My poor pleco...

[cichlidmaster]

Hey GL,
You must be in severe "PAIN" after "coming out of the tap" at 10 . Would that be a.m. or p.m. and is that a brewski tap you talking about. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[Davy Reynolds]

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

[justrfb]

OK All,
 Sorry it took a while for me to get back to you...  Been very busy with everything.  Like you aren't, right :grin:  I hope you are all sitting because do I have readings for you!  Thanks to ALL for the help because I think I will nail the problem and it would not have been the case with out you guys.

 Tank - 322 ppm ( 18 ) KH and 214 ppm (12) GH :but:
 Soft tap -  179 ppm (10) KH and 53 ppm (3) GH (We have a water softner which is the water I change my tank with)
 Hard tap - 214 ppm (12) KH and 358 ppm (20) GH

 I will start changing water (by the gallon) tonight with deionized water.  pH is holding at 7.8, wonder why???  Could someone offer the correct ranges please?  55 Gal tank with Aquaclear 500.  Mostly tropical with pleco's (the initial inquirey).  I am looking forward to getting the Golden nugget pleco ( L018 ).  Thanks again to all!!

 Justrfb

 

[justrfb]

Hello All,
 I went to the store and just noticed I bought distilled water instead of deionized water.   The instructions for the water hardness test kit say to dilute with water changes of deionized water.  Do I bring it back for deionized or can I use the distilled water?  Thank you all.

  Justrfb

 

[Davy Reynolds]

Argh, brain overload. Someone else verify this but distiled water is usually striped of everything and aint good for fish tanks.

 

[whacky]

Alien Anna, i sympathise with your water problems i am just up the road a bit from you and it is a night mare.


Im actuall using RO water now cos when i first got her my amazon fish were dying and it was doing my head in, i tested the tap water and nearly died.

Never mind the new tank is up and running i will keep you informed.

 

[adeyc]

Distilling is the process where the liquid(usualy water + barely/potatoe skins etc and some other stuff even crude oil) is boiled. the vapour is the fed along pipes and cooled. when the vapour cools it reverts to it's natural form(a liquid again) and is collected, thus you have a liquid with all the impurites removed. Distilled water. for oil they use different cooling temps to get petrol/gasoline, parrafin/ kerrosine, the diferent grades of engine oil, rocket fuel(some types only), etc. No comments about a scotsman know ing the distillling process please, the Irish and the American red necks and hill billys no better about "the 'shine".

De-Ionisation comes from when the water is passed through a filter that removes the positvley and negativly charged ions.

I'd say take the stuff back and change it.

 

[Alien Anna]

Wacky,

Im actuall using RO water now cos when i first got her my amazon fish were dying and it was doing my head in, i tested the tap water and nearly died.

Where did you get your RO unit? I've looked everywhere for one, but haven't been able to find one. I got some bottled RO water from an LFS in Peterborough, but since then I've had no source. The peat-filtered water is OK, but it's a slow process and the blasted tap water even manages to buffer that unless I keep replacing the peat!

I think most of my fish are acclimatised to the local water, and I don't want to do anything as I'm going on holiday soon, but when I come back, I definitely want to look into it.

 

[adeyc]

Whaky~ I dont know if RO untis are what Anna uses but any lfs should be able to get one for you. Be warned though most RO units only do about 25 gallons before the filter need recharged/changed. there are ones available that will do more but I don't know much about those ones. Sorry m8.