My 55.

[Kuli_Loach]

It has been running for a day now and I put some extra feeder guppies in it to try and cycle it quicker. I figure still on two weeks before the big fish get in but my ammonia is between safe and ideal. Everything else is ideal except my water softness. PH I think. Says my water is hard, what can lower this?

[sergo]

lowering hardness can get to be a pain. you'll have to use r/o and/or d/i water which can get expensive depending on the w/c amount. it's best to just try to match fish to the water you have. also, plan on more than 2 weeks to cycle your tank with fish in it. probably 6+ to finish.

[zackish]

Also try a water softner pillow.

[dev]

If you want to lower the actual hardness, you will need to mix your tap water with demineralized or destilled water. You can demineralize water yourself using a reverse osmosis unit.

If you only need to reduce the pH, there are a number of products on the market that will do this for you. I prefer to use an extract from oak bark. You can also filter throgh peat, but this tends to tan your water slightly - not a problem, just a matter of taste.

If you want to reduce the both the pH, the carbonate hardness (KH) and add CO2 at the same time, you can consider the Zac Carbo Plus CO2 unit. However, this will not affect your total hardness (GH) much.

Also, it may easily take 40 days to complete the nitrogen cycle. Possibly more if you need extra water changes to reduce the ammonia or nitrite levels.

[sergo]

Also try a water softner pillow.they work really good one time and the the next time you use it, it doesn't do as much and you can forget about it by the third time.

[Kuli_Loach]

Hmmm, this is gonna take a while eh? I have used stress coat and stress zyme in it as well and it is due for it again next Tuesday. My feeder guppies act better than they did in a cycled tank so what is up with that? Just the larger swimming area?

[RobbieG]

It has been running for a day now and I put some extra feeder guppies in it to try and cycle it quicker. I figure still on two weeks before the big fish get in but my ammonia is between safe and ideal. Everything else is ideal except my water softness. PH I think. Says my water is hard, what can lower this?


How hard/what test.

It may be nothing to worry about at all.

[Kuli_Loach]

All my tanks are but my fish seem fine, guess it is nothing to worry about.

[RobbieG]

Pretty much all water is going to either be "hard" or "soft" - it can be just a little or a lot. Most of the time its nothing to worry about.