Hard water

Why is my water so hard? I measured it this morning and it showed between 150 and 300. Is this a problem? What should the numbers be? I have a 90 gallon tank with a Marineland 530, and HOB, a UV running, another home made bio filter. NO3 at 40, No2 zero, the ph is about 6.2, but the hardness is high. Do I need to do something?

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Comment by GSP on January 1, 2013 at 3:26pm: No, you don't need to do anything, unless you have something specific in mind that won't tolerate hard water- most things do just fine.

Should not let your NO3 go much beyond 40ppm though. Grow more plants to utilize nitrates.

Why is it hard? Well It's likely hard out of the tap. But certain stones and shells and substrates can affect hardness and ph.

Comment by Robert Jango on January 4, 2013 at 12:57pm: A low PH and high hardness can also mean you never change the water. But like GSP says its probably like that out of the tap. Hard water usually come from wells - municipal or otherwise. In its journey down toward the ground water, rainwater picks up minerals in the soil and becomes hard. Some fish and most plants love hard water. But certain South American Cichlid eggs will not be able to hatch in it.

Comment by GSP on January 4, 2013 at 2:22pm: he key is, and i think Rob will agree, these conditions aren`t an issue until they prevent you from achieving something specifically.

if you try to change these parametres, you will want to do so consistently and this presents further difficulties, potential dangers, not to mention time and money spent. Dont fix that which is not a problem.

Comment by Robert Jango on January 4, 2013 at 9:47pm: Questions about hardness and PH become issues if you're trying to breed fish like Discus en masse and looking to maximize your profit. In hard water the hatch rate won't be quite as high. That's it. And its worth mentioning here that Discus will be happy and even breed in water that is alkaline and moderately hard. Most plants, snails, shrimp and many fish LOVE hard water.

Embrace what you've got: mineral rich water.

Comment by Robert Jango on January 4, 2013 at 9:57pm: I forgot to mention. I have water that is moderately hard and love it. It is only for my Discus breeding tanks that I use rainwater which is 1 degree GH and about 5.5 PH. As long as you get enough rain and don't live near a coal firing plant (Dustin's neighborhood & the Montana-Wyoming border) rain provides a fresh supply of clean, soft water.

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