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G'day mate. Hope you can answer me this one question. Do I need to leave the light on for my brine shrimp all day and night after I have moved them into a grow out tank? I have a heater in there with them.
Well, you know my hard water fish of choice, but some of your choices were rocking. The Odessa, Congo, Flag Fish ... really cool. Hope you're well Cory and that your shop is thriving despite the COVID-19.
Hey Cory I just want to give my personal thanks for helping me treat ich, the Ich-X treatment worked wonders in my tank. I had two baby rasboras who looked on the verge of death, and 10 infected adult rasboras, six infected panda corydoras, and an infected betta. None of them have any signs of ick and I'm only half done with the treatment.
Cory, you are so awesome! I LOVE all your educational videos and you make the hobby much more fun and way less stressful by sharing all your knowledge!! I am very impressed. I have had fish for 30 years and I just now am getting back into the hobby after 6 years. So excited to start buying my fish! Tank is ready now. Thank you for all you do!!! Fishes LOVE you from all over the planet !
I have liquid rock water pH 8. My best thriving fish are Honey Gourami, Pristella, Serpae, and Emperor tetras. My Praecox rainbows are hanging in there. I had no idea Congos do well in hard water. I would love to stock them in my 40 gallon breeder. Thanks, Cory!
I think he means they can tolerate hard water well compared to other fish. I have well water sitting near 8.5 and my fish have been just fine for well over a year now@@carolinesalpeck2567
Just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. I love learning new things and you never fail to bring the knowledge. You have an excellent way of explaining things.
While my Congo Tetras breed every morning at 200 ppm, They are not hard water fish. They come from the upper Congo. One study that I read on their habitat measured the TDS at 10ppm! The upper Congo has super soft water. Most people think of African waters as being very hard because of the rift lakes. These lakes have formed in a very deep rift valley. Since there is little outflow the dissolved solids keep building up. New water is added through rivers and runoff but most of it leaves through evaporation. Over the millennia the water in the African rift lakes has become insanely hard. The Congo is different. It is rainwater flowing to the sea over substrate that leaches very little. It is similar to the Amazon. Tanganyika does outflow into the Lukuga, which is a tributary of the Congo. The Lukuga has hard water but I cannot find any reference of Congo tetras living there. Once the Lukuga merges with the condo the hardness is diluted. Cheers, Chris
I have Congos with a Bristlenose, and with 7°pH and 10°gH (6°kH) all of them are seemingly doing well. I actually mix my tap water with a 50+% osmosis one, because I have very calcareous water which isn't even good for many hard water fish (i.e.: I had platys, and have to give them back because they were suffering!), which actually generally want a more balanced presence of minerals, but it might have worked fine for Rift Valley Cichlids. Just, I was worried about having to manage their aggression levels, so I decided to go for softer water. Just check your mineral contents, because even if we talk about "hard water" fish, there can be differences: the same mineral content which works for Poecilids / livebearers might not work for Malawi or Tanganika Cichlids, and vice versa.
I am on my first aquarium, a 10 gallon. My tap water is TOO HARD and in the red listed as 300 mg/L on a dipstick test. I was able to successfully use a ZERO WATER filter pitcher to do a 50% water change and voila! The water testing now shows OK between 75 and 150 mg/L. I'm so happy and looking forward to adding livestock soon! Fancy guppies and cherry shrimp.
Nice to see a video for hard water. In my corner of Arizona, our water is ridiculously hard. Great for my guppies but I struggle with bettas. I really like that Dwarf Neon Rainbow.
Don't know about your experience but coming from the aquascape side, a limestone heavy scape will keep the KH high constantly and you will definitely get hard water. Definitely easier to achieve hard water than softwater because the only effective way is the RO route.
Fun video. I think the American Flag fish is a super underrated fish in the hobby. They devour hair and BB algae and are fascinating to watch because they’re always pecking away in search of a morsel to eat. Keep up the great work!
8:33: do more research, he says. Good advice. If you do more research, you'll find out that the Congo Tetra's natural habitat, the Congo Basin, is soft and acidic, not hard and alkaline.
Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not a pet fish owner yet, but a natural habit is different than an aquarium raised fish and has different water parameters and sometimes light source.
I will like to add that i have had Congos in water near 8.5 for well over a year and they are doing just fine! So I think he means they are well tolerant of that type of water.
