Well water for central Americans

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FishKing5

FishKing5

Aimara
MFK Member
Oct 24, 2013
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Hey everyone sorry for thr double post. I wanted to Re-title it to this. I'm moving to a farm we bought soon and have well water and then a water softener for the house. Should I just use the well water for my fish that are mostly vieja and some L series plecos or should I use the treated water that goes through the water softener. Thanks.
 
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I haven't found that the fish care all the much if there is a water softener in line. Water sent through a normal home water softener still has high TDS if the source water has high TDS. We have exceptionally hard, alkaline water where I am and fish that like hard, alkaline water do fine in water passed through my water softener. Alternatively, fish that come from softer waters are not super happy in that water. I use RODI water for them.

That being said, if you can easily bypass it for your fish, I probably would use the water that hadn't been altered.

I think a more important question is going to be how different from your current water is the well water at your new house.
 
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dalto said:
I haven't found that the fish care all the much if there is a water softener in line. Water sent through a normal home water softener still has high TDS if the source water has high TDS. We have exceptionally hard, alkaline water where I am and fish that like hard, alkaline water do fine in water passed through my water softener. Alternatively, fish that come from softer waters are not super happy in that water. I use RODI water for them.

That being said, if you can easily bypass it for your fish, I probably would use the water that hadn't been altered.

I think a more important question is going to be how different from your current water is the well water at your new house.
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its definitley going to be much different then the water I have for them currently. We have good water from the city here thats basically ideal perameters for my fish. I have no clue what the water is for the new place. Usually well water and septic isnt that great so am thinking the water softener would work well but i guess ill have to wait and see what the water perameters are there
 
my big question is to test the water for nitrates, farm well water is known to have higher nitrate, some well water can be quite high. 10 or 20 ppm.
 
pops said:
my big question is to test the water for nitrates, farm well water is known to have higher nitrate, some well water can be quite high. 10 or 20 ppm.
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Here's an updated water test result from June. It the water seeks pretty good to me I think. I'm not too educated on the hardness and iron readings so if anyone could chime in on that, that would be great. duanes duanes

Screenshot_20170803-070856.png
 
That is some hard water.

I would think that most central american cichlids would pretty much love that water.

Once you get there test your kH which I would expect to high and your Nitrates which hopefully will be low.
 
The hardness and PH looks good for Central American cichlids. I would be cautious about using the water from a water softener since it will replace the calcium and magnesium ions with either potassium or sodium. It's not truly the softened water that fish would expect, basically lower total dissolved solids (TDS). Water void of calcium and magnesium can have a detrimental affect on CA fish over the course or a few months, and I have known a couple of cases where even scalare angelfish did not do well in "softened" water.
 
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