Very Soft Water with Platys?

[Livi Olson]

Hi, I’m new here. I currently have two Cory Cats, and I just got two Platys. However, I’m worried about my Platies.
My water is considered very soft, and I’ve heard that Platies like hard water. I don’t know what to do, since my 10 gallon tank that has the fish in it is already filled with my very soft water.
Could you help me with this?

NOTES: The tank was cycled before I added any fish. I do not know what my ph is at right now, I just ran out of test strips, but it was at around 8 yesterday. The only fish I’ve had before was one goldfish that I had for six years, so I don’t know much about tropical fish, other than internet research.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you take a glass full of tank water to the local pet shop, they should be able to test the general hardness (GH) for you. Otherwise you might be able to find the information on your water company's website.

Platies and other livebearers need water with a general hardness above 200ppm. If the water is too soft they can have more health problems.

If you do have very soft water you can increase the hardness by adding Rift Lake conditioner. This is a group of minerals designed to increase the hardness for African Rift Lake cichlids and can be used at a lower dose rate for other fish like livebearers. You should be able to buy Rift Lake conditioner from any pet shop or online. But find out how hard your aquarium water is first.

 

[Byron]

Agree, you must ascertain the GH (general or total hardness) and pH of your tap water. Check the website of your water authority, or call them. If you do take some tap water to a store, make sure you write down the numbers. Stores frequently say, "medium soft" or something that means nothing.

Second, if your water is soft, take the platies back. While you can use rift lake salts and similar to raise hardness, this will not help your cories much, so you are better knowing the parameters of the tap water and selecting fish suited to those. It makes water changes much easier, and less expensive.

Third, a 10g tank is small for fish, and platies are not the best choice anyway. A few more cories are needed, you need a group of five or six for cories. And then we can look at suitable small upper fish, once we know the water parameters.

 

[TekFish]

Don't worry also if you do have soft water. There are so many fish that come from softwater environments, including cories, most tetras, SA Dwarf Cichlids and others, so your soft water isn't going to restrict your choice much.