Neon tetras

[Essjay]

I'm afraid the water here is very hard. The unit given is mg/l calcium not mg/l calcium carbonate.

115 mg/l calcium is 16 dH and 287 ppm.

This is too hard for neon tetras. Using RO water will lower it. Bottled water from shops will contain some menerals (look at the label) while RO is pure water. Using half RO and half tap will reduce the hardness to 8 dH/143 ppm.

 

[Naughts]

I'm afraid the water here is very hard. The unit given is mg/l calcium not mg/l calcium carbonate.

115 mg/l calcium is 16 dH and 287 ppm.

This is too hard for neon tetras. Using RO water will lower it. Bottled water from shops will contain some menerals (look at the label) while RO is pure water. Using half RO and half tap will reduce the hardness to 8 dH/143 ppm.

Ah, I didn't realise these were not the same unit ( mg/l calcium not mg/l calcium carbonate). Thanks Essjay. Sorry for the confusion Lauren.

 

[Essjay]

We have to be very careful of the unit for hardness. mg/l calcium is common on UK water company websites and I've even seen mg/l calcium oxide!

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Ah okay, thank you for the info! Would it be possible to use all bottled water instead of my water to lower it to those measurements instead? The place I can get RO water from is quite a drive away. I know a lot of water over here gives you the hardness and ph on the bottle

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Would using this in water changed instead help? My ph is a lot higher than that right now, but I don’t know how to convert how they’ve put the calcium in my/100ml. And would I be best converting to this water slowly for the fish? I also have shrimp so I’m conscious of changing the parameters too much, but they will be going in their own separate tank hopefully in about a month.

 

[Essjay]

That is softer than the Asda water, but it still means changing your tap water to Morrison's water then back to dilute tap water if you change to RO. And again 15 bottles a week. You could mix this one with a bit of tap water but you'd still need around 20 litres a week.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Have you looked into this company? https://www.spotlesswater.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5-yHg4eW6wIVGJ3VCh2Y6gOCEAAYASAAEgJf1PD_BwE

I had to look into RO water too since my water is almost as hard as yours, and that limits the fish I want to keep, and I have otos which need softer water than I knew and have. Another member helpfully linked this company for me, you might find a location for RO water closer than the one you found, hopefully!

 

[seangee]

Fish stores are also an option. Most sell RO, it will be more expensive than the link posted above but still cheaper and more convenient than bottles from a supermarket.

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Thank you everyone for your replies. So if I could get hold of RO water, would I be best slowly transitioniting to using half that and half tap water in my water changes? My tank is very densely planted and based on my nitrates I don’t do water changes every week.

 

[Naughts]

You could take out 50% of the water each week and add back half RO and half tap.
Do you have a plan for your guppy? https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-reticulata/

 

[Retired Viking]

When I started out using RO I added 20-25% RO to tap water and increased it with each weekly water change. I have a 55 gallon tank and do a 50% water change. There is a little less than 55 gallons due to sand, plants and decorations so I figured around 48 gallons of water which 50% is 24 gallon so I started with 6 gallons of RO to 18 gallons of tap and added a couple of gallons of RO each week while reducing the tap water. That way my tetra adjusted to the softer water. I went from 134ppm to 50ppm. It is helpful to pick up a hard water pen meter to test your water.

 

[Lauren Olivia]

When I started out using RO I added 20-25% RO to tap water and increased it with each weekly water change. I have a 55 gallon tank and do a 50% water change. There is a little less than 55 gallons due to sand, plants and decorations so I figured around 48 gallons of water which 50% is 24 gallon so I started with 6 gallons of RO to 18 gallons of tap and added a couple of gallons of RO each week while reducing the tap water. That way my tetra ajusted to the softer water. I went from 134ppm to 50pmm. It is helpful to pick up a hard water pen meter to test your water.

Ok, thank you for the help!

 

[Lauren Olivia]

You could take out 50% of the water each week and add back half RO and half tap.
Do you have a plan for your guppy? https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/poecilia-reticulata/

Ok, thank you. I think I’ll be putting him in another tank that has some guppies in, he was the one fry that managed to escape being netted out when I gave them all away so I was waiting for him to grow up a bit. There’s some other bigger fish in the other tank so didn’t want to risk it getting eaten.

 

[Essjay]

My tank is very densely planted and based on my nitrates I don’t do water changes every week.

Regardless of the nitrate level, you should still do weekly water changes of at least 50%. Nitrates don't go up in a planted tank because the plants use the ammonia made by the fish and they don't turn it into nitrate. But countless other things which we can't test for do buiild up in the water which is why we do large weekly water changes.

 

[Lauren Olivia]

Regardless of the nitrate level, you should still do weekly water changes of at least 50%. Nitrates don't go up in a planted tank because the plants use the ammonia made by the fish and they don't turn it into nitrate. But countless other things which we can't test for do buiild up in the water which is why we do large weekly water changes.

Ah right, all I’ve heard before is that you can judge how much water you need to change how often by your nitrates. Mine still don’t start to go above 5-10 in two weeks so I assumed it was okay to do it every two weeks to keep these low. Out of interest, what other substances build up? At the moment I do about 50% every other week so I’ll think of increasing that. This was the kind of information I found along with local fish keepers and stores advice when I was learning https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-change-aquarium-water-correctly

edit:
Okay so I’ve done some research and there’s so much conflicting information. Some people say that you should let your nitrates lead your water changes based on your stocking and they’ve had success with this, others say it’s best to keep changing water every week to keep it close to your tap water. I’m so confused! A lot of people say that changing water every fortnight will be okay if your nitrates stay low, but other people prefer to do it weekly as a routine to get into. I’m not going to be able to get RO water weekly.