Water Hardness.

[Jjsmith46]

Ok so i set up a 50 ltr barrel with air stone and heater,so i dont have to use water from hot tap as was very sooty,i have very hard water as when i took heater out its covered in white powder-i assume this points to hard water,my ph of 8 kinda told me its quite hard-im unable to give a gh kh reading as i cant understand how to get the result,i think its like 80 gh kh,could this hardness make fish flick,what could i do to soften the water,i run about 200g of pete in my filter but i take it out when using meds,it is nessary to remove pete when using meds!! what about wood!!,cheers

 

[plecostomus-mad]

im not too sure if water hardness would cause them to flick but water quality certainly will. even if your water stats ie:ammonia, nitrate etc come back good, the water can still be fouled.i would do a 30% water change 2 days in a row and see if it improves.if not, it could well be parasites.