Very, VERY hard water. Help?

[Shazbo]

Well, I'm cycling my tank right now. The pH is high, but I've just put some downer in to help.

I already knew my water was hard, but I decided to do the hardness test anyways. It took 32 drops just to get the dang thing blue. So, yeah. Pretty hard water.

Any tips on how to "unharden" my water? I have soft water also, via regular hosue faucets (the hard water was from the garage hose).

Could I possibly do half-and-half and put half hard water half soft? Or more soft than hard? And then even outt he chemicals?

Thanks, again. ;o)

Shazbo

 

[ishar]

um I think people are going to come here and say that soft water isn't really soft, as there is just a lot of salt type compounds rather than minerals. I think the best way to soften your water would be to dilute your tap water with reverse osmosis water until you get a good hardness level.

 

[epond83]

I'm not an expert but i don't see how tou can have soft water from a faucet and hard water in the garage.

It all comes into your house from the same place, do you have a water softaner?

I also have very hard water, off the pH chart (8ish i think) and have no real problems

Why are you worried about hard water? but yeah mixing RO is about the only way to bring really hard water down. I've heard hard water is better for growing plants if thats anything to you.

 

[marvin]

83 is on target! you will need to watch your pH and prob. use nutral regulator.

 

[TabMorte]

Well you know what PH you want depends on what kind of fish you plan to keep. You might find the soft water is best or hard. What are you putting in there. Also what is your PH coming up as on your test kit?

 

[Shazbo]

epond83- Yes, you can have hard and soft water. We have a water softener, but not all out faucets are hooked up to get water from there. OUr water comes from the same place, but once it gets to our house it undergoes different treatments.

 

[punkrockfish]

how high is your pH? using chemicals to mess with your pH can have bad results, and most fish can adapt to pH as long as it is not at an extreme. also, as tab said, certain fish (african cichlids) prefer hard water/high pH, so messing with it depends on what you want to keep.

 

[marvin]

well now my water is so hard i have to buy a new coffee maker every 6 months (not a joke.) I also use chemicals in all of my 17 tanks to regulate my ph.. just for fun i took 12 different water samples to my local fish guru and all 12 tested exactly the same.. stay in the problem or get into the solution is my moto.

 

[Shazbo]

Well, I put some soft water in with the hard and it's actually on scale this time. Only 15 drops of the color idenifcation liquid to get it blue. 15= Moderatly hard water.

Well now we can soften it up.

Next question:

Whats the best "break in" fish for the newly cycled tank? I just want to be sure everything is A ok before I go and put my other fishies in.

 

[noob23]

Why do you want to lower the hardness? I wouldn't worry about it. Messing with the hardness and ph can be a pain. When you are doing water changes, you have to mix it perfect so it matches your tank levels. A change in the ph or hardness will severely stress the fish, i would just use the hard water. High PH and hardness is not a problem. My water is pretty hard, i have huge calcium deposits all over my filter and hood, and i never have any problems.

 

[Orion]

I think this might well be a moot point. I can understand filling up the tank before the cycle with the water hose, but I don't think your going to want to do this for the life of the tank are you? You'll never be able to get the temp regulated for the new water doing this, which is the biggest problem with doing water changes this way. It's much better on the fish to try to match the temp of the water.

Just curious, what is the pH of the water from the hose and from the faucets with the water softeners?

 

[punkrockfish]

in terms of a good "break in" fish, why not just decide on what type of fish you want? i could tell you about some hardy, cheap fish, but then you could be stuck with a fish you don't really want. while your tank is cycling do some research and see what you like and what fits your tank. once you are finished cycling you can really add anything you want, because the tank will be good to go.

 

[Avalon]

Don't ever use chemicals to raise or lower your pH. Technically on paper these chemicals can raise or lower your pH, but in all actuality, they do nothing of the sort--that's not how they work. They are a waste of time and money. Furthermore, you probably don't want to mess with pH unless you have a specific reason to do so. If you don't know what the reasons are, then you don't need to be messing with it.

About the whole house water softener: what type of softener is it? There are certain types that are not suitable for aquarium use. Tap water is usually fine. Lowering the hardness really doesn't matter until you get into planted tanks (this varies), breeding, or with certain types of soft water fish. However, most fish will acclimate to almost any water hardness, although some will do better and live longer in their proper soft water enviornment.

The bottom line is that if you're really concerned about it, then you should be using RO water and mixing it with tap water. Kind of a pain if you ask me, but it's up to you if you like lugging buckets around. There's far more to be concerned with than water pH and hardness.

 

[GeraldTheMouse]

Ditto to what Avalon said.
Also, if you wanted to make your water softer without chemicals, organic peat is supposed to make it softer, just put some of it in your filter, and your good to go.

 

[Shazbo]

Just curious, what is the pH of the water from the hose and from the faucets with the water softeners?

The hose water's pH was off the charts. It was supposed to turn yellow (if it was okay) orange (if it was moderate) or red (if it was really bad), and it turned blue. x.x Don't ask.

The soft water, I just checked is about the same.

So everyone agrees I should just use hard water? The fish will adapt? I think I may just dump everything out and tart with hard water. I'll be done cycling when the family tank is... I may...

So the really high pH levels won't hurt either?


Everything else I tested (nitrite, chlorine, etc.) was great. Everything tested clear. I haven't done ammonia yet but I'm 99.9% positive the tank is ammonia free. I'll test that later.

 

[epond83]

peat i've heard will lower, but only a little bit so when your ph is hight it's dosen't do much but turn your water a little yellow, tryed cause i have really high ph water and it's healthier for tutles to be lower didn't work.

Also your petstore probably has the same hard water so the fish should already begetting use to hard water once they get to the store.