Hardness and Alk question

[kdogg721]

I'm a newbie with a newbie question:
How does hardness and alkalinity affect your tank? Mine are really high, should I worry about hard water? I understand alk will be lowered when I lower my ph...
everything is looking ok, can I put fish in if these are the only issues?

 

[snipe]

What are your other params and have you cycled your tank yet?

 

[kdogg721]

I'm near the end of my cycling process. My ammonia spiked and is at 0. Nitrites spiked and are at 0. Nitrates are a little high but I just did water change and added a phosphate/nitrate killer. (phos-X) I have a tester kit that tests all of these and although I am taking care of the nitrates and phosphates, I don't seem to know how of it should take care of the alk and hardness.

 

[meadbhb]

Hiya,
Are you using tap water or RO water? RO water shouldn't give you a problem with your hardness. Also, what's you calcuim? If you're calcium is low this will keep your PH low.
Meadbhb

 

[kdogg721]

I use tap water. I live in manhattan and there are no water stores around me. besides, I could never carry 50 gallons of RO water on the su

ay. People will mug you for anything out here.
Anyway, how will hard water and high alk affect any new fish/corals?

 

[nizmike]

Originally posted by kdogg721
I use tap water. I live in manhattan and there are no water stores around me. besides, I could never carry 50 gallons of RO water on the su

ay. People will mug you for anything out here.
Anyway, how will hard water and high alk affect any new fish/corals?
If you live in Manhattan you should check out aquarium concepts. They are in the high 30's on the east side. Very expensive but great quality.
And by the way, do make NYC seem like such a dangerous place. I lived there for the past 5 years.
I used the su

ay everyday and never had any problems or fear of being mugged.
Mike

 

[kdogg721]

Yes, I was kidding. NYC is extremely safe. especially manhattan. No one's going to beat me up for water jugs.
But can anyone answer my question?

 

[kdogg721]

And.. does Aquarium Concepts still exist? It doesn't show up on google, yahoo, or yellowpages. Unless you are referring to New World on 38th and 3rd ave. That happens to be one of the only decent carriers of SWF in manhattan sadly.

 

[nizmike]

Hey,
Glad to see u were just kdding about NYC.
Anyway, yes I meant New World. Great livestock, insanely expensive.
I think there is a good store out in queens too. My buddy goes there but I forget the name.
Mike

 

[meadbhb]

Hiya,
I can tell you you're going to have problems with algea with tap water. Even if you use the buffers. Usually tap water contains a lot of phosphates. You might want to run some aquarium tests on the tap water so you know how out of balance it is.
You may want to look in to getting an RO unit if it's hard to carry that much water that far, which is does sound like it is.
Meadbhb

 

[farslayer]

Agreed, pick up an RO unit and a big trash can with a PH to mix your salt water.

 

[snipe]

"Meadbhb" That isnt always true! I use tap and I declorinate it and take out the metals and then place in my tank. I have had the brown diatom "but that was when my tank cycled" now that its over and I have my cleaner crew it is almost comepletly gone and and I dont have any other algea blooming anywhere. I actually have some bubble algea "but that came with some live rock I got from a friend" there is only 1 or 2 little bubbles my emerald will get it sooner or later.

 

[meadbhb]

Hiya,
Snipe, I guess I should have said most tanks. I've red some folks are lucky to have good tap water, but most of them have way to much phosphate in it causing algea problems.
Still wouldn't hurt to get an RO unit. The difference between my tank and my friends tank is amazing. I use RO, she doesn't, but uses chemicals to "fix" her water. She's still got all kinds of brown hair algea in her tank.
Meadbhb