Hard Water Concerns

[cvermeulen]

Well, I've moved to a new place, and I've set up a temporary tank with a TSN in it. I got so far as to have everything mostly cycled and set up before I realised somethign was funny about my water. My heaters all have scale buildup on them after only a couple of weeks, and when I took the aerator screen off the sink to hookup my W/C Hose, there was a pile of greyish scale cought behind it.

Now, my fish seem to be doing well enough, but I have to wonder if this is going to be a long term health concern for them. What are my options? I read about water softeners, but I don't think that's a particularly great option (Sodium instead of calcium in my fish water.) This is a rental house any way so I won't be installing any permanent fixtures. RO/DI is an expense I really would rather not take on for waterchanges.

From what I've read most fish can adapt to hard water, but I do worry that the water chemistry will be all over the place - slowly swinging to acidic between water changes, then being jacked back up with the next waterchange.

I guess at the very least I should get some cool snails or something that will make use of the dissolved solids!

 

[Pharaoh]

I have had success in both hard and soft water. I never really noticed a differenct other than the scale buildup.

 

[cvermeulen]

Good to know. Any tips on dealing with the scale? It's quite unattractive!

 

[Pharaoh]

Just keep on top of it. If you diligently keep things clean, it should have the chance to build up.

 

[Lupin]

My water is hard. I would not worry too much about it.

 

[dwilder]

hard water is usually pretty stable but you could do some tests to see if the ph jumps around most fish will adjust fine to hard water i raise discus in it as far as the deposits scrub at them all the time maybe use some white vinegar but get used to it because you have to scrub almost every day not to have any or do like me and dont worry about it until it gets to be to much

 

[MonsterMinis]

like a few others. I've never had much issue w/ it. the build-up has been the most challenging part. and white vinegar does wonders to remove it. doing fewer WC's more often has been part of the key to maintaining my own PH. I don't get major swings in PH. but I also put driftwood in all my tanks so this may be part of it. a softening system = salt. so depending on what species you keep this may or may not be an issue. I do use my softening system but that because we do have arsenic in our well. It's been tested to acceptable levels but I still do not like the idea of it in my tanks at all. think it cost about 30$ to have the country come out and do the testing levels. Might be somehting to consider depending on if your on tap or well. otherwise a call to your water treatment plant should be able to get you the water dynamics. other then of course doing your own testing. depending on how worried you are.

but for the build-up white vinegar and a handy dandy razor blade and abit of elbow work are my own bread and butter in getting rid of it.

I keep cherry shrimp, cardinal tetras, cories, bichirs, oscar, fire eel, angel fish, and a plethera of live bearers, eclipse cat, asian bumblebee cats, royal pleco, flash pleco, and a handful of others. In hard water. I drip acclimate all my new fish, and have never had a problem with the hard water.

 

[cvermeulen]

Thanks all, good to know. It's hard to believe that water with so much solid solute in it doesn't harm the fish!

 

[tcarswell]

Thanks all, good to know. It's hard to believe that water with so much solid solute in it doesn't harm the fish!

yup , I am in the same position my water maxes out the test strips in hardness. But I keep bichirs and TSN even a few community tanks and they are all fine. I did notice I have to acclimate very slowly when I buy fish from different areas or they die off in 48 hours

Never the less My Angel pair happily breed
The bichirs incessantly beg for food
And the Oscars act just like Oscars should

 

[cvermeulen]

yup , I am in the same position my water maxes out the test strips in hardness. But I keep bichirs and TSN even a few community tanks and they are all fine. I did notice I have to acclimate very slowly when I buy fish from different areas or they die off in 48 hours

Never the less My Angel pair happily breed
The bichirs incessantly beg for food
And the Oscars act just like Oscars should

That's really good information. How slowly is slowly? I will be moving my fish from my old house up here at some point, and they are quite precious to me, so I want to do things properly. However, by the time they arrive here they will have been in transit for ~18 hours already, so acclimation time would be nice to minimize.