nehpets81
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If I lived in a (really) hard water area and wanted to breed fish like Tetras and Cory catfish how would I go about doing it?
Living in a very built up area probably means rainwater collection is not an option so my understanding is I would have to use one, or a combination of the following methods:
RO Water - I gather that RO water is basically devoid of any additives so all carbonate would be romoved, thereby making it very soft. Am I right in thinking this would also remove Nitrate too? However, I would need to mix it with tap water as it would not contain any beneficial additives that tap water comes with, right? Would the PH of RO water be 7? If so, and assuming I have this right, the buffering capacity would be negligable and adding hard alkaline tap water would create water that is fairly soft but alkaline?
Peat filtration - This would reduce the PH of the water, right? Would it have no effect on hardness? If I wanted to acidify water, how would I physically go about doing it? Do I just add some peat to my filter? Where would I put it? Between the sponges or something?
Bogwood - I take it this also acidifies the water just by being in it. Does it have a large effect? Do the effects wear out?
So, some concluding questions - Changing the ph of water with a high KH value would be difficult and I guess, fairly damaging if done incorrectly so would the procedure for turning hard alkaline tap water into soft, acific Amazonian river water be to run it through an RO unit creating neutral soft water, and then filtering it through peat to creat soft acidic water?
Sorry if this is a bit wordy and punctuated with so many questions, I guess I kind of want to see how viable this is.
Alternatively can anyone recommend non livebearer fish that are breedable and suitable for a community aquarium that can breed in hard alkaline water?
Thanks!
Living in a very built up area probably means rainwater collection is not an option so my understanding is I would have to use one, or a combination of the following methods:
RO Water - I gather that RO water is basically devoid of any additives so all carbonate would be romoved, thereby making it very soft. Am I right in thinking this would also remove Nitrate too? However, I would need to mix it with tap water as it would not contain any beneficial additives that tap water comes with, right? Would the PH of RO water be 7? If so, and assuming I have this right, the buffering capacity would be negligable and adding hard alkaline tap water would create water that is fairly soft but alkaline?
Peat filtration - This would reduce the PH of the water, right? Would it have no effect on hardness? If I wanted to acidify water, how would I physically go about doing it? Do I just add some peat to my filter? Where would I put it? Between the sponges or something?
Bogwood - I take it this also acidifies the water just by being in it. Does it have a large effect? Do the effects wear out?
So, some concluding questions - Changing the ph of water with a high KH value would be difficult and I guess, fairly damaging if done incorrectly so would the procedure for turning hard alkaline tap water into soft, acific Amazonian river water be to run it through an RO unit creating neutral soft water, and then filtering it through peat to creat soft acidic water?
Sorry if this is a bit wordy and punctuated with so many questions, I guess I kind of want to see how viable this is.
Alternatively can anyone recommend non livebearer fish that are breedable and suitable for a community aquarium that can breed in hard alkaline water?
Thanks!
