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Where are my hard water people at??


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On 10/3/2021 at 5:01 AM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Any type of cave fish should be able to be kept in hard water because caves are dissolved from limestone.  All the solutes washing out forming the cave results in pretty hard water in cave systems.  In terms of what you can find, well, it will take some looking. 

If you are after tetras, I've seen both the eyed and blind versions of Mexican cave tetras (Astyanax mexicanus) available before.  If correct, I've even seen the blind forms labeled as coming from specific caves.  Specifically, I have a record of one claiming they were from Cueva Chica Cave in Mexico - but I have no way of knowing if that is correct because there are many caves with forms in differing states of vision loss.  But it's a tetra that should take pretty hard water in any of the forms, and I believe can be captive bred. 

Very interesting, thank you

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On 10/2/2021 at 10:41 PM, StockEwe49 said:

I've had great success with hornwort but I've heard they will just "randomly" lose their needles at times, hoping that won't happen to me anytime soon 😆

Generally, the "random" loss isn't random: hornwort is a calcium hog.

Wondershell is great for shrimp, inverts *and* hornwort!

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On 10/3/2021 at 10:40 AM, Torrey said:

Generally, the "random" loss isn't random: hornwort is a calcium hog.

Wondershell is great for shrimp, inverts *and* hornwort!

@TorreySo does this mean you shouldn't keep hornwort with shrimp? Or should you not keep hornwort with shrimp if you have low calcium in your water? I think it makes sense its doing well then in my water since mine is very hard. Thanks for your insight! 😆

 

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I live in a town that has literally nothing worth talking about but hard water loldownload.jpg.8bab69745e7e82f81f1c11c20b02823e.jpg

The whole place is built on top of a big artesian aquifer, and the people here will NEVER let you forget it. Their high school mascot is a well, which I still find completely bizarre. All the school sports teams are called The Artesians as well. But yeah, my water is very hard. Comes out of the tap maxing out every test I've ever seen on the Ph, Gh, and Kh. TDS? idunno, like maybe a billion. I still use buffers, just in case, mostly because I have it. Not much point though

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On 10/3/2021 at 1:32 PM, Indlers said:

I live in a town that has literally nothing worth talking about but hard water loldownload.jpg.8bab69745e7e82f81f1c11c20b02823e.jpg

The whole place is built on top of a big artesian aquifer, and the people here will NEVER let you forget it. Their high school mascot is a well, which I still find completely bizarre. All the school sports teams are called The Artesians as well. But yeah, my water is very hard. Comes out of the tap maxing out every test I've ever seen on the Ph, Gh, and Kh. TDS? idunno, like maybe a billion. I still use buffers, just in case, mostly because I have it. Not much point though

Hence the endlers! I haven’t been able to pinpoint my gh either I got to 25 drops and gave up

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On 10/3/2021 at 3:32 PM, Indlers said:

I live in a town that has literally nothing worth talking about but hard water lol

I lived in Bloomington for a time.  Limestone water there too.  I recall a distinct mineral taste to the water out of my tap.  I never spent much time in Martinsville, but I did like Bloomington pretty well.  I do like how every town in that part of the world lays claim to something.  They each have their own history.  Weren't you guys the goldfish capitol or something a long time ago?  I remember an old professor making a comment to that effect, though I could be remembering it incorrectly.  But I never knew about the mineral water.  Interesting!  

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On 10/3/2021 at 8:34 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

I lived in Bloomington for a time.  Limestone water there too.  I recall a distinct mineral taste to the water out of my tap.  I never spent much time in Martinsville, but I did like Bloomington pretty well.  I do like how every town in that part of the world lays claim to something.  They each have their own history.  Weren't you guys the goldfish capitol or something a long time ago?  I remember an old professor making a comment to that effect, though I could be remembering it incorrectly.  But I never knew about the mineral water.  Interesting!  