It's so funny. People want what they can't have. We have hard tap water, so in our aquarium community livebearers are frowned upon and considered not a cool fish at all. Something for kids to keep. Instead aquariumists here go crazy for soft water species like discus, Amazon species and so on. They build Ro set ups, buy distilled water, remineralise it and keep a lab at home to recreate that water. 😂😂😂
Good advice,even if you live in a "hard" water area,the local stockists will have "soft" water fish and in my experience these fish will look like they are doing fine in hard water but their lifespan is dramatically shortened to say a year or two instead of five.Obviously they will be extremely stressed but being fish,it's difficult to observe this,although I must admit the water around here is hard but not extremely hard.✌👍
Since you mentioned Golden Wonder Killifish, y'all should search on TH-cam "Golden Wonder Killifish jumping out of the water to catch crickets" to see some amazing natural feeding behavior. I NEVER would have thought they could jump that high! Very beautiful and cool fish suggestion.
The golden killis are great but quite a few of the African killis do surprisingly well, clown killis won’t tolerate very hard water but are happy to be over 7 can even breed. But the one I’d like to highlight is the firemouth killifish or epiplatys degati. Extremely hardy fish can really keep it in any water, bred them at at ph 6 and 8. And they’re cheap and males in breeding form are gorgeous
my tap in so cal is super hard... ph is almost 9 too, 8.5-8.8... is this ideal if i wanted to start a shell dweller breeding project? i feel like the ph is a little high...
I keep GW killis to keep my guppy fry population in check. (I know some people think that's horrible, but...) They can get dicey and attack each other. I was growing our 4 fry- one inch fish in a 10 gallon- when 2 males turned on a female and tore her apart. Another one avoided the lid and got into the HOB filter impeller! How the heck that happened, I have no idea! Keep the videos coming, you are awesome!
I keep a lot of Red Wag Platies & Guppies. Some of my aquariums have a GH (degrees of hardness 20-30). It seems that they breed more in even harder water than that. Amazing fish. Good video. 📺👍😎
One of my favorite things is to make lists and cross reference you videos😂 Kinda nerdy I know but I don’t care!! Just looked at your ideas for a 55 gallon, cold water fish, and hard water which I definitely have here in Arkansas. According to your test strips that I ordered from you guys anyway. My tank already has 3 albino corys, 14 swordtails that were rehomed to me from my friend, and 2 mystery snails. Thanks to your handy videos, overtime I want to add guppies, sunset platys, and maybe Odessa barbs if I can find those. My other tank is a 36 and it has tons of plants that I ordered from y’all as well and they are doing awesome. I feel all fancy and worldly ordering plants from Washington state for my aquarium 😂😂
Eeyyyy, my man. Thanks for doing this for people like me who were super anxious about it when I first came back to the hobby in my new home with super hard water!
I'm setting up a 32g fluval flex and have hard water with about 7.8ph. I REALLY want about 20 green kubotai rasboras. Do you think they will show that amazing green color in my water. I once had glowlight danios that came in absolutely gorgeous but lost all their colors in 1 day of being in my hard water, and I don't want that to happen with the kubotais. Your thoughts?
Some of your recommended tank mate are not compatible due to temperature requirements. Rainbow fish for example are a cooler temperate fish wile the congos want it nice and warm
That's what I used to have - it was like a direct tap from Lake Malawi. My Mbuna loved it. Now I have hard but neutral water and debating what to do. I'm a fan of choosing fish that will thrive in what you have and not needing to change it too much.
I’ve always read that Congo tetras do fine in neutral ph but prefer softer water, I defiantly wouldn’t say they do well in hard water all… might have gotten mixed up there Cory!
Hey Cory, would I be safe to use some limestone rocks for decoration with some of these hard water loving fish… assuming I cleaned and prepped the rocks so not to introduce any harmful to the tank? I have some really neat looking limestone rocks on my property, but I’ve read they will increase the ph too much. We also already have very hard tap water here in Missouri, possibly from all of the limestone we’re on top of. Thanks !!
What about dwarf gouramis? Do they also work fine in hard water??? I have hard water and want to keep dwarf gouramis. My guppies, Danios ans tetras are already doing well. But I'm not sure about dwarf gouramis whether they will do well in hard water or not!!
Living in Southern California with ph almost at 8 out the tap. Good thing most species have adapted to all levels of ph. I have kept and bred angelfish at this ph. Too bad I need ro water for discus. Wish I had your water
@@justinerdman21 ive had good success with a common pond lily, i dont think it was anything special but my only caveat for using a pond lily in aquarium is that it will get HUGE and pulling it out will be a nightmare. otherwise if you dont plan to move any time soon its a great option for cheap
others have said vallisinera, and i agree there. along with that ive had great success with water wisteria, hygrophila, guppy grass, dwarf sagg, and bacopa
I can agree with val... my v. Contorta TAKES OVER tanks when added(assuming adequate light) also have had a lot of success with water sprite. Just looking for more options.
