Hard water fish?

[purrfect]

Hi,

I don't have any fish yet. It seems to be quite time consuming to study all the fish profiles. There is some things I can't change. Or at least I hope that I do not need to change.

I have 30 gallon tall tank. Heater works at 76 F or 82 F. Very hard water. PH tends to go up, too. I'm gonna take all the rocks out from there, because they rose the pH over 8. At least it needs different kind of rocks than what I find here. Well, I can choose the interior decoration once I know what kind of fish to get. I'm not too fussy, and not ambitious with big or room requiring species. Zebra Danios were fine until I found out that they prefer slightly cooler water.

Does anyboy have similar conditions or know otherwise to recommend something?

 

[Menagerie]

http://www.mongabay.com/fish/lake_tanganyika_cichlids.htm

These are some fun fish!!

 

[Sonia]

Most livebearers would do good in hard alkaline water; the POECILIIDAE family has lots of cuties:

http://fish.mongabay.com/poeciliidae.htm

 

[TankGirl]

I think a colony of N. brichardi would be in heaven in your water, and would almost definitely spawn, so definitely check out the Lake Tang link above.

Any African rift lake cichlid will love your water, but that size tank means you need to be cautious - it is too small for many of them to be kept together. Shelldwelling species are the exception as they remain very small.

Also consider livebearers if you are not interested in cichlids, and then you won't have to worry about aggression and whatnot, but you will have to worry about excess fry!

 

[lonestar]

I also have a 30 gallon and very hard water. The hardness of the water tends to keep the pH up. In hindsight, I'm thinking more and more that I should have done cichlids because it would have been easier than softening the water.

One thing I might recommend, as it worked for me, is a "water softening pillow" which to my knowledge is peat in a bag. I recharged it daily for a week in a solution of tap water and Dr. Wellfish aquarium salt as per the directions, and the kH of my water has decreased by almost half, thus allowing the pH to go from over 8.0 to around 7.2.

One thing with softer water is the pH will fluctuate and needs to be monitored closely.

Driftwood will also help lower pH, but make sure you soak the tannins out of it before putting it in the tank.

And finally, any kind of limestone will raise the pH of the water, such as "Texas holey rocks." I have 16 lbs of "Utah lace rock" in mine and the pH didn't change after adding it, and my worthless clown pleco loves it.

HTH

 

[michealprater]

Any African Cichlids in general would do really well in your tank. www.bluegrasscichlids.com has lots of pictures in their inventory.

 

[TomK2]

Chances are your Danios are captive bred, and are fully adapted to the alkaline and hard water. Same would be true of most Angelfish. I would bet that your LFS gets the angelfish from a local breeder, who has gotten the angels over time to breed in your local conditions. Ask them. As for the temperature, I think most tropicals would be OK with 76 to 82 degrees. I keep my danios at 78.

 

[purrfect]

Thank you for your good suggestions. Now I'm all jumping between chiclids and platties. Angelfish are so pretty, too...

 

[TankGirl]

I have kept and spawned angels in pH 7.6 water, so that's a good point about captive bred fish, TomK2

 

[SerLunchbox]

I have kept and spawned angels in pH 7.6 water

Same here. That is what they are breeding in for me.

Very hard water. PH tends to go up, too.

About that part of your post, If you have hard water (gh and kh are above 4) then your pH shouldn't have any drastic changes (given what is in the tanks as substrate and rocks). My question is what is your tap water pH?

 

[JenNewbie]

Hey, I'm managing to keep discus in water w/ a pH of 8.4! From what I've read and been told here, consistent water conditions are more important than trying to create ideal water conditions and not succeeding or worse having fluctuating conditions. If you decide for something that is considered a soft water species, you can't slack off at all in your maintenance, but it can be done. They'll never produce viable eggs in your water, but they can live fine if you're willing to put in the effort. That said, I don't know if I would do discus again...

 

[purrfect]

About that part of your post, If you have hard water (gh and kh are above 4) then your pH shouldn't have any drastic changes (given what is in the tanks as substrate and rocks). My question is what is your tap water pH?

I do not have hardness kit, but I read somewhere that county water is tested to have 15-25 grains, which they tell means very hard.

PH right out of faucet is 7.4, but it goes to 7.8 pretty fast when standing. County gets the water from several wells in the area. The aquarium pH was over eight in about a week and half with heavy rocks inside. I think the rocks might have done it during several days. I'll see it soon, because I took the rocks away and changed the water yesterday. (I've been a busy body here).

 

[Menagerie]

pH right out of faucet is 7.4, but it goes to 7.8 pretty fast when standing.

To get true pH, allow a glass of water to sit overnight. That will allow the gases to equilibrate.