Water Chemistry (partic. GH andKH)

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M

Mordred

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Feb 27, 2004
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Full tank specs are in my sig.

Would appreciate some thoughts around water chemisytr, particularly GH and KH.

I've finally managed to pick up a test kit (the 4th LFS that I tried!).

Both figures seem to be on the high side (which was not a huge surprise given that the water company states that the water is hard).

What did surprise me though is that the pack insert listed different types of fish against it, and indicated that my figures are way too high for cardinal tetras.

I've had the cardinals in the tank for about 4 weeks now and they seem to be thriving. (as do all of the others that are in there).

Also, the plants seem to be growing really well, and I am no longer having real problems with algae.

All of the water parameters seem to be stable.

So...should I be concerned, or is the stability the important bit?
 
J

JSchmidt

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Jun 27, 1999
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It's not uncommon for soft-, acidic-water fish to do OK in higher pH, hard water. I keep angels, neon tetras, cardinal tetra and other similar fish in water with pH that ranges from 7.6 to 7.8 and that is quite hard. It's probably more important that the water parameters are stable than 'perfect.'

Your fish probably won't breed in less than ideal conditions, and longevity may be affected a bit, but they'll be much healthier than if you try to lower pH/hardness. (Increasing those parameters is pretty easy, but lowering them is more difficult.)

Good luck,
Jim
 
M

Mordred

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Thanks Jim.

I am very happy for them not to breed (would eventually push me to overstocked I guess).

Just want them to be happy and healthy. They look great at the moment.
 
S

snakeskinner

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I have about the same water as you and don't seem to have any problems due to the water chemistry per say. I had started to try and lower my PH and hardness but didn't have much luck and finally decided on what JSchmidt said about constant parameters vs "ideal" parameters. I rationalized that fish in the wild seldom live in the same conditions from one body of water to another but that the conditions are likely stable in the majority of locations. I would think that as long as you can keep things fairly consistent, you shouldn't see any problems. I have since discontinued my search for "optimum" water conditions and tried to just keep doing what I'm doing and have had pretty good luck. Kyle
 
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