Hi, There a house where the GH in the water thats coming out of the tap is really high, over 21D . I wanted to ask what effect can it creat on the fish? and do you know of ways to solve it? is there some kind of tap filter that can be used to make the water better for the fish?
Very high tap GH
- Thread starter Savethemall
- Start date
Hello; First thing might be to make sure as much as possible that the water test results are accurate. A sometimes suggested way to do this is to be sure the test vials are clean. I have read that after a good cleaning of the vials that a good rinsing with either distilled water (DW) or deionized water (DI) can remove contaminants. A recent post has me thinking the DW rinse should be several times and I will now add another suggestion. That is to fill the vials with DW or DI and let them sit for some hours.
The idea is the DW/DI water is pretty much pure so will take up anything that dissolves in water readily. ( Got this notion from
duanes
). So a rinse and a soak should clean the vials.
However recently a member posted he had to get some new vials in order to have good readings as the cleaning did not help.
If the readings prove to still indicate high GH then you will be reduced to either keeping fish that tolerate such hardness or maybe getting an RO unit to make the source water.
The idea is the DW/DI water is pretty much pure so will take up anything that dissolves in water readily. ( Got this notion from
duanes
). So a rinse and a soak should clean the vials. However recently a member posted he had to get some new vials in order to have good readings as the cleaning did not help.
If the readings prove to still indicate high GH then you will be reduced to either keeping fish that tolerate such hardness or maybe getting an RO unit to make the source water.
The hardness of your tap suggests to me that your best solution would be to choose species that prefer your type hard water, and avoid the others, and not trying to mess with tap water chemistry.
Species that love hard water would come from the Rift Lakes of Africa, or areas in Central America, there are perhaps thousands of them that live in hard water .
These include cichlids of lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, Natron, Victoria, Nicaragua, and certain tetras, catfish and live bearers also from those lakes.
Many of the Mexican riverine and Cenote species are hard water loving.
Species to avoid would be Amazonian , west African, and Asian soft water species
These include the soft and black water cichlids, tetras, and/or certain anabantids, rasboras and other swamp fish from Asia.
You could blend rain water in with your tap to dilute the hardness, but this can be seasonally inconsistent, so choosing the right fish for the water you have, is to me most reasonable course of action.
I had and have water very similar to yours, GH 250ppm, pH hovering near 8 and high in other minerals, and kept and breed hundreds of cichlids, and other species in that water. I just needed to choose wisely.
Species that love hard water would come from the Rift Lakes of Africa, or areas in Central America, there are perhaps thousands of them that live in hard water .
These include cichlids of lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, Natron, Victoria, Nicaragua, and certain tetras, catfish and live bearers also from those lakes.
Many of the Mexican riverine and Cenote species are hard water loving.
Species to avoid would be Amazonian , west African, and Asian soft water species
These include the soft and black water cichlids, tetras, and/or certain anabantids, rasboras and other swamp fish from Asia.
You could blend rain water in with your tap to dilute the hardness, but this can be seasonally inconsistent, so choosing the right fish for the water you have, is to me most reasonable course of action.
I had and have water very similar to yours, GH 250ppm, pH hovering near 8 and high in other minerals, and kept and breed hundreds of cichlids, and other species in that water. I just needed to choose wisely.
Hello; You do not say where your location is and this site has folks from around the world. There are bound to be some places where the source water is very poor or at least questionable.
I think duanes had a good suggestion in that keeping fish compatible with the water. If you water is too poor to keep even hard water fish then as far as I know the other solutions are a bit costly.
You could buy distilled water which around me is just under a dollar a gallon usually. You can get a still and make distilled water. I have one that makes a gallon at a time but it costs to run as it just boils the water with electricity. I do not run one but it is my understanding an RO unit (reverse osmosis) will take out the minerals. If a fish shop is close enough that makes RO water you might be able to get a bunch of containers and but from them. (I did this for a short time but the cost in fuel was too much).
I do not know what the upper limit of hardness tolerance may be for hard water tolerant fish off hand. My guess is there are fish that can deal with your water if that is the only issue.
Good luck with what you decide to do.
Just a number to gnaw on, the GH (general hardness of Lake Tanganyika , 49.
Thats sound too high to me, are you sure about that? maybe this is the hardness in certain depth but not in the entire lake.. ideal hardness for rift lake ciclid is 14-21 so i think that the natural envirments will be something around that. another thing is that idk what is the chemical composition that generates that high GH in the tap ... so it can be bad anyway
Don't take my word....
Below is a quip from an article written by Paul Loiselle in the latest Buntbarsche Bulliten.
"I add to this treated tap water, a quantity of commercial African cichlid salt sufficient to raise the pH and hardness levels to those recommended for Lake Tanganyika cichlids,
the result is water with a general hardness of 49°DH, a carbonate hardness of 7°DH and a TDS value of 2400 μSiemens/cm2."
Below is a quip from an article written by Paul Loiselle in the latest Buntbarsche Bulliten.
"I add to this treated tap water, a quantity of commercial African cichlid salt sufficient to raise the pH and hardness levels to those recommended for Lake Tanganyika cichlids,
the result is water with a general hardness of 49°DH, a carbonate hardness of 7°DH and a TDS value of 2400 μSiemens/cm2."
