Nitesbane wrote:
http://fish.mongabay.com/chemistry.htm
"Almost all freshwater fish inhabit waters with a pH from 5.0-9.0, with the
majority of these inhabiting water with a slightly acidic to neutral pH
(6-7.5)."

And how does this contradict my statement? I said "Plants love hard
water and most fish will do just fine in it".

http://www.aquariumpharm.com/articles/plants.asp
"Most aquatic plants require water with a low to moderate hardness level.

This was actually rebuffed by a world renowned plant collector who
showed pictures of so-called soft water plants growing in the wild in
south america on lakes and rivers with limestone beds. Check google for
the references, it was discussed here (or perhaps in r.a.f.plants) a
while ago.

The General Hardness (GH) should be between 2-7°dGH. Carbonate Hardness (KH)
should be between 2-6°dKH. Tap water is often high in GH and KH and may
contain excess nutrients such as phosphate and nitrate. If your tap water is
too hard or contains excess nutrients, use Aquarium Pharmaceutical's Tap
Water Filter."

Yeah, buy our stuff. Objective advise?

http://fish.orbust.net/neontetra.html
"Ca They like soft slightly acidic water and, ideally the temperature
should be 73 to 79 degrees F"

Keyword: "like"

http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/tet-bneo.htm
"Water Chemistry: Not critical, but soft and slightly acidic preferred."

Keyword: "prefered"


Unless you're planning on breeding some species (ie. discus, tetras),
most fish will do just fine in hard, non acidic water. So will most
plants, btw.

Cheers.


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Victor Martinez
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