Are my water peramaters ok for guppies? (Soft water area)

[Guppylover3x]

No3 - 0/10
No2 - 0
KH - 7.2
GH - 8
PH - 7.2
Cl2 - 0
Ammonia - 0

I was previously adviced to add salt that contains the correct minerals to increase the PH and KH due to living in a soft water area. I’ve made a purchase and have the salt to hand, however I am unsure whether or not to add this in because I don’t want it raising my peramaters too much. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Byron]

Is the GH at 8 in degrees or ppm?

Is it just guppies here? I may be getting threads mixed up but neon tetras are in the back of my mind and you definitely do not want any of the mineral salts in with them.

 

[Guppylover3x]

Is the GH at 8 in degrees or ppm?

Is it just guppies here? I may be getting threads mixed up but neon tetras are in the back of my mind and you definitely do not want any of the mineral salts in with them.

Many thanks for your response Byron. Sorry for not clarifying properly, the GH is 8 degrees. I have no neons in my tank just 3 make guppies in a 10g. I did mention in a previous thread that I wanted to add neons but you adviced against this after we came to the conclusion that my water needed salt adding. I also recall you stating that the two of these needed very different water peramaters, with guppies needing hard water and the neons needing soft so I took this on board too and decided not to add any. Thank you very much for all your advice!

 

[Byron]

OK. Technically a couple degrees (dGH) higher would be preferable, so since you have the mineral salts you could try it according to their directions. As it is 8 dGH initially, raising it to say 10 or 11 dGH is all you really need here. The pH will rise too, but that is not a problem for guppies.

I assume the mineral salts are some brand of rift lake salts? You do not want marine salts which will contain true salt (sodium chloride) and there is no need for that here.

 

[Colin_T]

The pH is fine but the GH is a bit low for livebearers, it's currently about 140ppm.

You want the GH around 200+ppm (11+ dGH) for guppies, platies & swordtails, and 250ppm (14+ dGH) for mollies.

 

[Guppylover3x]

OK. Technically a couple degrees (dGH) higher would be preferable, so since you have the mineral salts you cold try it according to their directions. As it is 8 dGH initially, raising it to say 10 or 11 dGH is all you really need here. The pH will rise too, but that is not a problem for guppies.

I assume the mineral salts are some brand of rift lake salts? You do not want marine salts which will contain true salt (sodium chloride) and there is no need for that here.

Many thanks for you reply. I did consider the rift lake brand first as adviced by Colin. However, after a little bit more browsing on the internet I found another type of salt on eBay I have attached the link below - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JBL-Aqua...rentrq:a50481c21680aa11ca071fd9ffe2e179|iid:1 after speaking to the seller he confirmed that has sold loads of these to many breeders and he uses them himself in his endler tank. I have also read good feedback too so I thought I would give it a try. Only worrying thing is it doesn’t say what’s in it but it seems trustworthy enough with the feedback etc. The seller recommened treating up to 10L of water per time in personal experience. This would ensure that my water is super hardy over a period of time. Thank you for confirming that my GH needs to increase and that my PH increase won’t affect my guppies. Many thanks for all your advice I will update again soon once the salt has been added in a few days. I know I’ll always have to add it now for as long as the tank is running. Fingers crossed all goes well

 

[Guppylover3x]

The pH is fine but the GH is a bit low for livebearers, it's currently about 140ppm.

You want the GH around 200+ppm (11+ dGH) for guppies, platies & swordtails, and 250ppm (14+ dGH) for mollies.

Many thanks for confirming this for me Colin. I will be adding salt in a few days. I hope I am making the right decision as adding salt can be hard to keep up with. Thank you for your advice!

 

[Essjay]

This is the manufacturer's website on that product https://www.jbl.de/en/products/detail/5103/jbl-aquadur
The instructions say it is "a mixture of minerals containing carbonate hardness and general hardness builders" and that it contains
cations -
calcium 45%
sodium 32%
potassium 13%
magnesium 10%

anions -
bicarbonate 45%
sulphate 32%
chloride 23%

 

[Guppylover3x]

This is the manufacturer's website on that product https://www.jbl.de/en/products/detail/5103/jbl-aquadur
The instructions say it is "a mixture of minerals containing carbonate hardness and general hardness builders" and that it contains
cations -
calcium 45%
sodium 32%
potassium 13%
magnesium 10%

anions -
bicarbonate 45%
sulphate 32%
chloride 23%

Thank you so much for taking the time to find this information out for me. Would this be suitable? I am hoping the improvement in water quality does my fish well. I have returned home from work today to realise my guppies have been fighting! Not impressed. One of them has a nipped tail in two parts I don’t want this turning into finrot. I think their fighting due to the change. The new live plants I purchased are smaller than the last lot because of limited option in stock. I’ve ordered another two online different ones so they should arrive in store Sunday. I was keen to change them because they weren’t looking there best. Many thanks!

 

[Colin_T]

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for the next week. This will help reduce the chance of the fins becoming infected. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

If the filter is established and has been running for more than 2 months, clean it if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water.

Monitor the fins and if they get worse, post a picture asap so we can check them for disease.

You should rinse all new plants under tap water before adding them to the tank. This helps reduce the chance of introducing diseases on the plants. Check them for snails and snail eggs too. Snail eggs are usually clear jelly sacks on the stems or leaves.

 

[Guppylover3x]

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for the next week. This will help reduce the chance of the fins becoming infected. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

If the filter is established and has been running for more than 2 months, clean it if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water.

Monitor the fins and if they get worse, post a picture asap so we can check them for disease.

You should rinse all new plants under tap water before adding them to the tank. This helps reduce the chance of introducing diseases on the plants. Check them for snails and snail eggs too. Snail eggs are usually clear jelly sacks on the stems or leaves.

Many thanks for your response and advice Colin. I am planning to add the salt tomorrow and carry out a gravel clean. I’m mindful about carrying out large water changes everyday now that I am adding salt. I dont want it to drastically change my water permaters too much. Carrying out these water changes were so easy and straight forward before I imagine they will be more difficult now. I am getting worried because I’ve come home from work again today and another guppy has a split tail too! However, I think the alternative is a lot worse if its finrot. Aggression can be dealt with by adding more live plants or adding more fish. The filter isn’t established because the guppies were moved into a new bigger tank. I did use my old media in my tank for a week, but then replaced it to the new media designed for the filter. The plants were rinsed before adding them. The new plants have luckily arrived in store early, I received an update today. I know a 100% there would be no snails on these plants. Fortunately my pet store fully check all plants because they have a reputation to maintain. This being said I have never ordered from them online but I doubt I’ll have any problems. I’ve had a lot of bad experience with live plants and pest snails many years ago from a different shop. Due to this I’m extra careful now. When previously buying from another local store Hopefully this reduces any aggression if this is the case. Thank you again!