Hello, i have a question. Have you tried using seiryu stones with betta fish? Is it safe in the long run? It makes water hard and ph high which is bad for betta.
I'll ship you my well water from Maine hahhahahahaha Every single plant I've got from you has more than thrived (with the exception of a gold coin anubias that had rot, I tried saving it, no luck :( I will order more)! I have stocked 4 fish tanks in my house (75,40,10,5.5 gal tanks) with all the growth I get!
A lot of Australian fish are tolerant of hard water, such as Empire Gudgeons, Crimson-spot Rainbows and Pacific Blue-eyes (Delicate and Honey Blue-eyes are soft water specialists however).
I am on a well and I have hard water I am currently keeping swordtails, serpa tetra, angel fish, Cory cats, plecos, rainbow sharks, black moor, and my sons fair gold fish. No problems with any of these.
I'm coming off of a 15 year cichlid tank and would like to get guppies mollies etc. I dont think I have hard water but my substrate is dolomite, would that be enough?
I practically have rocks coming out of my faucet, to the point that it's just.. Horrific. But I live in the Cement Capitol of the world, so feels like it fits, heh. Still trying to work around it, just set up my first tank in 25 years, wanting to get into fish and shrimp and crabs and... you get the idea XD
I have really hard water I mean it's all the way hard which my platies and gubbies seem to love but I'm thinking I'm over oxygenated my fish is that possible I need to find out nonetheless ones in the planted tank are doing great but I had a platy small one die this morning they were fine last night???
When you go to sell them do you need to acclimate them to softer water first or would you just sell them. I have well water and I wouldn’t want to sell something that wouldn’t make it in the softer city water.
Hi, I'm Max from India..I have 7 guppies and 12 pink zebra tetra in a 100-gallon low-tech planted tank and I'm using groundwater its TDS is 2000 .however fishes look fine...i also add fertilizer of the 2hr Aquarist on MWF 3 ML . however im thinking to add more fishes which fish you will recommend for this tank?
I don't know if you'll see this because this post is over a year old but here goes nothing. I bought your test strips, I know I have hard water that comes out of my tap... On the test strip for the hardness the color is lavender, there's not a lavender color slot for it on the back of the bottle. I'm assuming since it goes from Blue, soft all the way up to purple, hard....that if it's lavender that means it's off the scale with hardness? Also my pH is on the lower side around 6.8. It's a fresh water 29 gallon live planted sand bottom aquarium. I haven't even put fish in it yet. Help.... What fish can live in hard water AND lower ph? Or do I need to fix something, I don't want to have to chase pH...
Hey cory I am having problems keeping jungle val and propagating Them. Got any suggestions? I was thinking of keeping brazilian pennywort with it, just dont know whats wrong
@Awuarium Co-Op Cory, what plants work well in hard water? Because in my hard water tanks, the plants don’t do as well in the Chicago water, my tap gh and kh are very high, I transport Chicago water for 3 of my tanks.
@@AquariumCoop all the species I have. After choosing carefully plants and fish that naturally like water I have, my aquarium looks beautiful with very little effort.
I have a planted nano tank loaded with breeding shrimps. So I figured I can put micro fishes since shrimps will only breed if the water quality is good. So I bought 2 dozen chili rasboras cause figured they wont eat the baby shrimps. They all died within 12 hours. I just found out that they kept those fish below ph7.
My tap water is neutral (7.0) and hard. I've done well with Giant Danios, Black Skirt Tetras, Black Neon Tetras, Serpae Tetras, Ancistrus and a Bolivian Ram. Bettas, Gouramis, Neon Tetras and Beacon Tetras haven't done as well for me.
I have the opposite problem of you ,I have very hard tap water .... so my livebearers thrive , still my rasboras , bettas , flame tetras and barbs do well but I know my water parameters for them are not the best as the water is probably too hard for them
I've only ever read that congo tetra's like a PH level between 6.0-7.0 Never heard of them liking hard water. They originate from the Congo River in Africa, river fish like softer water.
@@regular_guy1647 Probably outsourcing them then. If they're breeding them at the farm; proper fertilization requires softer water, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're softening it
@@esoteric5187 ok, the time I spawned them in 16dgh water last winter is probably the only time it's ever happened. Not all rivers are soft water either, and the fact the congo has a pool in it very likely effects the water chemistry.
