Cardinal Tetras and hard water

gar1948

POSEIDON
May 8, 2008
19
0
0
77
Columbus, Ohio
:)
Just moved to Ohio and have very hard water. Tested GH 250-300. Will Cardinal tetras adjust to this? I know most of these fish are wild caught and come from soft water areas. What kind of softing pads can I use?
Thanks for any ideas.
 
Unless you are going to try and breed them don't mess with the Gh ,they will adjust . If you want to bring down the Gh then Ro units or peat bags will soften your water.
 
Whatever you do don't use a water softening pillow based on ion exchange resin. These remove the Ca++ and Mg++ (which will help a little because these can precipiate out in the internal organs of softwater fish, apparently), but actually raise the total dissolved solids.

Better off acclimating them over a period of three or four weeks to hardness of your (actually quite moderate; I've had 600+ before) new water.
 
I agree with the above posters that they will adjust and not to mess with the hardness. I keep neons in similar water. If you are planning on buying the fish locally they will have most likely been kept in similar conditions anyway.
 
Agree whole heatedly with elks. My water is even harder than yours. I add some RO water when I do water changes to bring down the TDS (1:1 tap and RO). I have a school of 11 Cardinals and they have been doing great for over a year now.
 
to expand on KarlTH's post, the harder the water, the more likely a decreased lifespan due to organ failure from calcium buildup. they will adapt in that they will live, show their full color and grow, but will not breed. to help you can can use RO water to soften your water (RO will have virtually no TDS, and no measurable hardness, pure RO water with just a little tap water and peat filtration is pretty close to ideal for true blackwater species), however, RO units are not cheap. running peat in your water will also help reduce hardness and will create a blackwater effect which replicates their natrual habitat which will reduce stress and help bring out their color. while it will help to reduce hardness, its not going to reduce it by much and if you don't like the blackwater look you'll have to run carbon.

The much harder part with adapting cardinals is getting them to eat after transit. use baby brine shrimp for a day or two to get them started. don't overfeed but its like candy to them and they can't resist and thne you can transition to other foods.
 
are you taking the fish with you or looking to pick them up from a local source? if you are getting them from a local source, you probably wont have too much to worry about, but you may want to ask the source what parameters they have them in. if you are taking them with you, then it is important to acclimate them slowly to the new water conditions (you should do this anyway).

but yeah, mucking with gh, pH can lead to more problems than it can solve. id leave the water alone and let the fish adapt
 
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