I have unfortunately got the same prob with my tap water. It comes out of the tap at about 7.4, but once stabilized it stays around 8.0 or more.
Currently my fish seem to be ok, but the smaller ones ( i keep a variety from barbs to oscars to tetra's and JD's...) seem to have a lot shorter life-span.
The larger fish who come from the soft waters of the amazon, have adapted to live in the alkaline water with seemingly no problems. Provided I can manage to keep the rest of the parameters prestine of course.
The problem I have run into however, is keeping live plants. A few months ago I added some anubis and they did fantastic, grew very quickly and lush. Then I did a major fish/water change and they went downhill from there. Yesterday I bought some more hairgrass and java moss to give the old college second try and as i checked my PH it was like 8.3-8.4. Ridiculously high! What to do about it? My friends who keep discus all say to use a buffer of some sort, but with the hardness of my water they are rendered useless. I put an extra piece of driftwood in to see if it'll soften up abit, but who knows, it seems as though my tap-water doesn't want me too keep plants successfully.
Is CO2 a possibility for me? Or do I need to soften it up first? I don't know if I am willing to go through the elaborate water change process that others have, and cash flow is a little low to b experimenting.
I am def. subscribing here, and if any of you have ideas, please throw em at me, I would like for my water to stable out a little closer to neutral, not to mention the hardness is off the charts.
Thanks and Good Luck!
Currently my fish seem to be ok, but the smaller ones ( i keep a variety from barbs to oscars to tetra's and JD's...) seem to have a lot shorter life-span.
The larger fish who come from the soft waters of the amazon, have adapted to live in the alkaline water with seemingly no problems. Provided I can manage to keep the rest of the parameters prestine of course.
The problem I have run into however, is keeping live plants. A few months ago I added some anubis and they did fantastic, grew very quickly and lush. Then I did a major fish/water change and they went downhill from there. Yesterday I bought some more hairgrass and java moss to give the old college second try and as i checked my PH it was like 8.3-8.4. Ridiculously high! What to do about it? My friends who keep discus all say to use a buffer of some sort, but with the hardness of my water they are rendered useless. I put an extra piece of driftwood in to see if it'll soften up abit, but who knows, it seems as though my tap-water doesn't want me too keep plants successfully.
Is CO2 a possibility for me? Or do I need to soften it up first? I don't know if I am willing to go through the elaborate water change process that others have, and cash flow is a little low to b experimenting.
I am def. subscribing here, and if any of you have ideas, please throw em at me, I would like for my water to stable out a little closer to neutral, not to mention the hardness is off the charts.
Thanks and Good Luck!
