I have a High pH and Hardness in the tap water and have been looking at how I could reduce this by a degree i.e pH down to 7.5 which should benift plants and fish, although apparently farmed fish are used to this level because they are either grown in it or are in it the shop.

I found this product on the net.
http://shop.ionicsystems.com/htdocs/a ... _line_De_ionisers_59.html

Now if I have it right the mineral content determins the pH and Hardness so If it removes 99.99% of minerals then I should have a neutral pH but what about hardness??
Am I correct in thinking there are minerals in water that benifit fish and therefore these would be removed?
IS there anything that could be added to provide these minerals?

I have considered RO water from the LFS but at 50p a gallon it would work out more expensive than the unit. In a year.
I also have a friend that may be getting a large tank so could halve the cost again.

Any IDeas??

Cheers
JAmes

im not hot on water, but it doesnt sound like its gonna be of too much benifit, what is it about the water hardness that is causing you a problem, most fish adjust, and some plants are more tolerent that others, unless you have soft water loving fish such as discus, things like rocks cause hand water and wood soft water, so maybe you can adjust your tanks contents, also the gravel, i have high coral content in my snail gravel, rocks and no wood, and live in a hard water area, in the fish tank i have two pieces of wood, to help soften it a little, other than that I can really help. di

I just have generally hard water and a High pH and thought that if an economical and safe way to reduce this a bit it would be benificial to the fish and secondary to the plants

How high is your ph As fishyfeet mention by adding drift wood to you tank display that can soften the water and so bring the hardness down

pH is 8.5

AT the moment just exploring options. I have read about RO water somewhere but cant find the bit on it now
All the shops I go in tell me that the water levels are usuall for this area and fish will adjust but if I can make it more suitable for them then I will do if it its economical to do so i.e not buying RO water from an LFS

I have the opposite problem to you as my water is soft and the ph straight out of the tap is only 6.5 also I have 2 large pieces of driftwood in my Rena but it looks too nice to take out and replace with something else, so I use coral gravel in the filter to bring the ph up, Pity we couldn't just swop some water eh would solve both our problems.

so what gravel have you got, have u any rocks, and any wood in the tank, these all adjust the water hardness, di

Im generally talking about my tap water which is hard and pH 8.5

I have some plain aquarium gravel (5mm pea shingle to me but it was what the LFS suggested)
a lump of bogwood that the LFS let me have out of a tank so it was all prepared, and a few live and plastic plants.

I have tried uploading some pics to the site but it wont let me but thats another problem.

so your tank water will be softer that that, with the gravel and wood, have u tested it?? Not sure about the photos, contact admin, see if its something u r doing, di

Something for you to read:
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk ... rticle.php?article_id=101