Tap water filtration options

[BadGaskets]

I don't keep fish that are particularly sensitive. Probably the most fragile are Severums, which isn't saying much. I also have basic common plants.

Anyhow, I'm on Charleston County water in SC which usually has a pH around 8, but only 2kH and the hardness is barely readable (1 or 2 gH) on my Sera kit.

However it's common around here for skilled, experienced keepers to suddenly have a crash after a water change.

I have an RO unit but have lately only been using the sediment and carbon chambers since our water is already so soft.

Other than the Severums, most of my tanks actually prefer slightly harder water and more kH so I'm not really wanting to use full RO other than for top off.

Whats a reasonable course of action here? Am I still really best to stick with the RO? I have about 650 gallons of aquariums in the house and my little fish room. I'd really prefer to find a faster way of getting water than an RO. I don't really have room for storing 300+gallons of RO water.

How effective is 3 stage for folks with sketchy tap water? (sediment, GAC, and carbon block)?

 

[tlindsey]

I don't keep fish that are particularly sensitive. Probably the most fragile are Severums, which isn't saying much. I also have basic common plants.

Anyhow, I'm on Charleston County water in SC which usually has a pH around 8, but only 2kH and the hardness is barely readable (1 or 2 gH) on my Sera kit.

However it's common around here for skilled, experienced keepers to suddenly have a crash after a water change.

I have an RO unit but have lately only been using the sediment and carbon chambers since our water is already so soft.

Other than the Severums, most of my tanks actually prefer slightly harder water and more kH so I'm not really wanting to use full RO other than for top off.

Whats a reasonable course of action here? Am I still really best to stick with the RO? I have about 650 gallons of aquariums in the house and my little fish room. I'd really prefer to find a faster way of getting water than an RO. I don't really have room for storing 300+gallons of RO water.

How effective is 3 stage for folks with sketchy tap water? (sediment, GAC, and carbon block)?

duanes

 

[duanes]

Because your water is soft, it's no surprise aquarists in your area sometimes experience periodic crashes.
In most cases, soft water has very low buffering capacity, and if adding RO to it, that may make it even more prone to crash.
In such soft water I'd be using a substrate like aragonite to add buffering capacity "if" trying to keep hard water species (or in reality), I would not keep hard water species at all.

That's because I don't chase water parameters other than in nitrate control (easy with simple water changes, and heavy plantings) and because my water is hard, and high pH, I don't keep soft water species (fish or aquatic plants) that aren't naturally adapted to my tap water.
I find trying to fight water parameters to be an exercise in futility when there are so many choices, on either side of the water parameter spectrum to choose from

I have always wanted o keep Uaru fernandezyepezii, but...they require a low pH of 4-5, with little to no hardness .
So by trying to force them live in the abberent water of my tank, they'd just end up dead or diseased, not a very satisfying outcome.

My hard water planted tank above, hard water cichlid tank below.

 

[duanes]

By the way, at this time of year, my tanks (being outside) get inundated with tannins from the runoff of surrounding vegetation, hence the brown water color tint.
The high alkalinity of the tap water, even at that dense tannin concentration barely effects pH at all.
In soft water, I believe it would cause pH to crash like a rock.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

I don't keep fish that are particularly sensitive. Probably the most fragile are Severums, which isn't saying much. I also have basic common plants.

Anyhow, I'm on Charleston County water in SC which usually has a pH around 8, but only 2kH and the hardness is barely readable (1 or 2 gH) on my Sera kit.

However it's common around here for skilled, experienced keepers to suddenly have a crash after a water change.

I have an RO unit but have lately only been using the sediment and carbon chambers since our water is already so soft.

Other than the Severums, most of my tanks actually prefer slightly harder water and more kH so I'm not really wanting to use full RO other than for top off.

Whats a reasonable course of action here? Am I still really best to stick with the RO? I have about 650 gallons of aquariums in the house and my little fish room. I'd really prefer to find a faster way of getting water than an RO. I don't really have room for storing 300+gallons of RO water.

How effective is 3 stage for folks with sketchy tap water? (sediment, GAC, and carbon block)?

If you already have fairly soft water I don't know what you're planning with the RO, it will just make it worse and like Tlindsey said, that's a possible cause of tank crashes if you do a big change of a relatively hard water tank with soft water.

Another occasional cause is increased chlorine levels that utilities sometimes use after works or weather events. But that's mitigated by not being stingy with dechlorinator.

 

[dmyersWv]

Could not agree more about not chasing water parameters. There have been a few fish I did this for and in the end it was always bad.

 

[BadGaskets]

The problem I end up running into is that the high pH is problematic right out of the tap. It's always 8.0 or higher most likely due to hydroxides added by the municipality.

Not many fish like high pH soft water.


At least hard water is easier to replicate than soft.

The reason why I consider RO water is because things we don't usually test for also get filtered out including pathogens and plastic chemicals.