New Tank Hard water question

[[email protected]]

Hi:
I bought a aquarium (fresh water, tropical) 4 weeks ago and I have 4
danios and 1 tetra and they all seem to be doing fine. I took a test of
my tank and I found the following readings from the color charts.
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
Hardness: 150
Alkalinity: 20
pH: 6.8
Everything seems ok except that the color chart says that the water is
"HARD".
Is that a problem ? How will it affect my aquarium ? What is the most
economical way to make the water soft ?
Thanks in advance.

- Shri

[Charles]

On 25 Sep 2005 18:16:39 -0700, wrote:

>Hi:
>I bought a aquarium (fresh water, tropical) 4 weeks ago and I have 4
>danios and 1 tetra and they all seem to be doing fine. I took a test of
>my tank and I found the following readings from the color charts.
>Nitrate: 20
>Nitrite: 0
>Hardness: 150
>Alkalinity: 20
>pH: 6.8
>Everything seems ok except that the color chart says that the water is
>"HARD".
>Is that a problem ? How will it affect my aquarium ? What is the most
>economical way to make the water soft ?
>Thanks in advance.
>
>- Shri


It's hard, but what are the units for the 150? DH? PPM?

Probably ppm. Best thing to do (in my opinion) is to leave the water
alone and keep fish that tollerate your water.

If that 150 is ppm, then it's not too bad for most fish, mine runs 900
to 1050. Very hard.

If you decide that you want to change the water, you can dilute it
with RO, diwstilled, or purified water, or you can add peat to the
filter, that's supposed to work.

If the fish are doing fine, don't mess with success. Keep an eye on
the ammonia, that's the one that can get you into trouble.

[NetMax]

"Charles" > wrote in message
...
> On 25 Sep 2005 18:16:39 -0700, wrote:
>
>>Hi:
>>I bought a aquarium (fresh water, tropical) 4 weeks ago and I have 4
>>danios and 1 tetra and they all seem to be doing fine. I took a test of
>>my tank and I found the following readings from the color charts.
>>Nitrate: 20
>>Nitrite: 0
>>Hardness: 150
>>Alkalinity: 20
>>pH: 6.8
>>Everything seems ok except that the color chart says that the water is
>>"HARD".
>>Is that a problem ? How will it affect my aquarium ? What is the most
>>economical way to make the water soft ?
>>Thanks in advance.
>>
>>- Shri
>
>
> It's hard, but what are the units for the 150? DH? PPM?
>
> Probably ppm. Best thing to do (in my opinion) is to leave the water
> alone and keep fish that tollerate your water.
>
> If that 150 is ppm, then it's not too bad for most fish, mine runs 900
> to 1050. Very hard.
>
> If you decide that you want to change the water, you can dilute it
> with RO, diwstilled, or purified water, or you can add peat to the
> filter, that's supposed to work.
>
> If the fish are doing fine, don't mess with success. Keep an eye on
> the ammonia, that's the one that can get you into trouble.


Hopefully it is ppm, so about 8dgH which is perfectly fine. However the
alkalinity is quite low at only 20ppm (1dkH). I'd be looking for
something to increase your buffer or you may find your pH prone to
bouncing around. You can add minerals which leech, but they will
increase your gH as well as kH, or you can add organic matter, which will
soften your water and will provide some buffering in natural acids (note
that I have hard alkaline water so I have no hands-on experience with
organic buffers). Yours might also be a good case to use baking soda
(increases kH and not gH), but some caution is required with adding
chemicals.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[[email protected]]

Thank for the prompt response. The measurements are in ppm. When you
say "organic matter" do you mean aquarium plants ?
--Shri

[NetMax]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Thank for the prompt response. The measurements are in ppm. When you
> say "organic matter" do you mean aquarium plants ?
> --Shri


Nope, I mean peat, terbang leaf, oak leaf, mopani etc. Not certain of
the effect on your water though. Wait for those who deal with your water
conditions on a regular basis because you have an unusual mix of low pH,
hard but unbuffered water. Perhaps your water is riverine in origin but
comes through an artesian well which is picking up something...
magnesium? There are mineral deposits called Utah Ice which look like
chunks of ice. It's interesting stuff as it doesn't seem to affect kH
but it dissolves raising gH (not what you want, but perhaps the cause of
what you have). The pH and the gH are not a problem though (unless you
want to keep mbuna), so if your kH was a bit higher or otherwise
buffered, you would be fine.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

wrote:

> Hi:
> I bought a aquarium (fresh water, tropical) 4 weeks ago and I have 4
> danios and 1 tetra and they all seem to be doing fine. I took a test of
> my tank and I found the following readings from the color charts.
> Nitrate: 20
> Nitrite: 0
> Hardness: 150
> Alkalinity: 20
> pH: 6.8

If your "150" are equivalent to 8 degrees of hardness, then you should
be fine with a lot of fish species. The lone tetra is calling out for
some mates though, if you have the tank capacity for it. Those are
shoaling fish and don't like to be alone.

I've never kept danios, so I can not comment on their needs. For keeping
tetras I'd probably peat-filter the water, but that is optional.

Life plants would also add to your tank, both biologically and
optically. You may want to introduce a clean-up crew, for example
freshwater shrimps (Caridina ssp.), apple snails, otos or corys. Again,
that depends on the tank volume, however.

[Daniel Morrow]

Mid posted.


> wrote in message
ups.com...
> Hi:
> I bought a aquarium (fresh water, tropical) 4 weeks ago and I have 4
> danios and 1 tetra and they all seem to be doing fine. I took a test of
> my tank and I found the following readings from the color charts.
> Nitrate: 20
> Nitrite: 0
> Hardness: 150
> Alkalinity: 20
> pH: 6.8
> Everything seems ok except that the color chart says that the water is
> "HARD".
> Is that a problem ?

It is not a problem unless you want to breed fish that require hard water to
do the breeding in.

How will it affect my aquarium ? What is the most
> economical way to make the water soft ?

In the long run - reverse osmosis or distilled/deionized water (or minute
market bottled drinking water). In the short term - peat moss/fibers in the
filter. It would need to be replaced regularly. Good luck and later!


> Thanks in advance.

Sure thing!


>
> - Shri
>