Tapwater pH 9.5

[fish lady]

I recently tested my water straight out of the tap and found it had a pH of about 9.5 (estimated as my scale doesnt go that high!) and have read that although pH has no direct effect on fish (unless they're used to specifcally acidic waters) it does have an effect on the way ammonia acts in the tank.

Apparently the higher the pH the lower you need to keep the ammonia (or was it nitrates.... cant remember but point still stands, it increases the harmful affects of one of the bad chemicals).

So decided to find out what other types of water are available.

I have two fairly local fish shops, so visited them both. The closest has the same water problem but say it is nothing to worry about and they have always had a high pH (the water around here is very hard too).

The other, which is further away and has a lower pH tap water also supply RO water. Now I have read that this is sposed to be really good, but its quite expensive. (£7 for a 25 ltr conatiner and then £4 to fill it up - I have a 70 ltr tank so for a full tank I will need to fill it up 3 times and make three journeys at a cost of £19 plus the cost of the trips in petrol!)

I then decided to look at the price of bottled mineral water.... Tesco's (a superstore chain n the UK for anyone not familiar with the name) sell 2ltr bottles of their own brand for 18p. I checked its contents and it reads as follows:

All values in mg/l

Calcium - 97
Magnesium - 3
Sodium - 15
Potassium - 1.5
Fluoride - 0.1
CHLORIDE - 27
NITRATE - 20
Sulphate - 20
Bicarbonate - 291.0 !!!!! ?

So, at 18p for 2 litres you can fill up a 70 litre tank for £6.30!

So what do you think? Is Mineral water safe for fishes? My chart says that 25 mg/l of nitrates is "acceptable for delicate fish...). Would you spend the extra cash on RO water (this is higly filtered extremely pure water from the tap btw if you didnt know - look it up on google!), or would you just use the very hard, very high pH almost free tap water? Opinions, comments, warnings?

 

[st.cichlid]

it should be

 

[smileandnod]

Good grief. 9.5?

I'd have a word with my water authority if my ph was 9.5.

I've always been advised not to use spring water, and I do use RO. You can''t use just RO though, so you would need to mix it with your tap water.

Probably a better option is to investigate using some peat in your filter. Or do you have any way of collecting rain water?

Messing with your PH is not a good thing to be doing, and so long as you keep your amonia down to zero, it can't be affected by your PH.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I use tap water, I haven't tested all it's parameters but the ph is 7.5.

 

[fish lady]

Hmm.

Smileandnod - I did contact the water authority and go them to do extensive tests on it. The reult came back that there was nothing worng with the water from a drinking point of view and apparently (Quote the waterboard) "There is no EU limit to the Ph Level of drinking water (or its hardness for that matter)!"

Well, Ihave bought myself 65 litres of mineral water and am gradually erplacing the tap water in the tank, so far the fish look happy enough. I decided I might as well try it seems as I have lost nearly all my fish in the last week or two! (Had them for about 7 months then they all started dying - see my topic in fish emergencies!)

Will let you know how they react....

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Have you tested the bottled water?

 

[fish lady]

I have tested it yes, it came out wit a pH of about 8, so much lower than my tap water. Also tested for nitrates etc and all was good.

 

[Changes-In-Latitude]

You can also buy small Reverse Osmosis units for the home. This could prove to be a cheaper alternative in the long run than buying from a LFS.

The water out of my taps is straight off the mountain liquid gold, nothing added by the water district and nothing taken away. Also my wife was the lab tech for the water district for quite awhile so got all the free and varied tests I wanted.
To top it all off, where I work I have access to a pretty much an unlimited supply of RO/DI water. Geez, you'd think I was bragging about the water I get. )

 

[Tropjunky]

You can also buy small Reverse Osmosis units for the home. This could prove to be a cheaper alternative in the long run than buying from a LFS.

That is only if your water isn't meatered and it a RO Unit costs about £100 and thats only if you know where to go.

I wouldn't add miniral water from tescos 'cos bottled water may contain preservatives in it so carbon filter it before you add to to ur tank