# My Water



## Lawrence Ferguson (13 May 2013)

Hi All,

I've been running a tank for 3 weeks now. I'm new to all this so probably dived in a bit to quick. I did the tank the way I like it and things are growing. Tank is fishless and will remain so for time being (I'm going on holiday end of june to july so don't want to add anything till I'm back)

Anyway, in getting lost in making my tank look all nice and choosing a sand I liked (not realising about KH etc.) I hadn't put too much thought into water hardness.

My water is Anglian Water and is described as very hard, with my GH being 16 degrees and the KH being between 10 and 15 degrees. I've tested the tap water and my partners temperate tank and they both give the same GH and KH reading however the PH level in the tap water is about 7.2 and in both our tanks it is 7.8, so I would assume that the rocks or the substrate is boosting this.

So my question

...I'm erading some conflicing stuff, using softeners, RO's etc. and others. which I don't want to do. I also don't wnat to change my sand etc.

And I've seen posts with one guy saying not to bother with tests, just keep it clean and well maintained and fish will be fine (which I like!)

What advise to I go with?

p.s I did want Tetra's (Blood Thin at the moment I like)


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## t.doyle (13 May 2013)

Assuming you want to make the water a bit 'softer'. The cheapest (free) way to soften water is to collect rainwater from a water butt. It is safe to use as long as the roof that rain has run off of isn't lead.. Check your guttering for anything nasty too just in case. If you solely use rainwater and nothing else, you'll find your GH and KH values to be pretty much absolute zero, in which case you will need to 're mineralise' it slightly with a KH buffer and GH buffer. By keeping the KH slightly above zero with a KH buffer you drastically decrease the chance of massive pH swings...

Alternatively, you could mix your tap water in with rainwater to 'dilute' your tap water down. Another alternative is to use RO water bought from your LFS in the same manner as I described rainwater.

Hope this helps!


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## Andy Thurston (13 May 2013)

Higher ph in tank maybe the result of  the co2 'gassing off' my tap water is ph7.5 and in tank its a stable ph 7.8. 
leave a cup of tapwater out to stand and check ph after 24 hours.
 If hardness is a problem dilute tap with 25-50% ro water. If ph keeps climbing 24 hours after waterchange, then have a closer look at hardscape and substrate


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## BigTom (13 May 2013)

Using RO or rain water is one solution here,as t.doyle mentioned.

The easiest option though is to stock hard water fish. There are plenty of really nice choices, although generally not tetras. I posted some suggestions in this thread - Water softeners and aquariums..? | Page 2 | UK Aquatic Plant Society


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## Lawrence Ferguson (13 May 2013)

Thanks for such fast replies...I'm going to take a look at some hard water fish I think. I did like the idea of guppies but I'm told they don't school and pretty much rape the females constantly?!

What I was after was 6-8 fish that will school and maybe a bottom dweller or two. nothing more nothing less (well maybe less)

 just as long as I know I can pop a fish in withouth sending them to their death!


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## Andy Thurston (13 May 2013)

This may be some help too

FWHardness


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## sparkyweasel (13 May 2013)

Lawrence Ferguson said:


> Thanks for such fast replies...I'm going to take a look at some hard water fish I think. I did like the idea of guppies but I'm told they don't school and pretty much rape the females constantly?!


 
You could keep just males. 
Otherwise you need the females to outnumber the males so their attention is spread out.


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## ceg4048 (14 May 2013)

Why don't you just listen to the guy who advises to not to bother with tests, just keep it clean and well maintained and fish will be fine? That sounds like pretty good advice to me. I keep soft water fish in hard water all the time and never have a problem. It's ridiculous to limit your fish choice to hard water fishes just because your water is hard. I agree that keeping the tank clean is 10X more important than keeping it soft.

Cheers,


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## jimwalsh (14 May 2013)

I second what Ceg has said. 

I didn't realise that many of my fish were supposed soft water fish 

I just use local tap water which is very very hard 

my fish are fine with weekly 50% water changes


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