fish for hard water

[magpie]

I'm picking up the new tank today - 3' x 2'6" x 18"... no cabinet yet because that's being made by brother in law, so plenty of time to still be making changes.

I had planned a true Amano nature aquarium - I was yearning after chocolate gouramis, and brigittes, and all kinds of nice, small, community fish

but they all like nice, soft, low KH/DH water and the stuff that comes out of the tap here has a pH of 7.6,and hardness off the various scales (I'll check it properly later. Also has a nitrate of 30ppm!)

so I started to wonder last night if it might not be better to run a hard water tank instead - given how little rain we have here. I wondered about endlers (do they shoal) and *peaceful* small cichlids... but know virtually nothing about them, except that some of the small shell-dwellers seem rather nice - and I read somewhere in my mad panic last night that some of the smaller, more peaceful cichlids shoal...

so I need to do some heavy research, but before i start - wondered if anyone here had any experience of a hard water planted tank with interesting and fun community fish - must be small (and I'm not at all keen on mollies or platys - sorry)

thanks

m

 

[peter1979]

Ive got 5 endler's in a 30 litre tank at the moment. They sometimes shoal, but generally do their own thing. I expect if there was a bigger group of them they would shoal more often. They really are charismatic little fish. Very bright and fun to watch. They are also extremely small! I would recommend them for any tank. I have pretty hard water too, and a bit on the alkaline side, also around 30ppm nitrates from the tap. Endler's are very hardy fish. I had a couple of Scarlett badis as well, but they didnt tolerate the hard water so well and croaked after a few weeks. Shame, as they are such colourful fish too.

 

[Ben M]

hi, i have quite hard water, which is about pH 7.8 from the tap, but in my tank it is about 7, probably because of the huge piece of bogwood i have. i have corys, kuhli loaches, copper harlequins, SAE's, kribs, and have had cherry barbs, and lots of different tetras, all of which have done fine.

 

[magpie]

Really? Yay! Did you source them from hardwater areas where they're all tank bred?

and

do you have lots of nice, thriving plants?

thank you hugely - made my day...

 

[samc]

although tetras prefer soft water for breeding, i have never struggled with any tetra. i have neons from about 4-5 years ago.

plants are also not bothered about water hardness ether

 

[Ben M]

hi, i'm not sure if they were tank bred or not, as i got them from my local lfs. some were from the soft water section in the shop, but i just acclimatised them really slowly, and had no problems.

my tank is planted, and all the plants are doing well, see my journal. i haven't updated it for a while, and it is looking better now.

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=10543

cheers

 

[magpie]

Thanks both - I'll plant the tank, let it grow for a while and start worrying about pH when it's settled. Haven't got it yet,so this is all planning...