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Hi all, in my previous house, the water there used to be soft and acidic, but since moving house, the water here is alkaline and hard.

Previously, all I needed to do to raise the GH of the water was to add these small blue crystals (water ager..*not too sure*..??) and this immediately raised the GH to my required level.

However, now that i need to do the opposite, how does one lower the GH of tap water? Apparently, I heard that leaving a bucket of water out overnight removes chlorine or something, so i was thinking, does this also lower the GH of my water for my fish??

I really need some help here guys..my fish are seriously unhappy at the moment...

Leaving the water overnight will let any gas escape and may change the values on the water but no more than they would if you put the water directly in your tank. My well water comes out of tap at 6.8 ph and left overnight usually ends up 8.0 or higher. It might be good to leave a bucket and test it to see if there's a large difference.
The only good way to lower the hardness of water is to dilute it with softer water. Either using a reverse osmosis filter, distilled water, rain water(if your in a low pollution area) or using only bottled spring water. You can also use peat pellets/moss but they aren't that effective and will give you yellow-brown water. I had black water and couldn't see in my tank before it softened my water any. Fish will adjust and survive or even spawn and thrive in much harder water than they are typically used to if you acclimate them slowly. If you suddenly change their tank from the water they are used to over to the new water then they are going to be quite upset. I would have brought enough of the old water for several water changes and slowly added in the hard water. Otherwise you can buy water to dilute it or try to make your own distilled by boiling water and collecting the steam(for $.50 a gallon it's not worth the work).

Hmm, I have heard of this Reverse Osmosis Unit, but I'm still not quite sure how it works. Anyone here can give me the heads up? thnx

Basically, water is squeezed through a membrane that takes everything out but the H20 itself. All the metals, salts, gases, and other junk get poured down the drain. The pH of this water starts out at 7.0, but it will start to go down if nothing is added to keep it at a certain level.

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