AYY, Apparently you're right! I didn't know that, but now the big gold fish mural in town makes a lot more sense. I've only lived here a few years, so thanks for tipping me off on that. Very cool to know. Their one other claim to fame that I'm aware of is the guy who wrote Jingle Bell Rock is from here. lol
Ozark Fisheries is a 4th generation family owned and operated ornamental goldfish and koi farm founded in 1926. Our Martinsville, Indiana location was established in 1899 as Grassyfork Fisheries and is the oldest, continuously operated private fish farm in the United States. Grassyfork Fisheries earned Martinsville the moniker of “Goldfish Capital of the World.” It now serves as a goldfish and koi production and shipping facility for 6 varieties of goldfish and 2 varieties of koi.
https://www.visitmorgancountyin.com/listing/ozark-fisheries/195/

 

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On 10/3/2021 at 2:10 PM, StockEwe49 said:

So does this mean you shouldn't keep hornwort with shrimp? Or should you not keep hornwort with shrimp if you have low calcium in your water?

I kept hornwort with my shrimp to prevent the hardness of the water messing up the molt.

Sadly, I had a stroke earlier this year, and I was unable to do the necessary water changes as needed. After 2 months, the hornwort won.....

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On 10/2/2021 at 7:15 PM, OnlyGenusCaps said:

Best things:

  • African cichlids are beautiful!
  • Limestone rocks come in all sorts of amazing types and shapes.
  • Be the most successful breeder in your local club.  Keep livebearers.
  • What is this erosion of snail shells you speak of?
  • There are some super quirky fish you can keep that love hard water (cave fish anyone?)
  • Slight drip from your PVC overflow?  No worries, that'll seal right up on its own!
  • Don't have worry about fancy, expensive substrate.  Nothing else could possibly dissolve in your water!
  • Tanks cycle faster at high pH.
  • Lastly, you get to tell people you keep fish in liquid rock!

I always wondered why my tank cycles so fast.  My first fishless cycle  took two weeks while everyone else was saying it would take a month.  When I move filters into new tanks, the new tank is stable relatively quickly.  Yay hard water!

 

 

Edited by sairving
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I am partly jealous of you hard water people that get to keep all the cool hard water fish. I have soft water and I know that I technically could just add crushed coral to my tanks but that would be such a hassle. I don't even know how much I would have to add my tap water doesn't even read on my test kit and I have to add 2 small bags of coral in a 20 gallon to get even the slightest reading. of hardness. Well glad you guys get to keep all of the cool African cichlids.  

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On 10/3/2021 at 3:39 PM, Endler enthusiast said:

Hence the endlers! I haven’t been able to pinpoint my gh either I got to 25 drops and gave up

Buy a well water testing kit. That will let you pinpoint your gh more accurately. You can find test kits at most of the big box home improvement stores. We usually test with the strips first and if anything odd shows up, a water sample would be sent to a lab. Luckily nothing out of the ordinary has come up yet. 

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On 10/4/2021 at 8:24 AM, Dwayne Brown said:

I am partly jealous of you hard water people that get to keep all the cool hard water fish. I have soft water and I know that I technically could just add crushed coral to my tanks but that would be such a hassle. I don't even know how much I would have to add my tap water doesn't even read on my test kit and I have to add 2 small bags of coral in a 20 gallon to get even the slightest reading. of hardness. Well glad you guys get to keep all of the cool African cichlids.  

@Dwayne Brown pH from coral, and from Wondershell, becomes pretty stable at 7.0 to 7.5.

If you are interested, you can literally use crushed coral as the substrate in your tanks, and just don't do more than a 10% to 20% water change at a time. 

Your hard water fish will just think it rained, lol.

When I lived in NC on the OBX, that was the only time I have had soft water, due to desalination treatment apparently? Our pH was 7.0, and it only took a little peat moss to be able to breed discus and successfully hatch eggs.

 

LOTS OF WATER TESTING THOUGH

My African cichlid tank was more stable. I used a crushed coral substrate, and lots of well washed/boiled shells to get the hardness correct, and raise the pH to where they were happy.

That tank never deviated more than 0.4 pH. The discus I was constantly having to adjust and fine tune, because no buffering....

I'm wondering if the infrastructure was ever replaced? By the time I left, water was starting to get an orange tint as the pipes were eroding. 🤔

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I also have super hard and high pH water... I've just kind of accepted that there are some fish/plant species that I can't keep (just not willing to do all the hoop-jumping it would require). I have really good luck with valisneria and most crypts, and the fish I buy at my LFS are locally bred and acclimated to our water. I've also bought fish online from sellers who have similar water parameters to mine.

