Balancing Tap Water

[Beephnix]

My tap water is exceptionally hard and has a high ph. From the the tests which I've used (a simple strip with 5 different tests on it), the hardness is right at the top of the scale and the ph is around 8.5. I'm pretty sure this isn't ideal for housing fish, so should I counteract the hardness and ph of the water in some way? If so, what is recommended to accomplish this?

 

[dthoffsett]

First of all welcome to the forum. Those test strips aren't very accurate, you are much better off with a liquid test kit. That being said, most fish can adapt to different water conditions, especially tank bred fish, and your local fish stores (lfs) should have similar water conditions, so their fish will already be used to that. You can also keep fish that are suited for those water conditions, african cichlids are the first that come to mind, but there are also others, a little research should point you in the right direction.

Here's a good link to the cichlids that would be suitable for different tank sizes. Notice it lists both South & Central American cichlids as well as African, you'd probably want to stick with the Africans.
http/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/quic...erence_list.php

There are a few ways you can lower your PH & hardness slowly and safely. You can add several pieces of bogwood, and you can also add peat to your filter (though I hear that is messy and will turn your water brown), using live plants and dosing with CO2 will also lower your PH some.

Whatever you do, avoid any of those chemicals that tout they will lower your PH or adjust it to a perfect 7.0, they are difficult to dose correctly, wear off quickly, and cause major PH swings. A stable PH is far more desirable than the "perfect" level.

Hope that helps some. Dawn

 

[rabbut]

My tap water is exceptionally hard and has a high ph. From the the tests which I've used (a simple strip with 5 different tests on it), the hardness is right at the top of the scale and the ph is around 8.5. I'm pretty sure this isn't ideal for housing fish, so should I counteract the hardness and ph of the water in some way? If so, what is recommended to accomplish this?

The most important thing is that the kH and pH remain stable. A stable pH, out of the ideal range is better for the fish conserned, than having the pH constantly swinging. To lower the pH and keep it stable, you need to slightly reduce the kH(carbonate hardness) of your water. This removes part of the waters buffering capacity. As a result the pH falls, and settles on a stable value. It is not practicle to do this in a large tank, as the water needs to be mixed outside the tank, so that values within the tank stay stable. To lower the kH, you need to mix your tap water with a softer water source, to get the right paramiters. An option for larger tanks is to introduce peat. This is hit and miss though, and can lead to pH "bounces" at waterchange times. My advise would be to leave the pH where it is, and choose fish that will tolerate the values you get from the tap.
HTH
rabbut