# Ideal Water Patameters - is there such a thing?



## Twisted Melon (24 Mar 2018)

My original idea was to use an RO and tap water mix so I could keep things like Cardinals, but following advice on here regarding captive bread fish not minding hard water etc. etc. I’m thinking I may just use tap water. 

(My tap water figure from the water company is around 11 KH.)

With that in mind, is there an ideal KH for plants, or are they not bothered?

I won’t actually be measuring KH, as I plan to test TDS as it’s more accurate. How are people here who also just use tap water allowing for the fluctuations in KH from their supply? Mine can vary from 6-12 apparently. 

Cheers


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## Tim Harrison (24 Mar 2018)

Tap water will be fine. I've always lived in very hard water areas and haven't really had any problems growing plants, or keeping aquatic critters, even the supposedly soft water species.
I wouldn't worry unduly about water chemistry, what's far more important is CO2 implementation, and maintaining a clean tank and filter. 
Better to just concentrate on growing healthy plants, the rest will take care of itself.


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## Edvet (24 Mar 2018)

Wild caught fish from soft water areas will benefit from soft water, both in behaviour and breeding succes, there are some plants that will thrive soft water too, but those  are more rare. In general you can use tap (if not extreme) for most uses, sometime you will find something doesn't thrive, but if all else is doing fine just  try something else.


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## Twisted Melon (24 Mar 2018)

Probably a silly question, but I’m presuming the water I put into the tank needs to be roughly the same temp as the tank water?


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## Tim Harrison (24 Mar 2018)

That's always ideal, that is if you want to avoid stressing your critters through thermal shock. 
That said, a couple of degrees shouldn't make too much difference; healthy critters can be fairly tolerant of sudden changing temp within reason.
They sometimes experience diurnal changes in temp and water chemistry in nature.


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## Twisted Melon (24 Mar 2018)

Is there an ideal temp for plants?


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## Tim Harrison (24 Mar 2018)

It depends on the species really. But it's more important to consider the temp that tropical critters are comfortable at. 
Around 76 degrees F or 25 degrees C, give or take, works well for both.


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## Twisted Melon (24 Mar 2018)

Perfect. Thanks muchly.


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## Edvet (25 Mar 2018)

I  believe you can go a bit lower. 22 celcius. Also in nature big temperature swing are possible, so i am not that worried about that, I have a big tank, but every now and then i just throw the gardenhose in it and let it run a few hours, getting a lot of clean and cool water in it.


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