Tap Water Quality?

[Red_Shift]

Hey there guys!

Just wondered if anyone is in the same position as I am and has terrible tap water quality.

Sadly our house is positioned just out of reach of the city plumbing and we have to use well water for any water uasage except for drinking and food preparation, for that we used bottled water, either spring water or distilled.

Our well water is quite heavy with certain metals and my wife and I agreed that the bottled water we buy, even if not the most preferable water for aquarium usage is many many times better than the water that comes out of our taps.

Sadly this puts large gallon tanks out of our reach as the costs involved with buying boxes and boxes of water bottles is too high for my current budget right now and it is not the most convinient way to fill a large tank.

So for now we have a 10gal which we can do regular water changes without having to fill the car with boxes of water. LOL

But i was wondering, does anyone else have this problem? If so have you ever found another way around it?

Or can anyone suggest another idea asides from bottled water?

:help:

 

[jkost]

you would be surprised how many fish would do just fine with your well water.when you say bad what do you mean bad? high in g.h.?high in alkalinity? metals? Ive got city water thats ugly hard g.h over 300.what i did is put a hole house filter on my mane line.it just filters the fine particles and sediment and rust.its still hard but it helps with some of the metals.you could always go with fish that prefer hard water.but Ive got fish that supposed to prefer soft water in my tanks and they all do well..

 

[l.MetalHead.l]

you should be fine with most fresh water, i would only use bottled water or RO/DI water for salt water though

 

[Star_Rider]

most of the time you should be fine.
the exception to the rule I know of was an aquariast/breeder who had issues with Fe in the water..turns out it was enough to cause issues..he was losing his breeding stock.
he had to switch to RO/DI.
again this is an exception.

 

[marc515192]

Without knowing what you mean by bad water. With that being said I purchased a 30 trash can for about 3 bucks on clearance and filled it with water. Mixed my water maintenance chems and let it sit until I need it. Worked ok for me getting the water to match my tank before I used it.

 

[Stace0618]

when you say bad what do you mean bad?

Well I can answer this question since I'm Red_Shift's Wife.. Anyway, you wouldn't believe how bad the water actually is over here. We don't have a softner or filter yet which I'm sure sometime we'll eventually get around to that, but with the state of our water I'm not sure that they will even make the water safe for fish. This is because our water has high concentration of Iron and Sulphur. Uuugggh and a Nasty Smell!!!!! It's a smell like Rotten Eggs... I'm sure that's the Sulphur, but it's still pretty nasty and Dark Orange.

Is there a home water filter that could take care of these problems?

Thanks for your help

Stace

 

[jkost]

Well I can answer this question since I'm Red_Shift's Wife.. Anyway, you wouldn't believe how bad the water actually is over here. We don't have a softner or filter yet which I'm sure sometime we'll eventually get around to that, but with the state of our water I'm not sure that they will even make the water safe for fish. This is because our water has high concentration of Iron and Sulphur. Uuugggh and a Nasty Smell!!!!! It's a smell like Rotten Eggs... I'm sure that's the Sulphur, but it's still pretty nasty and Dark Orange.

Is there a home water filter that could take care of these problems?

Thanks for your help

Stace

well I'm not sure.but i do know that a water softener that uses salt to soften is not good for fish.what i have is a in line filter about 40 bucks at homedepo which uses a carbon block. that would help with the smell.you could try getting someone to test your water and see what alls there.other than that i don't know.maybe someone with more expertise can help you more..good luck

 

[Rbishop]

Can you get your water tested at a public or private institute and post the results. What may make it objectional for human consumption may not have any undesirable effects for your fish. Discoloration can be handled with carbon.