Tds And Gh

[Themuleous]

Hi all,

I dont tend to venture this far up TFF (my loss I guess! ) but Im in a bit of a quandry, I test all my tanks each and every week, and the last week or so my main tank has gone from 6 GH to 9/10. The reasons for this I'm not really worried about (the tanks been going over two years and I did wmiss last weeks water change). pH is 7 and TDS is 252 both tested today.

What I am really interested in is whats more importance to fish health? pH or GH/TDS?

I know the clown loaches perfer soft water with low pH but 7 is well within tolerance, but the GH has gotten quite high now and wondering if I should get it down a bit? Or is it more important to keep the pH low and GH doesnt really affect them? This goes for any fish, but the loaches are my main concern.

I know about the preference for stable water conditions and to limit fluctuations, just wondered if one was more important than the other, pH/GH wise?

Sorry if this is a common thread, I would have searched for it but pH, GK and TDS are below the 4 letter limit of the search function! Just so you know full tank stats are:

GH - 9 (but 'normally' 6ish)
KH - 4
pH - 7 (this never fluctuates more than -/+ 0.2)
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 40ish
PO4 - 2
Size - 90lt
Fish - see my profile

Thanks people, if you guys and girls are anything like the poeple in the planted forum Im sure someone will be able to help

Sam

 

[andywg]

I never worry too much about the pH figure. Far more important once the tank is setup and the fish are in it is the pH stability. The same with the hardness.

So long as you aren't keeping super sensitive fish you should be fine. I would say you are in the areas to keep most of the general fish available and a large number of rarer ones. The Hardness only really becomes an issue with fish that tend towards brackish water, or if you want to breed the fish.

I would be a little worried that the clowns will outgrow the 90 litre tank (attain an eventual size of about 12-15") though it is believed that in the wild they take up to 20 years to get to full size, so it is not as bad as having a large growing catfish, for example.

 

[Themuleous]

I never worry too much about the pH figure. Far more important once the tank is setup and the fish are in it is the pH stability. The same with the hardness.

So long as you aren't keeping super sensitive fish you should be fine. I would say you are in the areas to keep most of the general fish available and a large number of rarer ones. The Hardness only really becomes an issue with fish that tend towards brackish water, or if you want to breed the fish.

I would be a little worried that the clowns will outgrow the 90 litre tank (attain an eventual size of about 12-15") though it is believed that in the wild they take up to 20 years to get to full size, so it is not as bad as having a large growing catfish, for example.

Thanks for the reply yeh I am well aware of the size of clowns, but they are very young at the moment and I will be getting a 4/5' tank in the next year or so for this very reason so its all in hand, but thanx for the concern all the same

 

[annka5]

Completely agree; the stability is what is really important for the vast majority of species. TDS is total dissolved solids, which isn't much used by aquarists (fresh water anyhow) and can indicate nitrates and other pollutants, so if that sky-rockets thats a bit indicative of a problem.