Just sent in an order of 100$ plus of food, filters and media. Thanks for the great info and posting up your advise from experience, subbed and thumbs up!
I have a question, I have a 20gallon with 6 mollies 3guppies 3platies and a female betta and a bunch of molly fry in there. I’ve had them for like 3weeks. The adult fish don’t seem very active now as they were when I got them. They eat well but tend to stay stationary at other times. The Betta is doing fine. I’m using drinking water and I don’t have any water testers to test the water. I have kept these fish 10 years ago and I didn’t face any issue,I used the same water at that time too . Can anyone help and is there an aquarium coop community that I can join?
As someone who has high tap water (200+ ppm) I gotta said I wish I have your soft water keeping bettas would be a lot easier rn Also when I put my water in the tank the hardness lvl goes up to like 400 ppm and I think it might be because of all the stones in my aquarium. Does anyone know if I should remove them and redo my scape or is there an alternative to fix this issue
Yeah i see it happen! I spend too much money on yalls website lol one of these days im gonna have to bite the bullet and make the hour drive up to see the shop.
I've had guppies, fancy guppies, hadn't thought of them as an option before I'd listened to you - and they're quite fantastic. My problem was that they thrived, like "mega pint" thrived. I had crushed coral, clam shells, slate, a little higher temperature, no heater, just room temperature on the higher side. They got high end food and I started to panic. Their colors were unreal. One problem was that the tank was never ment to be a forever home. I had it, basically to acclimate plants for my bigger tank (that I eventually sold). Hence the plants were ridiculously big/tall. They thrived as well and I created a very dense jungle. I had to get rid of the guppies, gave them to a fish store. It was so stressing. I've bought a bigger tank and now the plan is to keep dotted Congo Puffer. That's also your fault.
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G'day mate. Hope you can answer me this one question.
Do I need to leave the light on for my brine shrimp all day and night after I have moved them into a grow out tank?
I have a heater in there with them.
my water is literally liquid rock and i wish i had soft water but it does help with live bearers
Same here
Ya Cali hard
I had a black water tank... Ph11... **sigh**
Reverse osmosis is your friend.
Get some cichlids
Well, you know my hard water fish of choice, but some of your choices were rocking. The Odessa, Congo, Flag Fish ... really cool. Hope you're well Cory and that your shop is thriving despite the COVID-19.
Hey Cory I just want to give my personal thanks for helping me treat ich, the Ich-X treatment worked wonders in my tank. I had two baby rasboras who looked on the verge of death, and 10 infected adult rasboras, six infected panda corydoras, and an infected betta. None of them have any signs of ick and I'm only half done with the treatment.
ME TOO just a week in to treating my tank using ich x. Only one or two fish with 3 spots max ALMOST DONE
Yep he saved me too
Cory, you are so awesome! I LOVE all your educational videos and you make the hobby much more fun and way less stressful by sharing all your knowledge!! I am very impressed. I have had fish for 30 years and I just now am getting back into the hobby after 6 years. So excited to start buying my fish! Tank is ready now. Thank you for all you do!!! Fishes LOVE you from all over the planet !
I have liquid rock water pH 8. My best thriving fish are Honey Gourami, Pristella, Serpae, and Emperor tetras. My Praecox rainbows are hanging in there. I had no idea Congos do well in hard water. I would love to stock them in my 40 gallon breeder. Thanks, Cory!
They don’t he might have gotten mixed up, they prefer softer water
I think he means they can tolerate hard water well compared to other fish. I have well water sitting near 8.5 and my fish have been just fine for well over a year now@@carolinesalpeck2567
Just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you. I love learning new things and you never fail to bring the knowledge. You have an excellent way of explaining things.
While my Congo Tetras breed every morning at 200 ppm, They are not hard water fish. They come from the upper Congo. One study that I read on their habitat measured the TDS at 10ppm! The upper Congo has super soft water. Most people think of African waters as being very hard because of the rift lakes. These lakes have formed in a very deep rift valley. Since there is little outflow the dissolved solids keep building up. New water is added through rivers and runoff but most of it leaves through evaporation. Over the millennia the water in the African rift lakes has become insanely hard. The Congo is different. It is rainwater flowing to the sea over substrate that leaches very little. It is similar to the Amazon. Tanganyika does outflow into the Lukuga, which is a tributary of the Congo. The Lukuga has hard water but I cannot find any reference of Congo tetras living there. Once the Lukuga merges with the condo the hardness is diluted.
Cheers,
Chris
Water in the lake Malawi is not insanely hard though!!
.
Great information. Thanks for sharing.
