"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
I would suggest people know the PH of their water before buying fish.
Since
our water is hard and alkaline I only buy fish that are known to thrive in
such water. It's pointless to buy a fish native to waters with a PH of
6.8
or below when my water is almost off the scale at 300 = liquid limestone.

1) pH doesn't matter, hardness does.

I forgot to mention the PH which varies from 7.8 to 8.2, even higher at
times. My kit (hardness) only goes to 300.

2) you can safely move fishes from soft to hard water but not the other
way.

I loose too many within a few days of purchase even when I take hours to
acclimate them. I add the hard water little by little, little by
little..... then put them in the quarantine tank. Virtually all survive if
the water they were in at the store was over 7. Below 7 and I have problems
so avoid the Petco store.

3) you can change half the water a day if you're moving them to softer
water.

Softer water? No such thing here unless you buy it or make your own.

he fishes tissues dont care what kind of ions, alkaline or acid are
flaoting
around in their gills but if you change the amount of those ions
drastically
then, osmosis being what it is, the fish loses all it's body chemical
rather quickly. And dies.

I understand that. The water at that one store is also soft. It's not
worth the hassle. OTOH even when I bought soft-water fish they seldom
thrived in our water. Bettas adapt but don't breed for instance.

300 is "medium soft". 50 is "soft". 0 is "pure" and very difficut to
deal with although there are fish that live in this, usually with
a pH of about 4.

Ok. The kit I have says 0 to 25 is very soft, 75 is soft, 150 is hard and
300 is very hard = GH. This is the Jungle Quick-Dip kit. There are mineral
deposits on everything. Mine is at 300, that's as high as the kit goes.

efernece, LS tapwater is 600-900 ppm and is "hard". Liquid rock
begins at 1200ppm and is great for plants - lousy for Apistogrammas;
ask me how I know. Did I mention we have a limestone well? But living
on the Canadian shield has its advantages material wise; I jsut scooped
up about 40 pounds of flourite size of chocolate limestone gravel
from a spot near here. yes yes,too hard it'll leech carbonates into
the water. Good, I have to add lots as it is. Some crypts grow in
limestone, such as balansae ("BAL") and pontiderifolia ("PON").

Yikes! That's beyond hard!
--

Koi-Lo.... frugal ponding since 1995...
Aquariums since 1952
My Pond & Aquarium Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/9do58
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