How important is water hardness.
- Thread starter dmac
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
jcarlilesiu
Aquarium Advice Addict
from what i understand water hardness can be elevated or low based on many different things. PH/ GH/ & KH are all different types of measurements of different types of hardness or acidity. There are only 2 things that I know of that i will mention.
#1 A stable PH is better than an optimum one. I.E. if your municipality has harder water, then using chemicals to adjust it is more stressful on the fish than just letting them adapt to the condition of the water. There are some natural recourse to low and raise it, but unless it could be harmful to your fish I wouldn't worry about it.
#2 In a planted tank, you need some KH so that your water will buffer the PH so the CO2 injection doesn't drop it to dangerous levels. This can be explained further if you have, or are looking at getting into a planted tank.
What is your PH reading?
#1 A stable PH is better than an optimum one. I.E. if your municipality has harder water, then using chemicals to adjust it is more stressful on the fish than just letting them adapt to the condition of the water. There are some natural recourse to low and raise it, but unless it could be harmful to your fish I wouldn't worry about it.
#2 In a planted tank, you need some KH so that your water will buffer the PH so the CO2 injection doesn't drop it to dangerous levels. This can be explained further if you have, or are looking at getting into a planted tank.
What is your PH reading?
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
You need SOME hardness to keep pH stable. Pure water (distilled, R/o) don't have any buffer & the pH crash easily. Best to have at least a KH of 2-3 in all tanks.
TomK2
Aquarium Advice Addict
Low hardness tanks lack carbonate (KH), and can have a tendency fo pH swings. High KH water tends to have a high but stable pH, a condition that most fish in your area will have adapted to. Thus, I think it is easier to keep a tank with a higher KH than a lower KH.
Voodoo Chilli
Aquarium Advice FINatic
As long as the water isn't so soft that it has no buffering capacity (thus making the pH unstable), or you're dealing with wild-caught specimens that need conditions identical to that found in nature, it's not one of the more important things to consider.
Lonewolfblue
Aquarium Advice Addict
I completely agree with the above stated. Water hardness should be the least item to worry about. A stable environment is best for most all fish, as they can adapt very easily.
The only other thing is hardness does play a bit of a roll if you are breeding fish. Some just won't breed if the hardness is either too hard or too soft. But other than that, it's really unimportant. The key is Stability.
The only other thing is hardness does play a bit of a roll if you are breeding fish. Some just won't breed if the hardness is either too hard or too soft. But other than that, it's really unimportant. The key is Stability.
IceH2O
Aquarium Advice Freak
Some of you are confusing KH and GH. Hardness is GH not KH.
KH has nothing to do with how hard the water is. It has everything to do with pH buffering though so you are right that you need some, 3 is the lowest that is considered safe.
If water is soft its because it has a low GH. Its acidic because it has a low KH which in turn means a low pH.
GH- general hardness ( Ca/Mg )
KH- alkalinity
KH has nothing to do with how hard the water is. It has everything to do with pH buffering though so you are right that you need some, 3 is the lowest that is considered safe.
If water is soft its because it has a low GH. Its acidic because it has a low KH which in turn means a low pH.
GH- general hardness ( Ca/Mg )
KH- alkalinity
jsoong
Aquarium Advice Addict
IceH2O said:
Well, yes & no. KH is also call carbonate hardness, and it does have something to do with GH.
For most people, high GH is associated with a high KH. The Ca/Mg in the water must be associated with an anion, and for most it is CO3 or HCO3 (ie KH). It is possible to have high GH & low KH (eg having CaCl2 in the water) but that is uncommon.
All of this is academic, however. For the fishies, pH stability is key. For that, you need adaquate buffers. You have to have either adaquate KH, or an added buffer of your choice. The actual GH or KH number really is not that important.
Lonewolfblue
Aquarium Advice Addict
I completely agree. The key is stability, which means having an adaquate buffer. But as for the numbers, as long as you are above the minimum safe levels, the numbers don't mean alot except in cases I stated above like breeding difficult fish, etc. But for fish health, stability is most important. Fish will adapt just fine to it's environment if it's healthy and stable.jsoong said:
tropicfishman
Aquarium Advice Addict
I have a GH/KH test kit, but I've only used it like 3 times lol I never test for it honestly, I'm not recommending that to you since your water is obviously different from mine, but mine rarely changes
If your water hardness is on the high end I would not worry about it. My water has a KH of 16 degrees. Obviously my GH is higher but I don't test that. Most people here probably don't even have half that. I have kept bettas in that for many years. And I am currently keeping tetras and they are fine. They just may never breed.
If your water hardness is on the low end it might be something to worry about due to PH instability. But I've never had this problem so I can't recomend anything.
If your water hardness is on the low end it might be something to worry about due to PH instability. But I've never had this problem so I can't recomend anything.
