Well water?

[aloria]

Well, after a lot of reading, I’m planning to start cycling my first tank soon. I’m wondering about the quality of well water for fish? We have softened well water running throughout the house and one tap downstairs that’s unsoftened. Any idea which would be better? On a side note, this forum has been incredibly helpful the past month. :)

[ChilDawg]

I have heard that softened well water is not any good for fishes, as the softening does not change the total hardness, but instead replaces one ion with one that is more detrimental to the health of your fish. If you really want to soften water, use a Reverse Osmosis or Deionizing unit on your unsoftened water, or, if the pH is high as I expect it must be, Rift Lake Cichlids, C/A Cichlids, or Rainbowfish would be among your best choices, as would anything captive-bred and acclimated to your current water conditions (or natives). Best of luck!

~Matthew

[val]

Aloria, to Aquaria Central, home of the wettest fishkeepers on the Internet:)

You'll need to know a bit more about your water before you make the decision which fish you want to keep. Have you found your way to a water test kit yet. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals makes the best kit for the money, like $14 - $18 online. ChilDawg was right in that water softeners, for fishkeeping purposes, are not going to deliver soft water. But, the ions that are exchanged are slightly better than the ones removed, as I remember, so a water softener is not a bad thing. Let us know what your water parameters are when you get your kit...

If you've bought your house recently, you may have gotten a well test as part of the financing requirement. If so, you'll have gotten the pH, nitrIte and nitrAte results from that inspection.

Regards,

Val

[wetmanNY]

The softening "salt" you should be using anyway is potassium chloride not sodium chloride. This is not just for your aquariums but for your garden, your neighbors, your aquifer.

Plants take up the potassium-- it's a macronutrient-- so the result is lower Total Dissolved Salts.

[ChilDawg]

WetmanNY, that is a good idea. Unfortunately, I buy the "original" yellow bag salt when I go to Farm and Fleet for my parents, so I have no clue as to composition, or composition of other brands. Also, we have a septic system, so it is a little different when we end up pouring out softened water (which is actually only found in one place in our whole house...) I would be interested in learning a little more about which brands you recommend due to their compositions.

[wetmanNY]

"Brands" are whatever potassium chloride you like. Check the Culligan site. Check the Cargill site. Check with the head of the water treatment dept. at Agway or Home Depot. Get your parents on board.

Sodium is hard on septic systems. Where does your sodium brine go? Onto the driveway?

Potassium, on the other hand, is taken up by all photosynthesizers.

[ChilDawg]

I'll try to get them on board...I'm not sure that I have ever seen the brine outside of the water softener...is that why it broke down a few years ago??? :) I learn something every day here...

[aloria]

I bought a tetratest water test set. Softened water: ph - 7.5, kh - 17, gh - 1. Nonsoftened water: ph - 7.3, kh - 18, gh - around 28. Can anyone reccomend a small, peaceful, hardwater schooling fish for a 20 gal.? I wanted rasboras, but read that they need soft water, so i guess theyre out. Thanks much.

[val]

Very hardy, deceptively beautiful, easy to sex (the males have reddish dorsal fins with a black leading edge), active. I really like this fish. I currently have a 55g with 80 cardinals, it is in our bedroom and my wife likes the cardinals better, but I used to have it filled with 40 checkers, a couple of honey gouramis, a male and two female bettas and a RTBS (so lots of nice, pretty fish) and I thought the checkers were the star of the tank...

Your water is harder than mine, but again, the most important thing is to keep the water constant and you should have no problem with checkers...

Val