Help! Sundadanio axelrodi in hard water / high pH?

[Kevin Chiem Nguyen]

Hi everyone! I am a member that just joined the Planted Tank forums. I am not new to the hobby of fish and shrimp keeping but I just had a few questions on this particular type of fish and my water parameters.

I recently went to a LFS and purchased 4 Sundadanio axelrodi (did not do prior research just saw them and was inclined to buy them for some reason). I thought that they would be perfect for my shrimp setup. Unfortunately when I got home I looked up the conditions they preferred and saw that they "REQUIRE a low ph and low water hardness"? I live an area with relatively hard water and high pH from the tap water we have. Ph is around 7.4-7.6 and the gH and kH are 11 and 12 respectively...

So long question short, should I ask to return these 4 or should I just stick it out and see how they do? They seem to be very active and swimming around fine right now, I am just worried for their future in this tank with the relatively hard water and high ph tap. Please let me know and thank you in adavance!

These ones: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4050/4...65ed4ce386.jpg

 

[SnakeIce]

11 and 12 what? ppm, grains? My first reaction was that those readings are low, and to wonder how the ph is that high.

As for the potential issues, I know cardinal tetras are similar in that they need softer water. They lack the physiology to deal with excreting excess calcium and so in harder water their tissues become calcified over time which shortens their life span.

 

[Kevin Chiem Nguyen]

11 and 12 what? ppm, grains? My first reaction was that those readings are low, and to wonder how the ph is that high.

As for the potential issues, I know cardinal tetras are similar in that they need softer water. They lack the physiology to deal with excreting excess calcium and so in harder water their tissues become calcified over time which shortens their life span.

The dkh is 12 and GH is 214 ppm. I'm using the API test kit. So 11 drops for GH and around 12-13 drops for the KH

 

[SnakeIce]

Ah yeah at that rate they might do better if you can cut it down with Ro water by half they probably would do better.

 

[Kevin Chiem Nguyen]

Ah yeah at that rate they might do better if you can cut it down with Ro water by half they probably would do better.

To clarify do you mean when I do water changes to use half RO water and half Tap water? Will this help the situation at all? I do not have an RO unit so maybe I can get one of those 5 gallon water jugs they have at safe art/Walmart and just refill it at the store when necessary for top offs and half water changes? Thanks for the reply!

 

[SnakeIce]

Yeah, half and half. That would make your water about half as hard going into the tank. You want some of the original because even in the native waters there is some dissolved stuff even if it is low.

 

[Kevin Chiem Nguyen]

Yeah, half and half. That would make your water about half as hard going into the tank. You want some of the original because even in the native waters there is some dissolved stuff even if it is low.

Thanks again for the help! Not sure if you know much about invertebrates but do you know if using half RO and half tap (declorinatedobviously) will affect my red cherry shrimp in anyway? They're pretty hardy shrimp but I was just wondering if the pH and water hardness decrease would affect them negatively!

 

[SnakeIce]

You might start off with only a quarter ro, and build it up to 50%. If you change 50% of your tank and only a quarter of the new is ro you are only diluting the whole by an eighth. That should be small enough to not be to much issue.

Shrimp are known to breed better in harder water though.