Help! my tank water hardness is off the charts
- Thread starter dreambaby
- Start date
Depending on what type of fish you have, it may not be a problem AT ALL. My water comes out of the tap VERY HARD, at the very highest reading on the scale. Most fish and plants can do quite well in hard water.. My GH is very high and my KH is around 10 to 15 depending on the tank. I would NOT try to soften the water, as most water softeners will only work temporarily. Unless you plan on breeding a particular type of fish that needs soft water to breed in, whatever hardness you have will probably suffice.
By the way, how high is "off the scale" at least?
By the way, how high is "off the scale" at least?
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Don't peat and driftwood soften the water? Or was that only lower pH? I'm not sure, but the idea of softening and peat seem to click in my mind. I wouldn't go for chemical softeners either, though.
Your problems are unknown to me though, my water is *really* soft. The kind of soft that's prone to pH crashes, supposedly. Hasn't happened yet, thankfully.
Also, check if the hardness is due to your tap, or if its something in the tank making it that way. Certain rocks or shells can raise the hardness (you can check if they're prone to it by the vinegar test).
But as long as its stable and your fish don't seem to have a problem with it, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Certain fish do better in hard water, like said above, swordtails for example I think.
Your problems are unknown to me though, my water is *really* soft. The kind of soft that's prone to pH crashes, supposedly. Hasn't happened yet, thankfully.
Also, check if the hardness is due to your tap, or if its something in the tank making it that way. Certain rocks or shells can raise the hardness (you can check if they're prone to it by the vinegar test).
But as long as its stable and your fish don't seem to have a problem with it, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Certain fish do better in hard water, like said above, swordtails for example I think.
Thank you so much yes our swordtails seem to be very prolific and are growing rapidly...our guppies too lol...the only fish i have noticed a change in are our loaches...they seem to be getting paler in color. Thank you so much for your input
our hardness scale (GH) only goes to 300 and the color on the test strip is much darker than the scale allows for. our alkalinity (KH) was low though...0 nitrates and nitrites were both acceptable and the PH was acidic (6.2) but i used PH up and increased it.
Dreambaby
55gallon- 2 loaches 3 adult swortails +babies 12 glass shrimp 4 tetras
29gallon- 20+ immature guppies
29gallon- 7 adult guppies
5 gallon- 1 immature female guppy
1 gallon- empty
our hardness scale (GH) only goes to 300 and the color on the test strip is much darker than the scale allows for. our alkalinity (KH) was low though...0 nitrates and nitrites were both acceptable and the PH was acidic (6.2) but i used PH up and increased it.
Dreambaby
55gallon- 2 loaches 3 adult swortails +babies 12 glass shrimp 4 tetras
29gallon- 20+ immature guppies
29gallon- 7 adult guppies
5 gallon- 1 immature female guppy
1 gallon- empty
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Change in colour - you mean recently? Has your hardness been this way for long time? Or is this something that's new? Because if its stable, then it shouldn't bother the fish, at least not suddenly. Have any other factors changed recently? Anything else that might be stressing the loaches?
Also, stability in water conditions is an important factor to the fish (I'm starting to feel like a broken record repeating it, but still). I'd recommend against using chemicals to tamper with the pH - 6.2 is perfectly fine as long as it is not constantly changing. Using chemicals to instantly change it will probably cause a lot of stress to the fish.
Also, stability in water conditions is an important factor to the fish (I'm starting to feel like a broken record repeating it, but still). I'd recommend against using chemicals to tamper with the pH - 6.2 is perfectly fine as long as it is not constantly changing. Using chemicals to instantly change it will probably cause a lot of stress to the fish.