I have Congos with a Bristlenose, and with 7°pH and 10°gH (6°kH) all of them are seemingly doing well. I actually mix my tap water with a 50+% osmosis one, because I have very calcareous water which isn't even good for many hard water fish (i.e.: I had platys, and have to give them back because they were suffering!), which actually generally want a more balanced presence of minerals, but it might have worked fine for Rift Valley Cichlids. Just, I was worried about having to manage their aggression levels, so I decided to go for softer water.
Just check your mineral contents, because even if we talk about "hard water" fish, there can be differences: the same mineral content which works for Poecilids / livebearers might not work for Malawi or Tanganika Cichlids, and vice versa.
I am on my first aquarium, a 10 gallon. My tap water is TOO HARD and in the red listed as 300 mg/L on a dipstick test. I was able to successfully use a ZERO WATER filter pitcher to do a 50% water change and voila! The water testing now shows OK between 75 and 150 mg/L. I'm so happy and looking forward to adding livestock soon! Fancy guppies and cherry shrimp.
I really want to get some congo tetras someday 😍
I love livebearers, specifically swordtails which I'm surprised didn't make the list good size, hardy, come in a rainbow of colors and fairly cheap.
That Crinum Calamistratum in the background tank looks amazing!
Nice to see a video for hard water. In my corner of Arizona, our water is ridiculously hard. Great for my guppies but I struggle with bettas. I really like that Dwarf Neon Rainbow.
Don't know about your experience but coming from the aquascape side, a limestone heavy scape will keep the KH high constantly and you will definitely get hard water. Definitely easier to achieve hard water than softwater because the only effective way is the RO route.
Fun video. I think the American Flag fish is a super underrated fish in the hobby. They devour hair and BB algae and are fascinating to watch because they’re always pecking away in search of a morsel to eat. Keep up the great work!
8:33: do more research, he says. Good advice. If you do more research, you'll find out that the Congo Tetra's natural habitat, the Congo Basin, is soft and acidic, not hard and alkaline.
Correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not a pet fish owner yet, but a natural habit is different than an aquarium raised fish and has different water parameters and sometimes light source.
I will like to add that i have had Congos in water near 8.5 for well over a year and they are doing just fine! So I think he means they are well tolerant of that type of water.
I was literally looking for this video yesterday . Then you make it the next day 🙏🏼 what a guy
It's so funny. People want what they can't have. We have hard tap water, so in our aquarium community livebearers are frowned upon and considered not a cool fish at all. Something for kids to keep. Instead aquariumists here go crazy for soft water species like discus, Amazon species and so on. They build Ro set ups, buy distilled water, remineralise it and keep a lab at home to recreate that water. 😂😂😂
Good advice,even if you live in a "hard" water area,the local stockists will have "soft" water fish and in my experience these fish will look like they are doing fine in hard water but their lifespan is dramatically shortened to say a year or two instead of five.Obviously they will be extremely stressed but being fish,it's difficult to observe this,although I must admit the water around here is hard but not extremely hard.✌👍
Thanks for focusing on hard water this week! Appreciate it!
This video really helped me out. Thanks Corey!
Since you mentioned Golden Wonder Killifish, y'all should search on TH-cam "Golden Wonder Killifish jumping out of the water to catch crickets" to see some amazing natural feeding behavior. I NEVER would have thought they could jump that high! Very beautiful and cool fish suggestion.
The golden killis are great but quite a few of the African killis do surprisingly well, clown killis won’t tolerate very hard water but are happy to be over 7 can even breed. But the one I’d like to highlight is the firemouth killifish or epiplatys degati. Extremely hardy fish can really keep it in any water, bred them at at ph 6 and 8. And they’re cheap and males in breeding form are gorgeous
Beautiful! But I find the Congo tetra to thrive in a neutral ph to slightly soft. I even mix purified or rain water to get them breeding.
Agreed, congo's don't like hard water.
The average TDS in the Congo River is 10ppm! That is incredibly soft water. Although my Congo tetras spawn every morning at 200ppm.
Cheers,
Chris
@@Cgraseck 200 ppm is still kind of soft water!
Thank you Corey for all the information!
Man the tap water in my house gives me a soar stumock after one glass...but the fish love it..
Thanks for the suggestions!!
Thank you....... I needed this video. Really love your videos!
Thanks for this info. My water hardness is at the top of the charts. pH is neutral. I will definitely be looking into these fish.
Rosy Barb & Red Eye Tetra are also great shouts. Great vid :)
my tap in so cal is super hard... ph is almost 9 too, 8.5-8.8... is this ideal if i wanted to start a shell dweller breeding project? i feel like the ph is a little high...
