Hi from Newcastle

[djhep6]

Good day all....
Quick post to say hi and introduce myself.
My name is Dave and i have very recently set up my first ever tank.
It's a Juvel 180 and i'm planning to stock with freshwater tropical fish once cycling is complete.
I'm looking forward to learning from the forum, and may have a few questions in near future
All the best.
Dave.

 

[Circus]

Welcome to the forum, Dave!

 

[Tank Sinatra]

Welcome Dave!

That's a great tank you've got yourself. Best of luck with it all.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Welcome! Do you have any fish in mind that you'd like to get?

 

[OliveFish05]

Welcome!

 

[djhep6]

Thanks for the welcome guys??.
PlasticGalaxy......i havent given too much thought to what fish to stock just yet.
I was prepared to wait a month or two for tank to cycle before, but have been advised to speed up the process with Dr Tims.
I might try that, and if it works then start slowly adding some snails, fish etc.
Hopefully i can get some advice on species etc from here on the forums?.

Cheers.
Dave

 

[Essjay]

One piece of information you will be asked is how hard is your water. Northumbrian Water doesn't give numbers, just words and they make it sound harder than we, as fish keepers, would consider it. Tell us the words; we can work out an approximate level from that which is good enough.

 

[djhep6]

Hi Essjay.
Yes the only thing i have seen is a list where our water is described as slightly hard.
My ph level from the tap is measuring 7.4. Would that limit the types of fish that i could keep?

 

[Essjay]

"Slightly hard" is the same as mine. It means between 5.6 and 8.4 dH, and 100 to 150 ppm (different units of measurements, fish profiles use one or the other which is why we need tp know our hardness in both units). It is soft in fishkeeping terms. You can keep any soft water fish except the few species which need very soft water, but hard water fish won't do well.


Edit - forgot about the pH.
pH often changes on standing so we always ask to test a freshly run sample of tap water then leave a glass of water to stand overnight and test it again to see if there is any difference.
Hardness is more important than pH

 

[djhep6]

Great....that is very helpful to know. Thx

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

"Slightly hard" is the same as mine. It means between 5.6 and 8.4 dH, and 100 to 150 ppm

Ooh, what does "very bloody hard water that almost always has chalk in it" mean?

 

[Essjay]

It means no soft water fish at all, only hard water fish


I got so fed up with water company words that I made this thread so we know what they mean in numbers

Hardness - words vs numbers

We always say to look on your water provider's website for hardness, and to ignore any words, look for a number. These are UK water company definitions of hardness compared to what we consider to be hard, soft and middling in fish keeping. Always look for numbers :) dH ppm Water company...

www.fishforums.net

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

It means no soft water fish at all, only hard water fish


I got so fed up with water company words that I made this thread so we know what they mean in numbers

Hardness - words vs numbers

We always say to look on your water provider's website for hardness, and to ignore any words, look for a number. These are UK water company definitions of hardness compared to what we consider to be hard, soft and middling in fish keeping. Always look for numbers :) dH ppm Water company...

www.fishforums.net

Ah, fantastic. This is great help!

 

[Dalesman]

Northumbria Water have a list showing the various parameters for their water:

https://www.nwl.co.uk/globalassets/sharepoint-documents/think-digital-documents---all-documents/N207.pdf

Nothing for the Calcium content, Nitrates seem low.

Again my area in Gateshead is listed as "Slightly Hard"

 

[Essjay]

That link is the water quality report which unfortunately does not include hardness. Northumbrian Water don't give a number for hardness, just misleading words. Where calcium does appear in the water quality report, that is not the same as hardness (GH).*

"Slightly hard" is the band 100 to 150 ppm or 5.6 to 8.4 dH. Fish keepers call this soft.




* My son used to work for a water testing company and he explained that hardness is the measure of divalent metal ions. In practice this is mainly calcium with some magnesium and trace amounts of others. But they can't give hardness as "x ppm calcium plus y ppm magnesium plus z ppm another metal ion etc " so they treat it as though it was all calcium, or calcium carbonate, or even all calcium oxide. This is why we can't use the amount of calcium from a water quality report as calcium is only part of what makes up GH. And it is why, when water companies do give a number, we also need to know the unit of measurement.