water hardness

[ab1443]

Hi guys I was wondering what the best way to raise general water hardness is?

[gingerbeer]

How far - if for african lake cichlids go coral sand substrate, or a handful of shells in the tank.

[kilroy]

To raise KH or carbonate hardness, try some bicarb (baking) soda or Seachem Tang buffer. To raise GH or general hardness add epsom salts and/or non iodised salt. Be careful with GH though, you don't want too much salt in your water. As previously stated, crushed coral/coral pieces can buffer your pH to around 8 and also lift your kH a bit.

[YeW]

alternatively you can buy commerically available "lake salt"... but as I vocally state in this thread I dont think they are really necessary.

[YeW]

ab1443 -

This post is a technical issue (so it belongs in the technical forum). I've moved it and left a pointer to from the general cichlid discussion (something I'm not supposed to do!) but in future it will be moved without notice . I'll probably get in trouble from the other admins, but as you are new to ACE I thought I'd take the chance .

Welcome aboard!

Cheers -

Dave.

[moonie]

hi guys. Just wondering i read some where that you can use washed shellgrit in place of crushed coral to raise the hardness, is this right or is it not a good idea

[kilroy]

hi guys. Just wondering i read some where that you can use washed shellgrit in place of crushed coral to raise the hardness, is this right or is it not a good idea

Yep it will work the same way, because it is made mostly of calcium.

[moonie]

cool thanks for confirming that for me, i was to scared to try it in case it killed my fish

cheers shana

[Display Tank]

I use the following:

Aquasonic Aquarium Salt, Aquasonic Carbonate Hardness Generator and Aquarium Pharmaceiticals KH test kit. Also using sand substrate.

I had alot of water problems several months ago resulting in significant losses in my tank. One of the larger and more helpful LFS in my area put me onto this combination and had no problems since.

[oakes]

alternatively you can buy commerically available "lake salt"... but as I vocally state in this thread I dont think they are really necessary.

Geez...that’s gotta be a classic thread!

But back to the question at hand, there a several ways i know of to make soft water hard, and most have been mentioned already in this thread:

1. Use crushed coral, marble or shell grit substrate (or filter media);

2. Add a commercially prepared water conditioner (suited to the species you keep); or

3. Just add calcium carbonate.

Personally i use option 2, even though i mainly keep American cichlids, because i only have rainwater available. This way i can raise the GH accurately to a pre-determined level.

Note: All of the above will also raise your KH and pH.

[brisil]

I'm no expert, I just changed the substrat over in 1 of my tanks to a shell grit substrate and it bought the kh and ph up in the tank, which is great cus i don't have to stuff around, adding this and that.Will be changeing other tanks over soon.