Local Water Results

[festo]

Hi everyone,
i just made an enquiry to my local water authority
asking for details on water in my area,
results are
Hardness level Soft
PH 8.48
are these good?
i know i need api test kit but was curiouse as to what they said.
thanks.

 

[KittyKat]

Good is always relative and very much depends on what you want to keep.

In short, that result tells me that your mature aquarium pH will probably be much lower than your tap water pH because your water is soft.

 

[MikeO]

It depends what "good" is in relation to the type of fish that you keep I guess!

No mention of ammonia / ammonium levels in the results? Or any of the metal content?

They test something like 20 different levels, so suprising there is only 2 responses.

 

[KittyKat]

They test something like 20 different levels, so suprising there is only 2 responses.

That's a good point, when I got mine, I had 3 pages of various results.

 

[festo]

Good is always relative and very much depends on what you want to keep.

In short, that result tells me that your mature aquarium pH will probably be much lower than your tap water pH because your water is soft.

so if mature aquarium ph will be much lower will that be a problem of sorts?
i do have about 3 pages of results so what other ones would you like to know?

 

[KittyKat]

Unless you are planning to do large water changes on a regular basis, that won't be a problem. My tap pH is 8.0 and tank pH is 6.0, but I don't have any problems with ca. 20% water changes per week.

Other interesting ones are ammonia, nitrite, copper, phosphates, other heavy metals.. but even I don't know how to decipher them all.

 

[festo]

Unless you are planning to do large water changes on a regular basis, that won't be a problem. My tap pH is 8.0 and tank pH is 6.0, but I don't have any problems with ca. 20% water changes per week.

Other interesting ones are ammonia, nitrite, copper, phosphates, other heavy metals.. but even I don't know how to decipher them all.

So if my ph is 6-7 should i be looking at getting fish that are happy within this range?
or does it matter?

 

[KittyKat]

I think it matters, but some people disagree. If I was in your area, I would be thinking of getting SE Asian fish (barbs, rasboras, etc) which generally like neutral water or South American fish (tetras, cichlids) which usually like acidic water.

Basically I would only be excluding Rift Lake cichlids, but I would consider them too, if I buffered the water with coral sand.

 

[festo]

I think it matters, but some people disagree. If I was in your area, I would be thinking of getting SE Asian fish (barbs, rasboras, etc) which generally like neutral water or South American fish (tetras, cichlids) which usually like acidic water.

Basically I would only be excluding Rift Lake cichlids, but I would consider them too, if I buffered the water with coral sand.

Ok thats really helpful
thanks