I keep GW killis to keep my guppy fry population in check. (I know some people think that's horrible, but...) They can get dicey and attack each other. I was growing our 4 fry- one inch fish in a 10 gallon- when 2 males turned on a female and tore her apart. Another one avoided the lid and got into the HOB filter impeller! How the heck that happened, I have no idea! Keep the videos coming, you are awesome!
I love your blog! Thank you so much for taking the time on them. Excellent
I keep a lot of Red Wag Platies & Guppies. Some of my aquariums have a GH (degrees of hardness 20-30). It seems that they breed more in even harder water than that. Amazing fish. Good video. 📺👍😎
One of my favorite things is to make lists and cross reference you videos😂 Kinda nerdy I know but I don’t care!! Just looked at your ideas for a 55 gallon, cold water fish, and hard water which I definitely have here in Arkansas. According to your test strips that I ordered from you guys anyway. My tank already has 3 albino corys, 14 swordtails that were rehomed to me from my friend, and 2 mystery snails. Thanks to your handy videos, overtime I want to add guppies, sunset platys, and maybe Odessa barbs if I can find those. My other tank is a 36 and it has tons of plants that I ordered from y’all as well and they are doing awesome. I feel all fancy and worldly ordering plants from Washington state for my aquarium 😂😂
Great vid. Can you do a top 10 plants that thrive in hard water?
Any ideas for algae eaters for hard water? I have a platy tank with snails and ph at 8.2 and I’m looking to add some more fish to it
Flag fish, bristlenose plecos. Tropheus
Get some mollies!!
Eeyyyy, my man. Thanks for doing this for people like me who were super anxious about it when I first came back to the hobby in my new home with super hard water!
Wow. A lot of these fish are just beautiful. I can’t wait to get back to the states and do more with the fish hobby.
I'm setting up a 32g fluval flex and have hard water with about 7.8ph. I REALLY want about 20 green kubotai rasboras. Do you think they will show that amazing green color in my water. I once had glowlight danios that came in absolutely gorgeous but lost all their colors in 1 day of being in my hard water, and I don't want that to happen with the kubotais. Your thoughts?
Some of your recommended tank mate are not compatible due to temperature requirements.
Rainbow fish for example are a cooler temperate fish wile the congos want it nice and warm
Thanks for the ideas!
My GH is around 400ppm or higher. My ph ranges from 7.8-8.2 out of the tap. Wish I was one of those people with 7.4 out of tap lol
Same lol
That's what I used to have - it was like a direct tap from Lake Malawi. My Mbuna loved it. Now I have hard but neutral water and debating what to do. I'm a fan of choosing fish that will thrive in what you have and not needing to change it too much.
I’ve always read that Congo tetras do fine in neutral ph but prefer softer water, I defiantly wouldn’t say they do well in hard water all… might have gotten mixed up there Cory!
Great video. Looking to get a guppy. What fish would be good to add to take care of the algae regarding the hard water condition?
thank you so much i have pineapple platies and my gh was 180 thank you for this information
Being watching g since the start and love every video!!!!!
Great video, pristela tetras are my favorite tetra.
Hey Cory, would I be safe to use some limestone rocks for decoration with some of these hard water loving fish… assuming I cleaned and prepped the rocks so not to introduce any harmful to the tank?
I have some really neat looking limestone rocks on my property, but I’ve read they will increase the ph too much. We also already have very hard tap water here in Missouri, possibly from all of the limestone we’re on top of.
Thanks !!
What about dwarf gouramis? Do they also work fine in hard water??? I have hard water and want to keep dwarf gouramis. My guppies, Danios ans tetras are already doing well. But I'm not sure about dwarf gouramis whether they will do well in hard water or not!!
Good info, thank you. Is RO water still good for guppies ?
No
You been killingnit with the videos bro keep it up
Please do a top 10 soft water fish also :)
Living in Southern California with ph almost at 8 out the tap. Good thing most species have adapted to all levels of ph. I have kept and bred angelfish at this ph. Too bad I need ro water for discus. Wish I had your water
Same here in norcal. Apistos, dwarf puffers, shrimp and angels seem to thrive. Can't keep Rams and discus though without RO here.
What about plants specifically for hardwater?
Vallisnera, pomatogeton, lilies, crinuim
What kind of lillies?
