Aquarists worry about water quality with alkaline tap water
11 posts in the last 60 days, all from r/Aquariums.
“Im a bit confused about nitrates. Its been cycling fore a month now and seems almost ready in regards to NH3 and NO2, but NO3 is quite high. I have tested my tap water and it does contain a high amount of NO3 . The tank has quite a few plants and floaters. Is this a big issue?…”
“hello!! so i was reading that limestone is often way too alkaline for aquarium use, however, limestone lines the entirety of my nearby creek! a creek which is home to various species of fish (western mosquitofish, green sunfish + various other sunfish species, and some sort of…”
“I’ve been having an ongoing issue with my tank. The ph is too high, but the tap water is fine. I thought I’d found the issue because I put some of the substrate in a jar, filled it with tap water, let it sit, and sure enough ph was too high the next day. I just last night took…”
Multiple users express concern regarding the impact of their local, alkaline water source on aquarium health. One user notes they live in an area with alkaline water and is experiencing ammonia but no nitrite or nitrate, while another questions if RO/DI filtration is necessary due to water hardness.
SOURCES (11)
“working on setting up my first tank (planning to have neocardina shrimp, nerite snails and a couple guppies) my water has a naturally high KH/PH no matter what I do (50/50 distilled water split etc) so im planning around that! shrimp and nerite snails are…”
“If im reading this correctly, the total alkalinity and the pH in my tank is high. What can I and what should I do about this? I have no fish in the tank right now as I was waiting for it to cycle. I just set it up about 2 weeks ago. I plan on keeping tetras and gouramis submitted by /u/One_Hovercraft_1304 [link] [comments]”
“I'm relatively new to fish keeping, and I've got a 75 gallon community tank. It's currently got longfin tetras, bolivian rams, otocinclus, and we plan to get a few more different types of fish. Our tap water runs about 13KH and 18GH so ive been doing 5 gallon water changes as to not kill my fish from shock (RIP the oto's before i figured it out) as the tanks running at about 5KH and 8GH, but my PH is getting towards the upper limits of my fish list. when i googled into my options”
“Hi all, complete beginner here, I’ve just started cycling my 3g tank, plant-less, and shrimp-less. Yesterday I tested my tap water and the parameters were as follows: 7.6 pH 3ppm Ammonia 0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates I went to my LFS and bought some used filter media, installed it. Filled the tank, conditioned the tap water. Then started my filter. Now, 24hrs later, my parameters were as follows: 7.6 pH 7-8ppm Ammonia 0ppm Nitrites 0ppm Nitrates So I did a 50% water change to try and lower the amm”
“Im a bit confused about nitrates. Its been cycling fore a month now and seems almost ready in regards to NH3 and NO2, but NO3 is quite high. I have tested my tap water and it does contain a high amount of NO3 . The tank has quite a few plants and floaters. Is this a big issue? Is there anything I can do to lower it? submitted by /u/Jolly-Association971 [link] [comments]”
“hello!! so i was reading that limestone is often way too alkaline for aquarium use, however, limestone lines the entirety of my nearby creek! a creek which is home to various species of fish (western mosquitofish, green sunfish + various other sunfish species, and some sort of minnow/shiner i cant identify). SO, my question is, why do the fish at the creek thrive on the limestone sediment, while aquariums supposedly wont? is it simply that the native fish here are hardier/more used to alkaline/h”
“I’ve been having an ongoing issue with my tank. The ph is too high, but the tap water is fine. I thought I’d found the issue because I put some of the substrate in a jar, filled it with tap water, let it sit, and sure enough ph was too high the next day. I just last night took apart the tank and changed the substrate altogether. Check this morning, PH IS STILL HIGH. I’m at a complete loss now. The tank keeps reading over 8.0. The tap water consistently reads as 7.4-7.8. I’ve tested it fresh, I’v”
“Had 180l freshwater tank cycling for 8 weeks, put 6 white mountain minnows in about a week ago, levels have been fine until a few days ago. Ammonia 0. Nitrite 0 but nitrate is 80. We have 80 ppm in our water so what can I do? submitted by /u/harryshouse98 [link] [comments]”
“Hi all, I’ve been cycling 180l tank for a while, added fish a few days ago. Ammonia is 0 Nitrite is 0 But nitrate is 80 due to the water in our area. Do I need to do a water change and use RO water? submitted by /u/harryshouse98 [link] [comments]”
“Hi im new to this hobby. I need advice regarding cycling the tank. Currently in the tank I have some snails and plants. Today is the 6th day of using Seachem Stability. Ammonia: ~0.1 mg/L Nitrite: ~0.3 mg/L Nitrate: ~10 mg/L PH: 7.9 What do I do if the nitrate remains the same after a few days. Do I do a water change? Or keep dose bacteria until ammonia and nitrite falling to 0? I hope i can successfully cycle the tank so i can build bigger aquarium. submitted by /u/haaakimmm [link]”