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Post by pherknee682 on Sept 20, 2017 16:04:34 GMT -5
The home we currently live in has hard water which as I understand is fine to use when doing partial water changes. However, the home we will be moving into in a few months will have softened water. I saw an article that said not to use softened water, bottled drinking water or reverse osmosis water....what I haven't found yet is what water I SHOULD use. Any recommendations here? I'm a newbie so breaking it down in layman terms would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. 😊
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Post by Carl on Sept 21, 2017 8:37:58 GMT -5
Most homes with softened water only have this inside the home.
I would suggest using outside (hose) water than if too hard, cutting it with RO or DI water.
RO water is OK to use as long as you re-mineralize, but this is advanced aquarium keeping
Carl
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Sept 21, 2017 13:57:47 GMT -5
How hard is the water?
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Post by pherknee682 on Sept 22, 2017 15:10:09 GMT -5
Would the API 5 in 1 test strips show this? Extreme newbie here. Oddly enough the readings in our aquarium seem to be the same as our tap water. Both had readings for Nitrites and Nitrates. I thought perhaps the strips didn't work so I tested our soda bottle "aquarium", but it gave completely different numbers on all tests.  (Not sure why it inserted sideways, not sure how to fix it on here either) |
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Post by Carl on Sept 23, 2017 10:50:09 GMT -5
Not sure what you are asking, but these results simply show you have harder water with a higher pH in the Soda Bottle
Carl
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Post by devonjohnsgard on Sept 23, 2017 12:24:32 GMT -5
That's a good test, though I don't know why you would have Nitrites from tap and in the aquarium means there's no cycle. You need to use SeaChem Prime and Stability. And the water is not hard really. It's rather soft. This also plays into why you have sick guppies. The water is soft, needs more minerals. The water is going toxic. Needs a cycle. and if you were to test the pH often, it would change, which is not good. This is a result of not having at least a 54ppm KH. Swinging pH is very hard on fish, No treatment will work with these water parameters.
Why your tap is showing Nitrite. I would test this again. That's concerning.
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Post by pherknee682 on Sept 23, 2017 13:18:22 GMT -5
Not sure what you are asking, but these results simply show you have harder water with a higher pH in the Soda Bottle Carl I was asked what the water hardness level was and I was wondering if the test strips showed water hardness. KH and GH both mention hardness, but being new to all of this I'm not sure what either is an indicator of. I've read lots of the articles on here but after a while the info becomes overwhelming and then I don't remember what to make of what or where I found the info to read it again. |
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Post by pherknee682 on Sept 23, 2017 13:41:45 GMT -5
Tested aquarium water again today and GH read at 120 with KH at about 80. Didn't realize how quickly the colors would fade, I see now why it says to read those 2 immediately. pH has always stayed stable at 7.0. Also noticed that the other colors darken the longer they sit and test says to read after 30 seconds. So the picture posted earlier is probably very inaccurate. Nitrites read 0 from both tank and tap. I was concerned by reading nitrites in tap as well, glad to know it was just user error.
As far as the cycle goes, the tank was set up in early August without any knowledge of fish care other than what "Big chain" store told me and what I read on the instruction sheet for the filter.
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Post by Carl on Sept 24, 2017 10:22:58 GMT -5
My confusion is with the soda bottle, since it is not being used for fish.
You certainly need a certain level of KH/GH for fish, depending upon species
Carl
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Post by pherknee682 on Sept 24, 2017 11:48:31 GMT -5
I have no idea, the only thing in the soda bottle anymore is the ostracod and detritus.
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Post by Carl on Sept 25, 2017 9:02:56 GMT -5
I have no idea, the only thing in the soda bottle anymore is the ostracod and detritus. Likely with the soda bottle, minerals and carbonates have accumulated, possibly by evaporation & top off Carl |
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