Advice on Softening Water

[FreakIndeed]

Hi there everyone. I've been reading the forums for a while and this is my first post. I'd like some advice.

I have a 55 Gal community aquarium with Angels, a Gourami, Tetras, Cherry Barbs, Cories, Rainbow Shark, and Siamensis.

My water is very hard with a GH of 12 (214.8 ppm). My KH is 4. My PH is 7. I'd like to soften this water up to make it more friendly to the species I'm keeping.

I've got an R/O system that I've been saving water up from for a couple days (it only does a gallon a day). I've got it sitting in an extra aquarium with an airstone and heater.

I'm due for my water change in a few days and I was considering using some of this R/O water in the change. My problem is that I can't figure out how much I should use in conjunction with my tap.

I don't want to do too much and make my KH or PH drop drastically and hurt my fish. However, it's gonna take quite a bit to get the water soft.

I'd like to get my GH and KH somewhere in the 3-6 range (that's what the book I have recommends). I'd like to keep my PH as close to 7 as possible.

Thanks for any help!!!

[Phrag]

I'm in somewhat of the same situation as you. However, I have this to say. Your fish may be acclimated to hard water depending on where you get them. I get my fish from Petsmart and they don't soften the water or mess with the pH so they have a GH of around 15 and pH 8. If your fish are acclimated to the hard water, it may actually do them more harm if you try to mess with the water. So my short advice is your water is probably ok. I'd say only mess with the water if you're trying to breed them.

That being said, if you want you can add some RO when you do the change. What I do is do maybe 15%-20% RO and the rest tap. I do it in 1 gallon containers (the kind used to hold drinking water) at a time and just haul it over to the fishtank. I also warm up the tap a bit first so it doesn't fluctuate the temperature of the tank too much.

[Needeles]

I agree with the last post. What you see in the books are correct but they usally fail to mention that a fish can live in a wide varitiy of water prams. As long as the fish have been acclumated correctly and you are not trying to breed then your water is fine. As said before it could actually hurt the fish more then help. On top of that you need to keep the water prams stable and that is a whole other pain to deal with.

In the end, leave it where you have it. It will not hurt the fish any.

[liv2padl]

I'd like to soften this water up to make it more friendly to the species I'm keeping.

the vast majority of fish in the hobby today are tank or farm raised and as such, are many generations removed from the 'native' water chemistry that many books suggest is required to maintain them. they have been acclimated to the water chemistry most common in the US and most of europe, which is somewhat hard and alkaline.

i'd suggest checking with the LFS you purchased your fish from and see what water chemistry they were in before you got them. i'm betting it was the same or close to the same as your tap water and thus, your fish (and you) would both be better served by simply leaving them alone with your tap water and not subjecting them to the yoyo effect of constantly trying to soften your water and lower the pH.

and finally, your kH is already pretty low. if you reduce it even further in an effort to reduce your gH, you'll very likely produce an unstable pH due to lack of buffer capacity.

[FreakIndeed]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I called my LFS and they informed me that they keep the PH right at 7 as well. They said they don't even test for hardness but just use the water straight from the tap which is usually 10-12 GH. Which means it must be just like mine. They also suggested not trying to fix something that isn't broke. They just mentioned that I could increase the KH some with baking soda at 1 TBSP per 20 Gal. or just keep up with my weekly 25% water change. Even the Discus they keep there are in the hard PH 7 water! These books I've been reading make it sound like you'd kill a Discus in a day by putting it in water like that. Oh well, I have had my tank up for about 4 months and I'm still learning. :) Thanks Again!