Very High Ph, Gh And Kh

[here_be_dragons]

My local tap water is extremely hard even for the UK. It comes directly from a borehole in chalk hills.

pH: 8.5
kH:292ppm

I have tried mixing my water 50/50 with bottled water (pH 6.4) but it barely makes a dent on the pH/kH. Trying to to do the calculations to work out the best ratio to use to give me ideal pH is giving me headaches (A-level chemistry teacher)

I have Dainty corys and wcmm atm. Its a 70L tank. would these tank bred fish be able to adapt to the original pH/gH/kH of my water if done very slowly?

 

[here_be_dragons]

I have considered RO water but the nearest fish shop is not that close and the price is a fair bit more than the bottle water.
Bottle water was chosen due to it being soft and fairly low pH. I found an interesting comparison of the mineral contents of bottled water and this one ended up the best.
Looked into Humaquat but would need half a bottle for each water change due to the water being so hard and it has not effect on the gH

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I wouldn't class 8.5 as dangerously high, and although i can't comment on what your current stocking require, i would say that a stable PH is alot safer than a fluctuating one... many people have to add things to their filters and tanks to get PH such as yours, so i would try and choose my stock carefully yet continue to keep it stable...stay away from those 'PH up/down' chemical products, they have never been proven to work, only for the worst.

Terry.

 

[DJH584]

stay away from those 'PH up/down' chemical products, they have never been proven to work, only for the worst.

+1 on that. Tried an API product claiming to do that. Worst thing I ever did.

David

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Here is something else you can try since the tank is relatively small. The reason you are having difficulty lowering your pH is due to your high KH. RO would be best but, if you cant spend for that, you can lower the KH of your tap by boiling it. If you drop your KH and then add the softer lower pH water, your pH should come down more easily. Of course you may find the cost of boiling water is more than the added cost of RO.

 

[CezzaXV]

You could always buy a RO unit to make your own. They're expensive, but it'll pay for itself eventually.

Depending on what fish you've got/are getting, 8.5 may be fine. There are fish that would be happy in it, though obviously your choice would be more limited than if you mixed with RO water to get a more neutral reading.

 

[Aqua Tom]

8.5 is ok.

Stock acoordingly.






Tom

 

[OldMan47]

A lot depends on the fish that you keep. I run water with a GH of 12 degrees, a KH of 12 degrees, a TDS of 225 ppm and a pH of about 7.8. My fish are almost all fine with nothing but tap water. My first bit of advice is to ignore the pH value as long as it doesn't damage things that you place into the water. Fish are very adaptable to various pH values. With my rather hard and high pH values I can keep things like cories, angels and neons in my water although they cannot effectively breed in that water. The eggs are destroyed by the high pH water. You have mentioned RO as a possibility but if you cannot get RO water or it is too dear, you can collect rain water. I do exactly that even though I have an RO in my kitchen for drinking water. If you allow rain to flush your gutters for 20 to 30 minutes and then start collecting rain water, it is very pure water in all but the most industrial environments. My rain water tests out at about half the mineral content of my RO water which is itself very low.

What fish do you have that you are trying to accommodate? Maybe we can help by letting you know if you need to do anything at all to help them adapt to your water.