New set up: hard alkaline water

Heya

New here and I've left an introduction. I have a 54l tank with a fluval u2 filter. See attached pic - sorry bad quality. I've had the tank up and running for about 5 weeks and adding Nutrafin cycle while doing weekly water changes.

Firstly, my water comes from our private well. So the water has no chlorine in it.

Anyway, I've done a good few tetra 6 in 1 tests on my water during the last 5 weeks. I don't know how accurate it is but it says chlorine, nitrates and nitrites in the tank water are zero. My water appears to be hard and alkaline. Gh is about middle of the scale - I think it's around 5 or 6d. It's the brown colour haha. The Kh is high at about 15d i'd say. Ph is also high at about 7.6 - 8.

So what I take from that is maybe the accuracy of such a test is questionable but certainly the water is hard and alkaline.

I was going to go down the route of additives to make the water softer and more neutral or acidic but I see that as getting messy with fluctuating water parameters. So I'm thinking now I'd rather take the route of getting fish that suit the conditions.

What I was thinking of getting is:

4 guppies (1m, 3f)
2 platies
5 endlers

I've read that these fish are suited to harder more alkaline water. Can people confirm? Or any other ideas? Also, what about that mix? Would they be okay together? And can anyone tell me anything about endlers in general?

I was also thinking of getting 2 bronze corys but maybe they wouldn't like my water?

Finally I was aiming for about 24" of fish. I think what I've described above is about that. Do you think what I've mentioned is about right for my tank? Last thing I want is to overstock.

Any advice on anything really would be great! Thanks!

Kevin

Hello and welcome. Your tank is probably fully stocked with what you have as you must remember that guppies and platies will produce many fry regularly, so it wont be long before you're overstocked. If you had a bigger tank, your water is ideal for mbuna Good luck

Hey thanks for the reply.

Well I figured that if I didn't make a special effort to keep fry alive they'd get eaten.. I hope that doesn't sound too callous!!

Maybe there will always be some that get through that and grow regardless?

Then I could get two male platies. I hear males are okay together. I wasn't getting female guppies with big intentions to breed - only because I heard the males could be nippy with each other and 1 male per 3 females is a good ratio to keep them happy.

What is the opinion on that?

hello kevin,
you can mix male and female guppies, platies,swordtails and mollies in your tank.two males will chase each other giving the females some space.add some salt to the water for the mollies. bronze corries would be at home as well along with most of the tetras. with good filtration you could keep maybe 12 fish or more.
phil

Hey phil

Well i was going to put in 4 guppies.. you think 2m 2f is better than 1m 3f? Maybe it doesn't matter that much.. I was going to get 2 platies, possibly 2 males.

Corries are okay with hard alkaline water?

I thought tetras liked it soft and acidic.

My Gh is around 8d, Kh around 16d and the Ph is around 8.