threeballl

Hi all,
I am a true newb and have been reading a lot of forums and details about different fish needs. My question is simple, water hardness, my home has a water softener in it. Is this the same as when reference is made to soft or hard water? If so is there any way to make the water hard if I decide to go with that type fish and are there test kits for that as well. Going today to buy the rest of my supplies and I have not included any fish or plants in my tank yet. I bought a used 30 gal that I have filled and have been running an Eheim Power filter with 2 carbon filters and 1 bio filter now for a couple of days. Any advice would be very appreciated.

Thx all

Meenu

Welcome to FL!
I also have a water softener, and even a reverse osmosis unit. I use RO (extremely soft) water in my tank, and a little hard water from the outside tap. In my 30 gallon tank, I have about 5 gallons of the outside water, rest is soft. It's been fine for my fish.

I think most fish will adapt pretty well to your water, especially if you do a mix of the water like I have. Once you choose your fish, I'd like to recommend you post them on our forum, and people here are happy to give you suggestions on compatibility, size, etc.

I notice that you don't know about the nitrogen cycle - this is key to keeping healthy, happy fish. You should read up on it before adding fish to your tank. Also, there are ways to cycle your tank without using fish.

threeballl

wow no I didn't know about that nitrogen cycle and thx for such a quick reply. Also I forgot to mention before that my water comes direct from a well and is less than an eighth of a mile from a large freshwater lake and is not city or normal tap water. At least I won't have to worry about chlorines. When I do start adding I was thinking of going with the schooling tetras and cherry barbs. I also want to add live plants since I am not real partial to plastic anything.

Meenu

I have plastic, but I understand that live plants are really great for your tank.
Tetras are not very hardy fish, and won't do well in a new tank. It's better if your tank is already well-established. Mine just completed its cycle, and I am going to wait at least a month before I add my neon tetras.
I had a tough time understanding the nitrogen cycle at first. But it is so impportant! If you have fish in an uncycled tank, you can visibly see their distress - mine had clamped fins and their gills were turning red from ammonia poisoning, and that was with very little ammonia in the tank. I used a product called Tetra safe start (the only product known to work, regardless of what the fish stores say as they are trying to sell you other products) to jump-start my cycle. However, since you don't have fish yet, I would suggest if you have the patience, you should use one of the fishless-cycle methods. Four Methods of Fish Less Cycling

jdhef

Welcome to FishLore!

Even with well water, you should use a water conditioner when you add new water to your tank. The water conditioners along with removing chlorine also remove any heavy metals from the water.