Water softener with my Vieja

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FishKing5 said:
Even with the new fish from Conkels coming tomorrow? They will be acclimated to softer water then back to my hard Tap then for the next 5 days. They're coming tomorrow
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You could do the two 25's today. Then go to one 25% tomorrow. And so forth and so on. You do 50% of your water today then really it isn't that big of a jump.

Plus if your pH is the same either way and your just changing hardness you should be OK. IMO
 
Covetous said:
You could do the two 25's today. Then go to one 25% tomorrow. And so forth and so on. You do 50% of your water today then really it isn't that big of a jump.

Plus if your pH is the same either way and your just changing hardness you should be OK. IMO
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Ya the pH is the same regardless. The hardness is just much different. My tank is going through a mini cycle at the moment so doing somewhat bug water changes I'd like to stay away from. I ended up cleaning my filter too much and squeezed out too much good bacteria in some of my media so was going to add some live nitrifying bacteria today to give it a boost. Things are just a bit of a mess right now. Ha. Fish are a bit stressed too with all this. I'll be leaving things the same and more steady for now on though. I've been messing with their tank too much lately with removing some fish and redecorating and now giving them soft water. They are quite skittish now but still eating well thankfully
 
I use whole house water softened water for all my fish which includes a number of Viejas. These Viejas were bought as juvies and are going on 3.5 years with me. If it wasn't for the sake of convenience, I would use bypassed well water. However, I'm from a cold region, and I do over a 50% w/c, so I need to mix in heated water(which is softened).20150606_213245.jpg
 
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Most water softeners (the kind that use salt) simply replace the calcium ions, with sodium ions, the softer water they produce is primarily better for "suds in a wash machines", or holding back metallic stains on clothes. The kind of water produced is not soft like the Amazon. It is a kind of soft you might find in a slightly brackish mineral poor estuary, so for some cichlids not that big a deal. But the exchange of calcium for sodium does not help with the waters buffering capacity in holding pH and alkalinity stable between water changes.
 
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Covetous said:
Plus if your pH is the same either way and your just changing hardness you should be OK. IMO
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Be cautious of this statement: hardness involves TSD(total dissolved solids), which in heavy fluctuations can be actually just as detrimental as a pH fluctuation
 
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