Soft water with high alkalinity?!

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goldenchld24

AC Members
Mar 7, 2006
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Henderson, CO
Okay I have water issues, I have well water and when testing it the PH is 8.0-8.4, the total alkalinity/buffering is 300 or more but the total hardness is 0-25!

I've tested it numerous times and I don't get it, ph lowering agents barely do anything.

I have dwarf gouramis and a betta that seem great, however bamboo shrimp didnt last 2 days.


Are my fish okay in this water??? :help:
 
Dont use pH lowering agents. They cause fluctuations which are harmful to fish. If you really want to lower pH try peat in your filter.
 
goldenchld24 said:
Okay I have water issues, I have well water and when testing it the PH is 8.0-8.4, the total alkalinity/buffering is 300 or more but the total hardness is 0-25!
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Are you using test strips? It would help if you used a test tube kit instead as it would give more accurate numbers. That's a pretty wide range you've quoted there.

I've tested it numerous times and I don't get it, ph lowering agents barely do anything.
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As was previously said, don't use chemicals to try to lower the pH. 8-8.4 isn't *that* bad, but I'd to see better numbers on your GH (General Hardness) and KH (Carbonate Hardness).

I have dwarf gouramis and a betta that seem great, however bamboo shrimp didnt last 2 days.
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What happened to the shrimp? It's not uncommon for them to get eaten by fish. Some bettas will eat shrimp. Probably gouramis as well. Depends :)

Your fish should be fine in that water from what you've said thus far. My water is rather high in alkalinity, 7.4-7.8 and soft at 5 dGH and I've no problems with shrimp or snails or gouramis and bettas.

Roan
 
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waters with high total alkalinity are not always hard, since the carbonates which produce a high kH can be in the form of Sodium or Potassium carbonate which contribute nothing to the gH (total hardness).
 
No, its just naturally got a lot of sodium in it. I just read that it was rare to have soft water with a high alkaline content.

And Roan Art thanks you and everyone else are very helpful. I used the strips and the test tubes. My water turned green after one drop of the solution so its like 0-25 ppm. Have to check on the KH. I dont know what happened to my shrimp, I just found them dead and stuck against the filter, one was pretty big I don't know if my fish could have killed him.

But the fish seem happy, I bet Mollies would do great in my water.
 
I have a water softener in my home as well. The water in the tank has a GH of 1 but the KH is 24 with a PH of 7.8. My fish seem fine but I wonder if my plants would be doing a bit better with a lower PH.
 
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