giving up on "real" hard water...

[Magnum Man]

so at some point ( and it's going to take longer on my bigger hard water tanks ), I'm giving up on "hard water" tanks... I think I've determined that straight from my well, the water is "too" hard for aquarium use, as witnessed by the cloudy condition of this tank, freshly after a 50% water change...

last night on TV the state had a couple commercials, about having our water tested, and if it's not good, they would give you an RO drinking water system... so, not only is it rock hard, but higher in nitrates than is allowed..., which I'm using many plants to help remedy this condition... it's not surprising my plants grow exceptionally well, coincidentally the bigger tanks, that have had some issues keeping fish alive only have small plant starts going right now...

I'm thinking a blend with my RO would be better for the aquariums... the small live bearers and shrimp are thriving, but i don't like the cloudy mineral water, and this could be part of the issue with the larger live bearers like the molly's ( my platy's had issues earlier as well )

 

[gwand]

Have you ever measured your GH. I would be curious.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I would take advantage of the offer. It's not often the government hooks you up. Of course you're actually paying for it anyway so might as well get something back for the taxes you pay.

 

[gwand]

My nitrate level is right below the limit where the county government would pay for an RODI system.

 

[Magnum Man]

I'll have to check it again... I only remember the last ph... a long time ago as 8.4... the water is more cloudy than normal this winter... I do have a good tds meter, if the battery is good, I'll test it later... I haven't used my are test kit for so long, I'm sure my chem are expired...

 

[Magnum Man]

btw... we already have an RO drinking water system in the kitchen for drinking water and ice cubes, and a large enough RO unit in the basement, big enough to service all my aquariums... as we have agricultural land ( fields) for at least 5 miles on all sides of our building site, I already knew we were there on nitrates... and a good part of why I have so many plants, both aquatic and terrestrial, growing out of my tanks...

 

[gwand]

I just plumbed a RODI system into my well water system. I Installed one faucet for RO just for drinking and a second faucet for RODI for my fish. I’m keeping my soft water tanks at a GH of 50 ppm by mixing RODI Water with my well Water. For my hard water tanks, the GH is approximately 220 ppm, varying from about 175 to 250 depending on the time of year. I take the hard well water with the nitrate level that varies between 10 and 30 ppm and use a nitrate binding resin filter to get rid of most of the nitrate before it goes into my tank. But even with the filter, the nitrate level varies between five and 10 ppm going into the tank.

 

[Magnum Man]

because the well fill lines go into my tanks directly, I just checked the water of the tank pictured... had to chisel out a sample cup from the tank...

tds.... 442
ppm...726
ph... batteries were dead

this from aquarium coop

"KH is measured in dKH (degrees of KH) or

ppm (parts per million), where 1 dKH equals 17.9 ppm. Typically, freshwater aquariums should be between 4-8 dKH (or 70-140 ppm)"

so this blended tank water, mostly hard, some RO should equal 40... if I did it right...

tds in the bigger non blended tanks read 445 tds

easy to understand why I couldn't keep soft water fish, before the RO system...