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question: keeping corys in hard water???

15K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  Bluebirdnanny 
#1 ·
Out of the 4 i have gotten i have only been able to keep 2 alive. My water is great except that i have hard water. My panda cory and peppered cory are doing great and are very active! The other 2 died at different times and i got them from different stores. But they both got pale then lethargic and died within a few days of getting them. Just trying to figure out if i just had bad luck or is hard water bad for them?? Oh my tank is pretty heavily planted, and they get shrimp pellets. They do a great job cleaning the gravel, low plants and large rocks.
Thanks!
 
#2 ·
as in all cases like these.test the water params.then you'll know for sure.if you can't get a test set then take the water to the lfs.or if your super sure the water is clean and stable but just too hard add peat to the tank
 
#7 ·
What kitten meant by water parameters is GH (general hardness), pH and temperature. What you are testing is likely ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. These are not parameters but conditions.

You can ascertain the GH of your tap water by contacting the water supply people; many now have a website. The pH they might tell you as well, but you should have a pH test kit as this is an important test to make periodically. Temperature is self-explanatory.

While the water parameters (all three) can affect fish, it may only be weakening them through stress, allowing some other issue to cause their death. What do tests for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate show?

Also, corys are highly social fish, and must be in groups. It is best to have 5 or more. Some species tend to need others of that species more than some other species, but generally I aim for no less than 3 of a species where you have two or more species. This will add stress to the fish as well.

You can read more on stress here:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/stress-freshwater-aquarium-fish-98852/

Byron.
 
#4 ·
IME soft water fish do tend to be more likely to not settle in well in hard water.

I do not think peat is the answer. It will make your water look like tea and is not stable long term. If you want to go the route of softening water the safest and most stable way is to use RO water and do water changes with half tap and half RO. This very effectively softens the water while still preserving some hardness and the other minerals present in tap.
 
#5 ·
yup but RO filters are expensive if you can find a place to get RO in a bottle then that can be used.
 
#8 ·
nitrate 0, nitrite 0, chlorine 0, alkalinity aprox 40-80, ph 6.8. There was a problem with the water softener system in my house but we just had it fixed, so hopefully that will help and my next water change ill add in some RO water. Yes i wanted to have 4 corys but i didn't want to keep getting more and having them die.
 
#13 ·
This raises another issue. Are you putting water that has gone through the softener into the aquarium? If yes, do you know how the softener works? Some add various salts to soften, and this is as bad or even worse for some fish.

Any chance you can use water prior to it going through the softener, and if yes, do you know the GH and pH of this water?
 
#11 ·
0 nitrate can only be attained in a sw tank where the use of n-p bio pellets and a reactor is used. in normal fw tanks a reading of 10 nitrate is mostly what you get after the tank is cycled.test strips aren't very accurate.
 
#12 ·
0 nitrate can only be attained in a sw tank where the use of n-p bio pellets and a reactor is used.
This is not true. Some heavily planted tanks can achieve, and you definitely do not need any special reactors to do it in saltwater. If you are feeding properly, have no mechanical media, lots of live rock, and do your water changes you can achieve no detectable nitrate or phosphate.

Throw your test strips away, they are garbage. You can guess better than they would tell you. Buy a liquid nitrate test kit and find out what it really is.
 
#14 ·
fishguy2727 how is it done? can you teach me in more detail? i would love to attain 0 reading esp for phosphate in my reef tank.my corals don't do well with phosphate pellets
 
#15 ·
What do you mean phosphate pellets?

ANY food introduces nitrate and phosphate.

Nutrient control is about nutrients in and nutrients out. There is an enture article on this exact subject in the link in my signature. Check it out. If you have any questions about it let me know.
 
#17 ·
thanks tali for letting me hijack your thread ^.^
 
#18 ·
Oh my tank is pretty heavily planted, and they get shrimp pellets. They do a great job cleaning the gravel, low plants and large rocks.
Thanks!
What test kits are you using? Make sure you are following the directions carefully, it is almost impossible to have 0 nitrate.
Its not too hard to have zero nitrate in a heavily planted tank, the plants will soak it all up
 
#19 ·
My tank is only lightly planted and I get consistent 0 ppm readings. I haven't had a reading over 5 ppm in 3 months (using API Master Test Kit for freshwater).

As long as you don't overfeed the plants help soak up the Nitrates.
 
#20 ·
Some water softening units add salt to the water. This may be the problem.
I have hard water (but is well water from a spring underground) my cory has no problem with it. In fact they are supplying the local store with fry!!
I have sand substrate (which they like) and local Elodea plants and another broadleaf plant that now reaches the top of the 20 tall tank. Also have an intank filter.
 
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