@@justinerdman21 ive had good success with a common pond lily, i dont think it was anything special but my only caveat for using a pond lily in aquarium is that it will get HUGE and pulling it out will be a nightmare. otherwise if you dont plan to move any time soon its a great option for cheap
others have said vallisinera, and i agree there. along with that ive had great success with water wisteria, hygrophila, guppy grass, dwarf sagg, and bacopa
I can agree with val... my v. Contorta TAKES OVER tanks when added(assuming adequate light) also have had a lot of success with water sprite. Just looking for more options.
This is great - my water is liquid rock. Now do one for hardwater unheated tanks! Thank you!
Is their any cold water fish . My ph tap is like between 8.2 to 8.4. Very hard water. All my fish because of high ph might have to go warm water fish.
Yay. I have liquid rock water so this was nice lol.
Love the videos!
Hello, i have a question. Have you tried using seiryu stones with betta fish? Is it safe in the long run? It makes water hard and ph high which is bad for betta.
I'll ship you my well water from Maine hahhahahahaha Every single plant I've got from you has more than thrived (with the exception of a gold coin anubias that had rot, I tried saving it, no luck :( I will order more)! I have stocked 4 fish tanks in my house (75,40,10,5.5 gal tanks) with all the growth I get!
A lot of Australian fish are tolerant of hard water, such as Empire Gudgeons, Crimson-spot Rainbows and Pacific Blue-eyes (Delicate and Honey Blue-eyes are soft water specialists however).
I am on a well and I have hard water I am currently keeping swordtails, serpa tetra, angel fish, Cory cats, plecos, rainbow sharks, black moor, and my sons fair gold fish. No problems with any of these.
7.8 with tons of calcium here in Sierra foothills.Thanks
Thank you, i am going to set up soon fishtank and i have hard water. thank you for very informative video.
Good information as usual
I'm coming off of a 15 year cichlid tank and would like to get guppies mollies etc. I dont think I have hard water but my substrate is dolomite, would that be enough?
Black Tetras and Giant danio & red eye tetras have 8 each 24 fish total 90 gallon aquarium 3 yrs all good !
I'm setting up a tank for the preschool I work at. And, yup, liquid rock. Thinking of being adventurous and trying shellie s.
Shell dwellers are fascinating and a great choice for hard water.
I practically have rocks coming out of my faucet, to the point that it's just.. Horrific. But I live in the Cement Capitol of the world, so feels like it fits, heh. Still trying to work around it, just set up my first tank in 25 years, wanting to get into fish and shrimp and crabs and... you get the idea XD
Love to see the flagfish get the respect it deserves! Natives as a whole need more attention
I have really hard water I mean it's all the way hard which my platies and gubbies seem to love but I'm thinking I'm over oxygenated my fish is that possible I need to find out nonetheless ones in the planted tank are doing great but I had a platy small one die this morning they were fine last night???
Keep it up Cory! Love these videos
Great video!
My KH is 3, GH 4 and PH of 7.4 from the tap. Whats the best way to raise KH?
Same here!( except higher PH) and wondering the same! I’m trying oyster grit rn.
@@spiraleena9237 im just trying a product and so farnso good, its called JBL Aquadur take a look it may help
When you go to sell them do you need to acclimate them to softer water first or would you just sell them. I have well water and I wouldn’t want to sell something that wouldn’t make it in the softer city water.
Great video. That thumbnail is really well done. Nice job!
Hi, I'm Max from India..I have 7 guppies and 12 pink zebra tetra in a 100-gallon low-tech planted tank and I'm using groundwater its TDS is 2000 .however fishes look fine...i also add fertilizer of the 2hr Aquarist on MWF 3 ML . however im thinking to add more fishes which fish you will recommend for this tank?
I don't know if you'll see this because this post is over a year old but here goes nothing. I bought your test strips, I know I have hard water that comes out of my tap... On the test strip for the hardness the color is lavender, there's not a lavender color slot for it on the back of the bottle. I'm assuming since it goes from Blue, soft all the way up to purple, hard....that if it's lavender that means it's off the scale with hardness? Also my pH is on the lower side around 6.8. It's a fresh water 29 gallon live planted sand bottom aquarium. I haven't even put fish in it yet. Help.... What fish can live in hard water AND lower ph? Or do I need to fix something, I don't want to have to chase pH...
Love the content keep it up
can you keep guppies with Congo tetras?
I haven't tried it, but I think it'd be pretty difficult. Congo tetras are so quick to the food.
Hey cory I am having problems keeping jungle val and propagating
Them. Got any suggestions? I was thinking of keeping brazilian pennywort with it, just dont know whats wrong
Keep some hardness in the water, root tabs and time.
