Cardinals, plants, and hard water

[MrKrispy]

Kind of a messy topic, sorry.

I have fairly hard water but would REALLY like to have a good collection of cardinal tetras. My tank currently is tetra-only, and the pH is kept just below 7. I can get purified water (DI and then purified) but have a 46gal tank so I don't want to have to lug home 10gals all the time.

If I kept a strictly RO-type water tank, I would have to add back nutrients. I have plants and a yeast reactor, so I need to buffer the water good to avoid pH flucs.

If I did the RO-type water exclusively, what would I have to add to the water as far as trace minerals, and what should I use to buffer the water?

If I avoided the purified water and used my tap water (hard!) how could I treat it so soften it AND buffer it that would allow it to be soft enough for cardinals?

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[RedTurquoise]

My planted 90G tank has a hardness of 160ppm kh and gh, ph is around 7.2 because of C02 injection. Without injection, my ph is around 7.8! I dont add anything and I have no problems keeping cardinals! Steady ph and temperature is the most important factors in successfully keeping fish (found out the hard way). By adding chemicals, you are increasing the varibles thus running the risk of unsteady parameters!

The best method is the K.I.S.S. method! It stands for "Keep It Simple Stupid" (no offense to anyone)! Unless you are attempting to breed, dont change anything except water in your tanks using age tap water. It cant get any simpler!

Well, lets talk about breeding! Again, the simplest method is using RO water and mixing it with tap water to achieve the desired ph and hardness! It cant get any simpler!

HTH!

 

[Cyberfish]

gotta agree with Redturquoise, K.I.S.S. if you're having to mess around to keeping your ph below 7.0, your normal ph should be fine to keep cardinals. I keep mine at 7+ ph aswell.

 

[MrKrispy]

okay, so if I use tap water what about the hardness? That was my real concern with the tap water. In comparison to RedTurquoise, my tap water averages about 575 ppm (~850 uS/cm) ! I thought that was way too high for cardinals.

I guess my best bet is to dilute the tap water with the RO water to soften it up a bit. I was worried about pH fluctuations in the really soft water anyway, since my CO2 is a yeast reactor and sometimes it peters out.

Thanks for the replies!