Need Help to Correct water!

[Aquafreak]

I don't know that everyone understands what you mean by 0 alkilinity. Maybe try to state your pH as a reading next time, like 6.5.

Rockydog's post sounds like a winner!

 

[ward1066]

+1 on sea salt and epsom, I usually use around a cup per 100 gal,,half a cup of sea salt.,,my water is pretty soft also

 

[gomezladdams]

Youre sure theres not a water softener involved somewhere?If there is bypass it.Adding buffers and hardness on top of all that sodium would be worse for the fish.

 

[velanarris]

Either that or you have an in line RO/DI unit.

 

[12 Volt Man]

Water hardness affects fish health because it influences osmoregulation. Being open systems, fish are affected by the makeup of the surrounding water. As a consequence of osmosis, freshwater fish are subject to a continuous influx of water, while marine fish have to live with a continuous outflow of water.

Against this continuous movement of water into or out of the body, fish have to maintain a constant internal body fluid concentration – a process called osmoregulation. The greater the difference in concentration between the fish’s body fluids and the surrounding water – the greater the osmotic effect. As hard water is more concentrated than soft, there will be less difference and therefore less water influx and consequently the fish will not have to work so hard at osmoregulation. This is particularly important in cases of bacterial ulceration where water can flood into open tissues.

basically what that says is:
having 0 alkalinity and 0 hardness with cause fish to die in the long term.

i have

0 ammonia PPM
0 nitrite PPM
5-10 nitrate PPM

in my tank

to answer ur question.

absolutely. I wasnt questioning that zero TDS water could hurt your fish over time. but I find it surprising that your tap water has zero TDS. I work in the industry (actually the wastewater side but the treatment processes are the same). if your tap water source is from a well or from a lake, its should have dissoved minerals in it. but it can be on the softer side of things ie they can be low..but not zero.

are you filtering the tap water through an RO unit or Ion Exchange unit? that can get the TDS values very low..

 

[MadRussian79]

what are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrite levels?

your tapwater, even if it is very 'soft' wouldnt be killing your fish..

Lost one tank full of Discus and almost lost a second one due to RO only water. Yes it will kill your fish and makes the slightest laxity in water changes fatal as you have acid crash down to pH 4 which will kill almost anything.

I'd kill for soft tap water as running an RO/DI constantly for water changes is a huge hassle. There may be a softener system up stream of you. If it is RO then great just go with Baking Soda and Epsom salt. I tend to use the chemical grade versions of these from Seachems or cole parmer if you have the money. I have gotten inconsistant results with Pharmacy bought Epsom Salt and baking soda. If it is an ion exchange unit then you need to be more careful.

 

[12 Volt Man]

I know a lot of discus keepers 'cut' their RO water with tap water to avoid the problem you had. one of my fish friends uses a probe to measure the conductivity (in microseimens) of his RO/tap water mix for his discus.

 

[MadRussian79]

I know a lot of discus keepers 'cut' their RO water with tap water to avoid the problem you had. one of my fish friends uses a probe to measure the conductivity (in microseimens) of his RO/tap water mix for his discus.

I was the only one brave or stupid enough (depending on your life view) to try keeping Discus of those I knew in the hobby at the time (12-13 years ago). The only thing anyone could tell me was that they need soft clean water. I now use a TDS meter now when I reconstitute my water, looking at picking up a Carbonate probe and GH probe. I use RO as the tap water is horrid (even filtered) for fish. Not sure why but when my RO died I used filtered tap and badly damaged both my tanks.

 

[Rockydog]

I don't know that everyone understands what you mean by 0 alkilinity. Maybe try to state your pH as a reading next time, like 6.5.

0 alkilinity means 0 ppm or 0 dH Carbonate Hardness and is often referred to it this way. Anything less than 5 dH Carbonate hardness and your ph would be fluctuating all over the place ie you do a water change and your Ph is 7.8 but you check it tomorrow and it's 6.5, there's no buffer to keep it stable. Bicarbonate of Soda is the cheapest and best way to keep your Ph stable but will only increase to a max of 8.2 which is usually more than sufficient for fresh water fish that prefer hard alkaline water.

 

[misterjose23]

ive never had this problem with water conditions before. i just put amQuel n a cycled filter into my new tanks. plus about 50 feeders as test subjects. lol a day or two later the tanks is ready.