Reoccurring Cloudy water

[Mvrenko]

Am I the only one who's going to call out the salt softening system? Bad, bad thing for freshwater fish.

Ok, thanks for calling that out. Any evidence you can provide that shows salt softening system are harmful to the fresh water fish would be helpful. I'm curious.

 

[xraycer]

Am I the only one who's going to call out the salt softening system? Bad, bad thing for freshwater fish.

While I don't recommend using salt softened water, this is what I've been using for the past 5 years since I've returned to the hobby. I live in a cold region and do wc at over 50%, so I have to mix in hot water(which is softened).
So, after 5 years if this, I'm not seeing any obvious issues. I'm running 4 tanks at the moment, raising a wide varieties of fish from different parts of the world, nearly all my fish are grow-outs, I've had plenty of breedings, and I rarely have sickness. I have a fishkeeping friend in town that also uses whole house salt soften water, and he owns an even greater variety of fish than me and is more interested in the breeding aspect of the hobby......and he is extremely successful, and not experiencing any issues with this softened water either.
Here are a few examples of my grow-outs and the varieties I keep:
View attachment 1233890

 

[Mbielek]

While I don't recommend using salt softened water, this is what I've been using for the past 5 years since I've returned to the hobby. I live in a cold region and do wc at over 50%, so I have to mix in hot water(which is softened).
So, after 5 years if this, I'm not seeing any obvious issues. I'm running 4 tanks at the moment, raising a wide varieties of fish from different parts of the world, nearly all my fish are grow-outs, I've had plenty of breedings, and I rarely have sickness. I have a fishkeeping friend in town that also uses whole house salt soften water, and he owns an even greater variety of fish than me and is more interested in the breeding aspect of the hobby......and he is extremely successful, and not experiencing any issues with this softened water either.
Here are a few examples of my grow-outs and the varieties I keep:
View attachment 1233890 View attachment 1233891 View attachment 1233892 View attachment 1233894 View attachment 1233895 View attachment 1233896

View attachment 1233893

Wow those are gorgeous fish!! Excellent variety. Thanks for the reply, it's a little settling to hear that somebody has been successful with the same water that I am using, makes me feel a little better about doing such big water changes.

 

[Mbielek]

no thats not ideal, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, some nitrate is ideal, nitrate should be between 5 and 20 to be ideal, 20 is water change time.

Realized I was reading test strip incorrectly. After a few days of 20% changes, my current parameters are some nitrate, 0 nitrite and 7.5 ph