@@AquariumCoop thanks man. My tanks dirted. So thats why I was trying to figure out why the stunted growth. Will think of additional root tabs now.
@Awuarium Co-Op Cory, what plants work well in hard water? Because in my hard water tanks, the plants don’t do as well in the Chicago water, my tap gh and kh are very high, I transport Chicago water for 3 of my tanks.
Vallisneria, anubias, java ferns, crinum calamistratum would all work.
Thank you.
@@AquariumCoop all the species I have.
After choosing carefully plants and fish that naturally like water I have, my aquarium looks beautiful with very little effort.
how big do common plecos have to be to start breeding?
I think it’s about 6 months old then you buy a cave
I have a planted nano tank loaded with breeding shrimps. So I figured I can put micro fishes since shrimps will only breed if the water quality is good. So I bought 2 dozen chili rasboras cause figured they wont eat the baby shrimps. They all died within 12 hours. I just found out that they kept those fish below ph7.
My tap water is neutral (7.0) and hard. I've done well with Giant Danios, Black Skirt Tetras, Black Neon Tetras, Serpae Tetras, Ancistrus and a Bolivian Ram. Bettas, Gouramis, Neon Tetras and Beacon Tetras haven't done as well for me.
I have the opposite problem of you ,I have very hard tap water .... so my livebearers thrive , still my rasboras , bettas , flame tetras and barbs do well but I know my water parameters for them are not the best as the water is probably too hard for them
I've only ever read that congo tetra's like a PH level between 6.0-7.0
Never heard of them liking hard water. They originate from the Congo River in Africa, river fish like softer water.
They're farmed in Floridia
@@regular_guy1647 They're farmed everywhere, not just Florida
@@esoteric5187 yes, but the ones in Florida are raised in super hard water.
@@regular_guy1647 Probably outsourcing them then. If they're breeding them at the farm; proper fertilization requires softer water, so I wouldn't be surprised if they're softening it
@@esoteric5187 ok, the time I spawned them in 16dgh water last winter is probably the only time it's ever happened.
Not all rivers are soft water either, and the fact the congo has a pool in it very likely effects the water chemistry.
Just sent in an order of 100$ plus of food, filters and media. Thanks for the great info and posting up your advise from experience, subbed and thumbs up!
I have a question, I have a 20gallon with 6 mollies 3guppies 3platies and a female betta and a bunch of molly fry in there. I’ve had them for like 3weeks. The adult fish don’t seem very active now as they were when I got them. They eat well but tend to stay stationary at other times. The Betta is doing fine. I’m using drinking water and I don’t have any water testers to test the water. I have kept these fish 10 years ago and I didn’t face any issue,I used the same water at that time too . Can anyone help and is there an aquarium coop community that I can join?
You mentioned Congo Tetras, do you think a Congo Spotted Puffer would do OK in hard water with high PH? My tanks ride around 8.2
Chad why don’t you just google it bro lol
As someone who has high tap water (200+ ppm) I gotta said I wish I have your soft water keeping bettas would be a lot easier rn
Also when I put my water in the tank the hardness lvl goes up to like 400 ppm and I think it might be because of all the stones in my aquarium. Does anyone know if I should remove them and redo my scape or is there an alternative to fix this issue
Do checker barbs like hard water?
Thanks Cory
I have hard water and I am really glad for that being Guppy NERD :D Great video again Cory! :)
I cant ever get over that crinum.
We get them weekly but sell out weekly as well, it’s a harder to propagate plant.
Yeah i see it happen! I spend too much money on yalls website lol one of these days im gonna have to bite the bullet and make the hour drive up to see the shop.
What is the next fish for the 800 gallon and will scuba Jimmy make an appearance in the rescape scuba Jimmy is the man. ✌️
I've had guppies, fancy guppies, hadn't thought of them as an option before I'd listened to you - and they're quite fantastic. My problem was that they thrived, like "mega pint" thrived. I had crushed coral, clam shells, slate, a little higher temperature, no heater, just room temperature on the higher side. They got high end food and I started to panic. Their colors were unreal. One problem was that the tank was never ment to be a forever home. I had it, basically to acclimate plants for my bigger tank (that I eventually sold). Hence the plants were ridiculously big/tall. They thrived as well and I created a very dense jungle. I had to get rid of the guppies, gave them to a fish store. It was so stressing. I've bought a bigger tank and now the plan is to keep dotted Congo Puffer. That's also your fault.
Hate to ask a dumb question but what is considered hard water?
Do roseline sharks like hard water?? Or can they tolerate it?