High Hardness (g & Kh) And Ph - Ok?

[mattdurkin]

Hi All,
I'm new to keeping tropical fish. I just set up a very small tank and did my first water measurement after a few days. I noticed that the GH, KH and pH values were all very high - GH 180ppm, KH 240ppm and pH about 8.5. I sort of expected this as this is similar to my pond (fish have been fine for a year - koi & orfes).
I went back to our aquatics centre and the chap there said that it could be lowered by adding reverse osmosis water, but that he wouldn't worry too much about it as all their fish are in the same local water, and are fine.
What do people think - am I ok running a setup with these high values?
I'm hoping to put some dwarf puffers in there - probably only 3, and I guess the ones I'd be getting are from the local aquatics shop with the same water...

What do people think? Maybe I should buy some reverse osmosis water and try and bring them down a bit?

Any advice appreciated,
Matt

 

[scouse_andy]

My water is hard too, can't remember the exact readings but probably about the same as yours.

My pH is also high at about 7.8. 8.5 does seem particularly high to me even for Southern England chalk water.

If you have done a pH reading from the tank it would be worth doing a reading direct from the tap to see if it is the same. If it is lower from the tap then there may be some rock or sand in your tank which is increasing the pH.

Most species, particularly if tank bred and already used to the local water at the LFS should be fine in your water. Just be careful to research the pH needs of your fish, for example Rams or Discus would not cope very well with that pH.

I have never gone the Reverse Osmosis route as it is quite expensive, if I was very keen to keep softwater species then I would do it otherwise there are plenty of species which will do fine in harder water.

Just remember that if you do decide to use RO water you need to keep using it at each water change otherwise the pH will fluctuate and that is more harmful to fish than a less than perfect pH - they need a fairly constant water chemistry.

Hope this helps, if you need help on which type of fish would be suitable then do a bit of research then post back some suggestions and people will tell you if they are suitable.