Dealing with Hardness

[LogJam]

Hello All:

I'm about to get my first aquarium. I have heard that the water here is quite hard. I have not tested it, but have heard from neighbors - without aquariums - that the water is hard.

What problems can I expect with hard water? What can I do to condition the water appropriate before I add fish to the tank? When I do have fish, what can I do to keep hardness levels comfortable to the fish?

Thanks for your help!

Kind Regards,
LogJam

 

[carpguy]

It depends on how hard and what type of hardness (GH or KH).

If you think the water is very hard I'd tend to choose hardwater fish, or at least avoid very softwater fish.

Most fish are happy across broad swaths of middle and will do fine in most water. When you get out to the extremes, I think it should be a consideration.

If you want to soften extremely hard water there are a number of things you can do. The ready made solutions in a jar are generally not the way you'd want to go. They don't really do what you want them to and they can lead to instability. Some folks advocate driftwood, peat conditioning or filtration will work, Reverse Osmosis works (a bit pricey and wastes a lot of water). Its not that easy to soften water (at least when compared to making it harder).

Get GH, KH, and pH test kits and find out about your tapwater. Google around a bit and see if your local water supply has information about your water (many of them do). Once you have some particulars it'll be a lot easier to say something meaningful.

 

[Mako]

100% on what Carpguy said.

If you're water is pretty hard (10 DH or harder) you can focus on the following fish. They like hard water.

Nearly any livebearer (molly, guppy, swords, platy)
african cichlids (rift lake cichlids especially)
Many central American cichlids (like convicts, Texas cichlids)

brackish water (add some Instant Ocean salt mix, 1/4 of the full-seawater recommendation for happy fish)
scats
monos
knight gobies (a favorite!)
various freshwater puffers (neat little demons)

 

[pjfish]

It's better to be consistent than perfect. I have very hard water and at first I tried to soften it with stuff from the lfs. It was next to impossible to make it much softer and I couldn't get it to stay consistent. I'm not sure why. It wasn't worth the effort to keep trying.

 

[RTR]

Get tests and find out what the water's GH and KH are. Talking about dealing with hardness without know what is being dealt with is meaningless.