But I still HATE calcium deposits. My zen acceptance doesn't extend that far! 😂

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  • I haven't read all the replies, but I have four species of tetra (serpae, lemon, black neon, and pristella), three species of Corydoras (trilineatus, panda, and pygmaeus), pearl gouramis, and Lake Kutubu rainbowfish, along with invertebrates thriving in my 8.2 pH hard water.  I've never made any attempts to adjust the parameters.
  • If you're having problems with stem plants it might be due to lighting instead of the water.  Water wisteria, in particular, does well for me.
  • I also have good luck with guppy grass, hornwort, crypts, swords, anubias, and pearl weed.
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On 10/5/2021 at 10:04 AM, JettsPapa said:
  • I haven't read all the replies, but I have four species of tetra (serpae, lemon, black neon, and pristella), three species of Corydoras (trilineatus, panda, and pygmaeus), pearl gouramis, and Lake Kutubu rainbowfish, along with invertebrates thriving in my 8.2 pH hard water.  I've never made any attempts to adjust the parameters.
  • If you're having problems with stem plants it might be due to lighting instead of the water.  Water wisteria, in particular, does well for me.
  • I also have good luck with guppy grass, hornwort, crypts, swords, anubias, and pearl weed.

My water is not has hard as that, but it is still up there, and my experience so far is very similar. I have Lemon Tetras and Black Neon Tetras, and both are doing great in my tank.  The Lemons even got the nice yellow coloring. Both tetras have gotten pretty large and are always active, so they do not seem to be upset by my hard water at all.

I have read that Red Eyed Tetras have no issues with hard water either, they are a pretty tough species with a wide range in the wild, so they are very adaptable.

Other fish are Varitus Platys, Peal Gourami and the newest additions, some Plaetus Corys that look like they have adjusted with no issues.

As fort he plants I have had great luck with Cypts, after the initial planting and melting, they grow a ton.  Anubias has been hit or miss, for some reason I can't keep A. Bateri "Gold Coin" alive, yet the standard one is thriving.  A. Nana and A. Nangi also have done great. Bucephalandra do very well, as do my Tiger Lotus and Dwarf Water Lily.  Frogtbit grows so vigorously I need to remove the new plants.  Java Ferm does okay too, but I suspect that is because of the phosphorous in my tap water.

Then for the stem plants.  Water Wisteria, Anacharis and Moneywort have worked for me, as has the one Ludwigia Repens I own, though it decided it wanted to be orange instead of red.  Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus' does grow for me, but not at the rates it seems to for other people I have seen online.

Water Sprite has been iffy for me.  I had a bunch of plants when the tank started up, but they just withered away, except for one plant that is by my HoB that has spread out, but is not a super fast grower.  It is pretty healthy at least.

Since the Moneywort did well, I am going to be trying some Bacopa Caroliniana next.

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On 10/5/2021 at 12:17 PM, Averus said:

. . . Water Sprite has been iffy for me.  I had a bunch of plants when the tank started up, but they just withered away, except for one plant that is by my HoB that has spread out, but is not a super fast grower.  It is pretty healthy at least.

Since the Moneywort did well, I am going to be trying some Bacopa Caroliniana next.

My water sprite initially didn't do well either.  I had bought some, separated it into several plants, and planted them in several tanks.  While I wasn't looking a piece broke off one of them, floated to the top, and turned into 3-4 thriving plants.  If yours is planted in the substrate, and isn't doing well, I'd suggest floating it instead.

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On 10/5/2021 at 2:32 PM, JettsPapa said:

My water sprite initially didn't do well either.  I had bought some, separated it into several plants, and planted them in several tanks.  While I wasn't looking a piece broke off one of them, floated to the top, and turned into 3-4 thriving plants.  If yours is planted in the substrate, and isn't doing well, I'd suggest floating it instead.

I actually tried that as well, I put one of them in my quarantine tank to add some greenery to help the new arrivals feel a little secure.  That one just petered out too, and that tank has a much more direct light on it too. 😔

At least the bushy one by my HoB does seem to be doing fine, it just isn't the rapid grower I expected it to be.  I went on to replace the Water Sprite that didn't do well with the Water Wisteria, and that plant seems to be doing so well I need to propagate it about a month after I got the original batch!

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