Heater Help

[Silencedogood]

Hi everyone-

I purchased two 5 watt heaters for my two 5 gallon buckets to transport my fish. They are preset to 78F. I put them in the water last night but the water temperature now is only 70F. My tank water is 80F. Is that too low of a temperature for the fish?

 

[Colin_T]

Probably a bit low but if you are transporting fish in a car, the car's heater might warm the buckets of water up.

Out of curiosity, how far are you transporting the fish?
If you use an esky (cooler for drinks), they are insulated and you can use 80F tank water to transport them and the insulation in the esky will help keep them warm.

 

[Silencedogood]

I'm transporting them 6 hours away.(From Long Island to New Hampshire). I have around eighty fish that I'm transporting. I already put them in the buckets and the livebearers are fine but the neon tetras are a little shocked.

 

[Silencedogood]

I made it and the fish are all alive and good. The water is really hard though and I don't have any chemicals to bring it down.
EDIT: The ph and kh are high but the gh is only 2. Is that strange?
@Colin_T

 

[Colin_T]

The water is not hard if the GH is only 2dGH. That equates to about 36ppm.

You can have soft water with a high pH and KH. This is caused by the water company adding pH/ KH buffers so the pH is above 7.0. They keep the pH high so the chlorine/ chloramine does less damage to the water pipes and so the chlorine/ chloramine lasts longer.