)
- Many fish prefer/need hard, alkaline water
Among the plants that like hard water are many of the common Amazon swords, Bacopa, Vallisneria, some of the Cryptocorynes (such as C. ciliata), most of the "pondweed" type things like hornwort and Elodea, and some of the Hygrophila species.
Hard water fishes include rainbowfish, livebearers, some killifish, blind cave tetras, all the African Rift Valley cichlids and Central American cichlids, all the brackish water stuff, and many oddballs such as flatfish, halfbeaks, and gobies.
If you have hard, alkaline water to begin with, you'll find life a lot simpler sticking to hard water fish and plants, particularly if you want to breed your fish.
Cheers,
Neale
Nope, not unless you're planning on keeping fish that like high ph (ie. old world cichlids).
