# Hard water?



## Pandapop (Dec 29, 2009)

So my boyfriend wants to set up his 10gal tank with a few barbs of mine, but the water is too hard for any fish to survive. 

He's had a tiger barb and two bala sharks (barb and sharks not put together), both of which passed away. Tiger barb after two days, bala's after one. 

I'm really confused as I've never had to deal with this before, the water at my place is great for my FW fish. :/

I took the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FW master kit (drops, not test strips), and tested each area with water from the tap. All were fine if not excellent, except for a very high pH level. 

Now I know there are ways to INCREASE pH with things like pH buffers and such, but how do I DECREASE the pH level? I'd hate to have to resort to a water purifier that has to have its cartriges changed every month or two due to excessive use with the aquarium. It would cost a bundle. 

Is there any other way?

Or rather, would any of these items really lower the hardness of the water?

Aquarium Pharmaceuticals ph Down
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Proper pH
Jungle Correct pH Tank Buddies


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

The Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FW master kit isn't a kit id recommend as it has been known to give wrong readings, i've known it to give a high ammonia amount reading but when the water is tested at the LFS no ammonia is detected and the kits they use are good quality. Get the water tested at the LFS instead.

You don't really want to use chemicals to lower/higher the PH or hardness of the water as they usually cause more trouble than they are worth, if it turns out the water is like this then bottled water could be used.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

I would recommend you get your test kit verified like nat said. It is possible you have a very high pH. If so you can buy R/O or distilled water at the grocery store. Mix it with your tap water to get a lower pH. DO NOT use only the filtered water though. R/O or distilled water is pretty cheap and should have a slightly acidic to neutral pH.

You will also only dechlorinate the tap water, not the filtered water. 

There are other ways to do it. I would recommend things like water or peat moss (throw some in your filter) over any chemical changes.


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## pinetree (Nov 29, 2009)

I have extremely hard water (25 grains hardness) and very high pH (8.4). There are some fish that do just fine in it. I keep goldfish now and used to keep Africans. The problem is, those fish need much, much larger tanks than a 10 gallon.

I really don't think those pH lowering chemicals are a good solution. As other's have suggested, you could mix in some bottled water or RO water with your tap to lower the pH and hardness to make it more to the liking of the fish you want to keep.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

pH down won't work. The pH goes down (its just hydrochloric acid) then bounces back up because of high hardness. pH "regulators" like proper pH will lower the pH and the hardness temporarily, but it WILL CLOUD YOUR TANK. You can deal with that with "micron filtration", but its a pain. Dilutions with filtered water or rain-water is an option, you can buy it reasonably cheap at wal-mart or capture rainwater in a barrel.

IMO, the best thing to do, since this is a new tank, is get fish that like high pH and hardness. Tanganyikan shell dwellers come to mind. Or livebearers, like mollies or guppies. It may be just a matter of acclimating any fish properly to the hard water. 

Get the water tested to make sure there isn't anything else fatal in it (some water is now full of ammonia instead of chlorine) and use a good water conditioner (one that "detoxifies heavy metals, chloramine, and nitrite)


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## NatBarry (Feb 19, 2008)

Im having the same problem with one of my tanks as the PH was showing as 8.5 as I have kept malawi cichlids ever since I started that tank up but have now decided I want a change. Don't want to use chemicals to lower it and so am going to try and see if the fish I add will adjust to it, only option really if you don't want to mess the tank up.


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## bmlbytes (Aug 1, 2009)

Or you could take my suggestion and mix pure water in with your tap, or use peat moss in your filter.


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## Pandapop (Dec 29, 2009)

Thank you everyone, I'll try some of the suggestions you've all listed. 

Since things are going so well with my boyfriend, in the future I may end up moving in with him -- I'm just afraid the hard water will be deadly to my fish. Currently I have many livebearers (platies mostly, some swords, four guppies and a molly), some panda and pygmy cories, and of course those barbs I mentioned earlier. I don't want to end up losing any of them... nearly all of my fish were ordered online, as the local fish stores do not have much variety in stock, ever. 

From what emc7 has said, livebearers should do okay with the hard water? As long as they're acclimated properly? Then what about my cories? For my bettas, I can easily get store-bought water for them as they don't require nearly as much as the 20/29 gallons I have.

And can anyone suggest a better test kit? From experience?


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

Trying to change hard water and high pH through the use of buffers is more challenging then trying to move an elephant. It can be done with softer water, but a high hardness value almost sets your water in stone. It has a high buffer capacity, any a strong resistance to change. BML already suggested the only real option which is to buy RO water which will have about zero hardness and mix it with your tank to get a moderate hardness level.


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## Pandapop (Dec 29, 2009)

I'll try putting that suggestion to the test this weekend, hopefully -- because even IF the de-buffers were to work, I'd still be spending a LOT of money on them to keep the water at a decent level of hardness.


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## mousey (Jan 18, 2005)

my water is super hard and high ph. I keep plants and mopani wood in the tanks- i think that may have an effect on lowering hardness and ph.
I keep neon tetras, ottos, black skirt tetras, Rainbow fish,plecs,loaches, and the live bearers.
All ok for the past 6 years in the hard water.


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