Alkaline, High Nitrate Water

Hi there and welcome to the forum. 

That's not a silly question. Have you had a look on your local water suppliers website to find out what the hardness of your water is? This is going to be more important than the pH. Severn Trent (if that is your supplier) has a page where you put in your postcode and it telly you all the parameters for the tap water. I think your area is a medium hardness, but check your exact location on their website. We can then work from there. We usually go by the German degrees hardeness, so look for that one.

My area has water of 17 dH German, and is hard water. It is easier to choose your fish from those suitable for that rather than the other way around. When I first started I tried to alter my water ph using API pH down, and it was a disaster, thankfully I was doing a fishless cycle, but had to strip the tank down and start again.

The only other way to change the hardness of your water is by mixing it with RO water.

Check your water suppliers website, let us know your water hardness, and we can sheck to see if the fish you want will work in that water without alteration. 

Thank you both for those great answers. I have found out that my water is slightly hard and has 20ppm of Nitrate (no wonder the roses grow well).

Any recomendations on a RO drinking water unit, I have been thinking of one for a while because I drink a lot of water due to radiotherapy destroying my salivary glands.

Thanks again
Lynn

Whoops I think i am getting confused in my old age.

My cylinder is 63cm x 980 it has a powerhead 3 tray filter system and an internal  Aqueal 1500 Turbo filter, 6 jet air curtain and LED lighting. The holding tank is a Interpret 120L with Aqueal 1000 and Interpret CF3 internal filter, have to say I am not impressed with the CF3 filter and am only running it as a backup.

I have added 2cm of sand substrate and 2 pieces of mopari bogwood with Anubias Barteri, Nanna, Caffefolia and Petite attached, together with Java Ferns.

Surprisingly the Nitrate reading today was only 5ppm so the plants seem to be taking some of the nitrate up.

I checked with Stenker and they do not think I will have a problem with the hardness as it is very similar to the tap water they use. I will be making sure that I only buy aquarium bred fish.

Advice on what is involved in setting up an RO filter and what make would be welcome.

Thanks Colin B Maidenhead Aquatics isn't far from where I live although I have been recommend to go to Rockpool Aquatics which is only a mile from me.

Thanks again

Do you mean things like Brita water filters? Those don't produce water suitable for fish, due to ion exchange I believe, @Sue  is the best person to explain it.

There are various commercial ways of 'softening' water like Brita filters or water softeners that attach to the mains. These use ion exchange resins, which are resins preloaded with specific ions. Brita filters are preloaded with hydrogen ions, and a lot of water softeners are preloaded with sodium ions. The minerals that make water hard are calcium and magnesium ions. Ion exchange resins swap the calcium and magnesium for the preloaded ions.
Hydrogen ions are what pH measures. It is an upside down measure; the more there are, the lower the pH. Brita filters increase the amount of hydrogen ions so the pH falls. When I tested my Brita jug, the pH was off the bottom of the scale.
Sodium water softeners put sodium into the water. There are no natural fresh water lakes/rivers (except possibly the Rift Lakes) which have sodium in the water. This type of water softener makes the water very unnnatural and fish can't cope with it. It is not good for humans either, which is why this type of softener must have a bypass tap for human consumption.

That sounds like a very sensible idea.

Best of luck.