Can someone explain water hardness?

[badger126]

Exactly what is it and how does it affect our fish?
What is the ideal level of hardness?
I live in an area that has notoriously hard water (300?) and we get our water from a well so it's not all chlorinated etc..., would it be better for my fish (mostly cichlids) to use softened water from the tap?
Thx in advance.

 

[ewurm]

Water hardness is a measure of the amount of dissolved solids in the water. The appropriate water hardness for each fish varies. What kind of cichlids are you keeping?

 

[badger126]

Currently I have 2 convicts, a firemouth, and red zebra. Is there a general water hardness that will work for most fish? And is there ways to adjust the hardness besides just using hard or soft water from the faucet?

 

[jschall]

Currently I have 2 convicts, a firemouth, and red zebra. Is there a general water hardness that will work for most fish? And is there ways to adjust the hardness besides just using hard or soft water from the faucet?

Red zebra is a rift lake fish, specifically a malawi mbuna, and prefers a very basic pH (7.8-8.5) and extremely hard water. Should also be kept in groups of 5.

Convicts are south american and prefer softer water, firemouth should be fine with harder water.

Hardness can be increased by adding calcium carbonate (crushed coral)
Decreasing it is almost impossible. Have to mix in RO water or filter through peat (makes your water brown.)

 

[Pyramid_Party]

I wouldnt even bother messing with the hardness, you run the risk of killing all your fish. Most aquarium fish are able to adapt, just so long as its not in the extremes.

 

[Sab_Fan]

Convicts are south american and prefer softer water, firemouth should be fine with harder water.

both Convicts and Firemouths are Central American fish, and both do just fine with relatively hard water; they will also adapt to relatively soft water as both are hardy fish

I wouldn't keep either with African rift cichlids, but water hardness isn't a major problem in doing so; they could all live in hard water . . .

 

[spaulding]

since most commonly available fish are farm raised and not out of the wild i really wouldn't worry too much about your hardness. the majority of fish are rather adaptable when it comes to this. do a little research on differant fish you're wanting to keep, and you should be able to get a bit of an idea on their differant tolerations.