bigjor58

I have a 55 gallon aquarium that I have had up and running in my new house for about 2 and a half years. I started out with dwarf gouramis (which all died of bloat for some reason, but that is another question for another thread), and then moved to jack dempsies, which did well, but I want a community tank. I really want to keep neons, cardinals, and other tetras, but my water is very hard here in KY. (roughly 150-200ppm) What are my options? All my other stats are very good for the aquarium (though the nitrites want to get a little too high for my liking from time to time, once again, thats for another thread). The pH stays 6.8-7.2, and the temp stays around 72-75. How can I soften my water without throwing down $400 plus for a fancy water softening system?
Please help!

TFA101

well, the captive bred tetras are really adaptable to tank conditions that aren't what the normal requirements are, and can adjust to waters slightly on the higher/lower range of their preferred water chemistry.

You could try adding some driftwood to help lower the pH, but let someone else elaborate on that, I'm not too sure.

If you want some hard water fish, I highly recommend the numerous Platy fish, guppies, mollies, and other livebearers, which would thrive in hard water (Mollies need a brackish environment though)

agabr123

driftwood would definitely lower your pH but IMO it's not really necessary, your neons should be able to adapt very well to that pH, most fish can adapt to a pretty wide range of pH.

welcome to fishlore!

CWO4GUNNER

Yes they can to a point. My city well water is 800 PPM hardness cal/mag, 200 PPM below safe human consumption and 300 PPM above safe levels for fish according to the EPA. Long story short if I don't mix my water to lower this amount they become noticeably stressed. My economical solution was to mix 40% softener water, 40% untreated water, and 20% R.O. water which has worked out to be the best solution for both my fish and salt tolerant plant filter. But your water harness is fine for hard water, I wish I had your problem.

aquarist48

pH notes: Check the pH level in the fish bag before adding the fish to your tank. (Do not add the water from the fish store to your tank. Quarantine is suggested as well if adding fish to an established tank) The pH level in your tank needs to be the same or HIGHER than the water in the bag from the fish store. You can move fish from a lower pH to a higher pH but you cannot (or should not) take fish from a higher pH to a lower pH. The fish will not survive. Food for thought Good luck

Jack Dempsey may devour smaller fish...

Fishies-for-me

I don't know the hardness for my tank ...but my ph is 8 and I have neons and glowlight tetras both...some I have had for 4-5 months and some I have had over a year now...all do fine and seem to not have a prob with the ph.

bigjor58

What about peat pillows to help with water hardness? Are they worth it?

aschaal03

The best way to bring down hardness in your water is to mix with R/O water. The nice thing about KH and GH is that they go down exponentially. Meaning, if your tap is 200ppm, and you substitute 25% of that with R/O water, your KH/GH will go down to 150ppm. I get R/O water from my LFS, they sell it in five gallon buckets for $.50 a gallon. It's the easiest way for me to keep my water hardness in check.

It is a little daunting to lug around 5 gallon buckets of water, though. So if you're not up for that, springing for an R/O system would be a possibility, but is expensive.

CWO4GUNNER

Concur, the 5 gallons of R.O. I use in my mix (.25 per gallon) really dose the trick in lowing my PH to reasonable levels from about 8 to 7.4. I also add R.O. for dehydrated water loss between water changes making sure I'm at my mark before a water change otherwise you just build up more minerals if you do a water change with a water mark drop.

cg49me

My city water has a pH of 8.4, and I've got a few neons. Just acclimate them nice and slow, and they should be able to adapt.