Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
My water PH is 8.2
- paulbohs (Paul Doyle)
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Do i need to get my PH down to 7.5 for a community tank? If so how will I do this? I would like to not have to fork out for an RO unit yet.
If not are there any fish that are more suited to the higher PH. The tank is 230 liters.
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- Valerie (Valerie)
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It seems to be a recurring problem throughout the country...
I am no specialist but went down that road myself ...
You can try and add some bog wood, it might help bringing it down but probably won't be by much.
You can indeed purchase an RO system.
You can get a deioniser which might be a bit cheaper.
You can also look at adding a CO2 system.
There is also the pH down type of products, but I don't think they are recommended.
I went for the deioniser and find it helpful. They are not too expensive and do not waste water like the RO does

I used the pH down on my quarantine tank one day and it covered the whole tank with some kind of a white depot and was very hard to remove.
Some more experienced and chemistry oriented people will probably jump in and give you their opinion.
I hope this helps.
Valerie
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this link might be of help
freshaquarium.about.com/cs/waterchemsitry/a/mathcph.htm?nl=1
i can't think of any fish off hand suitable other than cichlids do the blind cave fish would come close and i think i seen them in Petstop the other week i have them here and they are a joy. One of my favourite fish
freshaquarium.about.com/cs/characins2/a/blindcavefish.htm
the swordtail (xiphophorus helleri) would come close pH 6-8 the minum tank would be about 80 -100 liters the males are about 5inches not including tale females slightly larger can be a bit narky do.
do you know your DH of hand
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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8.2 shouldn't be too much of an issue for your community tank unless you have fish that are very particular about an acidic pH such as Discus or Blue Rams. A stable pH is far more important than one that is constantly changing so be careful if you intend to change it. It's easy to increase pH, but very tricky to reduce it. RO or deionised water is by far the safest way. Other methods can be difficult to stabalise.
Many of the recommded pH levels you see in fish profiles refer to the fish's wild habitat. As most of the fish in the hobby are captive bred, they are generally more tolerant of pH and water hardness.
Do you know how hard your water is? I'd imagine it's pretty hard with a pH that high.
Regards,
Ken.
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- paulbohs (Paul Doyle)
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I love the blind cave fish, i'll defenitely pick some up when the tank is ready after the shoaling fish i want to get are added. It looks like it will take 2 weeks for the bacteria to catch up with the swordtails but they are very dirty.
Ken, The water is very hard. Takes about 2 weeks for the kettle to cake over completely in lime. I got a water softener installed. It uses salt. Should i use this water for water changes?
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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I've read that water from domestic water softners is not suitable for aquarium use. Not sure of the scientific reason, but have read it in several places.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Valerie (Valerie)
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I have a softener for the house but use unsoftened water for my fish (mixed with deionised water).
More info on how a softener works ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_softener
I hope this helps.
Valerie
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Livebears like a little salt do i would only ever suggest Tonic salt. I would never use any product that is no meant for aquatic life forms
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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water because of the lime stone base.
The best way and easiest way to keep fish is to match the
fish to the water and not the other way round.
Most community fish can be acclimatised to a high pH fairly easily.A drop in pH is usually much more dangerous.
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# pH: 6.0 - 7.8
# Hardness: to 30 dGH
the other think i would say I've seen them on sale in Navan, Dundalk, Dublin(petstop)and a few round Ulster and considering paulbohs has swordtails they should be OK. xenophallus umbratilis ph 6.5 -7.5 and 5-20dH. xenophallus helleri pH: 6-8 and 10 - 30dH if i remember it was the later on sale at Petstop as were blind cave fish
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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