How Can I Make The Water Soft?
- Thread starter fish.com1
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helterskelter
Livebearer Specilest
how soft are u looking.
Removing rocks and adding bog wood will help a little
Removing rocks and adding bog wood will help a little
helterskelter
Livebearer Specilest
armoned leaf's will help some more but you may need to think of getting some R.O. and mixxing it get it down.
do You mean indian almond leafs?
helterskelter
Livebearer Specilest
soz ye thats them But R.O. from a local shop may be a faster way
kribensis12
I know where you live
Yes, or you can just buy a R/O Filter. They run at about a hundred Dollars, but are cheaper in the long run. I ma about to get one soon. My ph is at 8.6 and my Kh and Gh is so high that it wont register when i test. The ph is preventing my angels eggs from hatching. I want my ph at about 7.0. So i plan on doing 3 25 percent water changes in 3 weeks adding it after i take out the old water. Then, the fourth week, put in 25 percent tap water. That keeps the R/O water's ph stable.
helterskelter
Livebearer Specilest
Depends on how much u need if you can get 4-5 gallons at time and add enough to drop the pH slowly. Then once you use toit add what u need when doing a water change.
Guess the first thing would be getting 10 liters of tap water and add a litre of RO at a time untill u get you desired pH.
Then u can store the unused RO till next time.
Course if you using loads of R.O. then think of getting an R.O. unit
Guess the first thing would be getting 10 liters of tap water and add a litre of RO at a time untill u get you desired pH.
Then u can store the unused RO till next time.
Course if you using loads of R.O. then think of getting an R.O. unit
rabbut
I don't bite, all that often...
Be careful with RO. A sudden drop in hardness can and often will kill your fish. KH allows a fish to excreet ammonia at it's gills, so if you drop it fast, the fish cannot addapt it's osmotic systems within, and thus cannot excreet ammonia as fast as it is being produced in the fish. This leads to the ammonia building up in the fish, poisoning itself to death 
With off the chart KH KRIBENSIS12, a 25% waterchange adding neet RO will likely kill your fish, as that is a MASSIVE drop. I surgest more reading up on water chemistory before you even think abotu trying it, as ATM you are asking for trouble. You need to fully understand the link between KH, GH, pH and CO2 in the water to be lowering the hardness and pH with RO safely. On top of this, you need to understand how a sudden drop in hardness will affect your fish, and by how much a drop will be tollerated by your fish. Realistically, more than 5dKH in one go is dangerous
TO mix RO, you need tests for pH, GH and KH
Test each from the tap, and decide on your targets. It is then a case of using ratios to sort out the ammount of RO to tap you need for the desired levels at waterchange time.
Krib, add 4ml of RO to a 1ml sample of tap water and re-test your hardness (assuming your kit uses 5ml sample sizes) and then multiply the result by 5 to get your KH reading and GH reading One you know where they are at, you can work out the maximum safe waterchange size you can do when topping up with neet RO
All the best
Rabbut
With off the chart KH KRIBENSIS12, a 25% waterchange adding neet RO will likely kill your fish, as that is a MASSIVE drop. I surgest more reading up on water chemistory before you even think abotu trying it, as ATM you are asking for trouble. You need to fully understand the link between KH, GH, pH and CO2 in the water to be lowering the hardness and pH with RO safely. On top of this, you need to understand how a sudden drop in hardness will affect your fish, and by how much a drop will be tollerated by your fish. Realistically, more than 5dKH in one go is dangerous
TO mix RO, you need tests for pH, GH and KH
Test each from the tap, and decide on your targets. It is then a case of using ratios to sort out the ammount of RO to tap you need for the desired levels at waterchange time.Krib, add 4ml of RO to a 1ml sample of tap water and re-test your hardness (assuming your kit uses 5ml sample sizes) and then multiply the result by 5 to get your KH reading and GH reading
One you know where they are at, you can work out the maximum safe waterchange size you can do when topping up with neet RO All the best
Rabbut
petertr
Fish Addict
Beat me to it Rabbut.
RO Water is a long game - not a overnight fix.
RO Water is a long game - not a overnight fix.
Gun
Fish Crazy
Yeah, I'm going to have the same problem if I plan on breeding angels and especially Discus. Would like to find out a bit more about these R/O filters... 
drobbyb
Bowhead
Why do you need to soften it? Fish will adapt to whatever hardness they are in. Unless you are breeding, you shouldn't mess with your hardness.
rabbut
I don't bite, all that often...
I agree for the most part, but a few people in this thread are looking to breed I may have to do a description thread for RO units at this rate, if there isn't one already pinned somewhere
The RO membrane basically has holes in it so fine that for all practicle porposes, only water can squeeze through them, so any and all rubbish in the water supply gets stripped out. It will however remove the good stuff like electrolites and KH too, so RO neet will have pH 7 if uncontaminated, but a single lemon drop could crash the pH in a 100g vat it is that unstable when pure... This is why it cannot be use neet. It is unstable to work with, and also lacks any minerals and electrolites...
The simplist filters you can get are three stage. The pass through a sediment pre that remove fine silt from the water supply. Then they hit a carbon block filter that will reduce the ammount of chemicals in the water. These filter are used up within about 3 months of continuous use, and need replacing, at a cost of about £5-10 each for standord size filters They clog and expire, so you don't have to replace the £25-200 membrane every 3 months... The membrane if kept wet and not subjected to constant changes in pressure or off the scale hardness should do 15 years service. In hard water areas, well cared for membrances last about 5 years. This assumes they are always running. Pressurising and de-pressurising them nackers them, and being switched on and off daily severly shortens the life-span of it. In hard water areas, with daily switch ons, expect a years service from it, 5 in a soft water area. Weekly on and off for waterchanges isn't that harsh on it though, so expect more like 3-10 years service from a "typical" membrane
You can get DI and all manor of other filters fitted, but IMO, they are not worth the extra cost
All the best
Rabbut
I may have to do a description thread for RO units at this rate, if there isn't one already pinned somewhere The RO membrane basically has holes in it so fine that for all practicle porposes, only water can squeeze through them, so any and all rubbish in the water supply gets stripped out. It will however remove the good stuff like electrolites and KH too, so RO neet will have pH 7 if uncontaminated, but a single lemon drop could crash the pH in a 100g vat it is that unstable when pure... This is why it cannot be use neet. It is unstable to work with, and also lacks any minerals and electrolites...
The simplist filters you can get are three stage. The pass through a sediment pre that remove fine silt from the water supply. Then they hit a carbon block filter that will reduce the ammount of chemicals in the water. These filter are used up within about 3 months of continuous use, and need replacing, at a cost of about £5-10 each for standord size filters
They clog and expire, so you don't have to replace the £25-200 membrane every 3 months... The membrane if kept wet and not subjected to constant changes in pressure or off the scale hardness should do 15 years service. In hard water areas, well cared for membrances last about 5 years. This assumes they are always running. Pressurising and de-pressurising them nackers them, and being switched on and off daily severly shortens the life-span of it. In hard water areas, with daily switch ons, expect a years service from it, 5 in a soft water area. Weekly on and off for waterchanges isn't that harsh on it though, so expect more like 3-10 years service from a "typical" membrane You can get DI and all manor of other filters fitted, but IMO, they are not worth the extra cost
All the best
Rabbut
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