Hard Water
15 posts • Page 2 of 2
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ThisFish884484 - Posts: 40
- Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:20 am
the gh is affected by salts, you can either use softening pillows or replace water with r/o water to lower it and lower the kh too
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yasherkoach - Posts: 1306
- Joined: Sat Jul 26, 2008 1:24 pm
first of all, hardness and ph are really one in the same thing...another thing, it is okay to have high ph (most fish can tolerate even ph at 8.0 ppm) rather than low ph (at 3.0 or 4.0 ppm)
stay away from any chemicals if you can, when you start to mess with water parameters using chemicals, you will find all your other chemicals will fluctuate
could be your test kit (get a new liquid ph test kit)...if the ph test kit (if it is liquid) sits in a bottle for over a year, its composition loses most of its affect...or you can just get more malaysian wood to lower the ph
but like I said, even ph at 8.0 ppm, most fish can handle it unless of course you have very sensitive fish that need the ph in the more neutral range of 6.8 - 7.4
let us know what you decide on
stay away from any chemicals if you can, when you start to mess with water parameters using chemicals, you will find all your other chemicals will fluctuate
could be your test kit (get a new liquid ph test kit)...if the ph test kit (if it is liquid) sits in a bottle for over a year, its composition loses most of its affect...or you can just get more malaysian wood to lower the ph
but like I said, even ph at 8.0 ppm, most fish can handle it unless of course you have very sensitive fish that need the ph in the more neutral range of 6.8 - 7.4
let us know what you decide on
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natalie265 - Site Admin
- Posts: 746
- Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:48 pm
My own water is very hard and basic out of the tap.
I agree with staying away from chemicals to alter the ph/hardness. I use 1/2 RO water in two of my tanks and this works great, except for the work involved with hauling water from the store every other week because i don't have my own RO unit. If your fish are doing fine in the water they're in, i say, why mess with it? As yasher said, most fish do okay in harder water, and in fact, some prefer it.
I agree with staying away from chemicals to alter the ph/hardness. I use 1/2 RO water in two of my tanks and this works great, except for the work involved with hauling water from the store every other week because i don't have my own RO unit. If your fish are doing fine in the water they're in, i say, why mess with it? As yasher said, most fish do okay in harder water, and in fact, some prefer it.
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mzhantsche - Posts: 115
- Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 10:27 am
yea they are doing fine. Ill leave it as is. I did try using some ph lower chemical and it worked. But im not going to add it every water change. Thanks everyone. If fish start dieing i will go the RO rout.
