Fire mouth Cichlid - Water Hardness

YungRasputin

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I’ve read that Firemouth cichlids (Thorichthys meeki) require a dGH of 8-15 - how is this produced? For my betta splendens tank I’ve been using distilled water cut with spring water (Evian) to produce the soft water required - water hardness however is new to me so how can i make this happen? does it differ in hardness from distilled or municipal water?
 
what is the hardness of the water from your tap?
if you don't know, search for the water quality report of your city.
 
what is the hardness of the water from your tap?
if you don't know, search for the water quality report of your city.

i live in WV - according to the local utility board the water hardness for our municipal water is between 10 and 11 grains per gallon or about 170 to 180 parts per million
 
Central American cichlids do best in neutral to hard water - ideally 200ppm so your tap water is a little soft for them. But I wouldnt recommend changing it as its better to keep it stable and neutral rather than altering it.

Wills
 
Central American cichlids do best in neutral to hard water - ideally 200ppm so your tap water is a little soft for them. But I wouldnt recommend changing it as its better to keep it stable and neutral rather than altering it.

Wills

so i should go with the tap water over the distilled and just add a de-chlorinator? my only reservation is the city I live in is where the movie “Dark Waters” is based from and there’s C8 + teflon in the water as well; when starting with my betta i didn’t know what to do about it so i opted for the distilled water cut with Evian to replace some minerals
 
so i should go with the tap water over the distilled and just add a de-chlorinator? my only reservation is the city I live in is where the movie “Dark Waters” is based from and there’s C8 + teflon in the water as well; when starting with my betta i didn’t know what to do about it so i opted for the distilled water cut with Evian to replace some minerals
Crikey! When I watched that film, once I'd thrown out my non stick pans.... I did pass a thought for fish keepers there and wondered what they did.

I mean I don't even know what to suggest, would it be possible for you to buy an RO unit? I'd imagine it would strip the pollutants out and would eventually be cheaper than using bottled water in the long run. You can get good remineralising agents like Salty Shrimp or the SeaChem products are reliable too - SeaChem do products aimed at the harder side of things for African Cichlids too.

What do you do about drinking water? Is it all just bottled?

Wills
 
Crikey! When I watched that film, once I'd thrown out my non stick pans.... I did pass a thought for fish keepers there and wondered what they did.

I mean I don't even know what to suggest, would it be possible for you to buy an RO unit? I'd imagine it would strip the pollutants out and would eventually be cheaper than using bottled water in the long run. You can get good remineralising agents like Salty Shrimp or the SeaChem products are reliable too - SeaChem do products aimed at the harder side of things for African Cichlids too.

What do you do about drinking water? Is it all just bottled?

Wills

i’ll have to look into the re-mineralizers! what is “RO”? personally, i don’t drink the tap - i drink filtered Britta water or bottled water - i give all my pets the distilled water for the aforementioned reasons; never really had to think about it till i started keeping fish because all my arachnids do real well with the distilled water
 
I have just looked at the Trailer for " Dark Waters ". Bloody hell, how do you survive there. That puts keeping fish into a whole new really hard basket.
 
I have just looked at the Trailer for " Dark Waters ". Bloody hell, how do you survive there. That puts keeping fish into a whole new really hard basket.

Fallout 76 is a documentary 😜 but yes, that’s why I’ve taken to buying water from other places, seems way easier than trying to get this local water in proper order
 
i’ll have to look into the re-mineralizers! what is “RO”? personally, i don’t drink the tap - i drink filtered Britta water or bottled water - i give all my pets the distilled water for the aforementioned reasons; never really had to think about it till i started keeping fish because all my arachnids do real well with the distilled water
RO units are a bit like the Britta filters but much more thorough. They pump water through a series of membranes until you are left with only pure water litteraly H2O. No chlorine, no nitrogen, no phosphates and no heavy metals. They are often expensive though and there are a few different types of machine, some pump direct to your tap doing 600 - 1000 lph others do much slower flows but the idea is you use it to fill up jerry cans or water butts you can store for when you need the water.

You then just need the remineralising agents to get it to the hardness and introduce the trace minerals your fish will need. For the fast units in the UK they are about £300 - £500 but you can get the slower ones for as little as £40. Then its just a case of keeping up on the cartridges.

On the outside looking in it is such a crazy situation that so many American cities and towns face undrinkable tap water, either through things like this or through failing infrastructure like in Flint Michigan.

Wills
 
Thanks for that I will look it up. Scary ****.
Its a really good film, as shocking as it is and it tells a really important story - as much as it really effects the people living where the OP does directly what the company has done has poisoned litteraly the whole world with an un-natural 'forever' chemical called C8. Once it gets into your body it never ever leaves because we cant metabolise it and its hugely carcinogenic, its even been found in animals newly described to science in the last few years in previously unexplored parts of the world... just to give you an idea of how fupiled the whole thing is.

Wills
 
For the fast units in the UK they are about £300 - £500 but you can get the slower ones for as little as £40.
now would be a great time to buy RO units. marine depot has this liquidation sale going on, and most of their RO units are around 50% off. you can get a really good unit (tds meter included, high gallons per day) for near the same price as the cheaper built ones that you'd find elsewhere.
 

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