Hard water problems, help please.

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K

kakojones

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2006
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Florida
Hey guys, I need a way to soften my water in a short period of time (not so quickly that the swordtails and platies go into some kind of shock). any suggestions?

I had to restart my 26 gallon and now I just have some platies and swordtails in there (they actually just added a couple more swordtails on there own), but I'm planning on adding some other fish, maybe a few pre-monsters and need to make the water acceptable to others. The water is also lightly salted just because the tank the swordtails and platies came from was close to being brackish/saltwater.

The hardness is just about at the top range for the swords and platies.

thanks for any info guys.
 
Howdy,

Are you asking for a technique to get the fish used to it, or are you asking for a way to soften your tap water? Do it slowly over a period of time as long as possible, and get an R/O if you have hard water from the tap.

HarleyK
 
Just for the way to soften the water. I can always figure out a way to do it over time even if it means more work on my part, just anything expensive would be a big no go right now.
 
milkman407;587786; said:
I heard driftwood softens water??
Click to expand...
Only with a limited capacity and only over a short period of time.

Filtration thru peat might work, but it also has its limitations. If your tap water is hard and you want soft water, only an R/O unit or comparable generation of distilled water will do the trick. Remember to not use pure R/O water, as it has no buffer capacity.

HarleyK
 
Do you really think its needed to soften the water for the live bearers you keep? As long as the fish are acclimated properly it should be fine. I keep rays and my water is literally liquid granite and they are doing just fine!
 
Without using an R.O. system it is darn near impossible to lower the PH in hard water, at least for any length of time. Peat may work if you just need to soften the water a little bit, but it turns the water yellow (same as new driftwood) from the tannins in it.

Hard water has buffers in it that will keep the PH up, no matter what you try to do. and live bearers do best in hard water anyways.

If there's one thing I've learned in 20 years of fish keeping it's don't mess with the PH! Don't use buffers (unless you are reconstituting R.O. water and you have the proper test kits)! Keep fish that will work with YOUR water.
 
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