I Think It Is Time (after 40yrs)....

[Ludwig Venter]

I've never known any of my water stats in all of 40yrs that I've been keeping fish & have never bothered about water chemisties and the likes.....(with mixed success)

Seeing the importance that some (most) of you couple to the water conditions,.....I thought to maybe give it a try......

It is part of my job to ensure a wholesome drinking quality of water in the working environment where I send away samples of our effluent and drinking water every month for a full chemical and Bacteriological annalysis at some accredited laboratories..... (so it is easy to just include a samlple taken from my tanks)

In general, our drinking water is around 7ph and the hardness is also relatively high.

What everyday chemicals (except for peat) can I add to ensure soft acidic water.... (looking for around 6.6ph and very soft).

 

[BigC]

Send a sample of rainwater collected from a clean source.
Reverse osmosis is another route.
Chemical Buffers is another.

I prefer to use a mixture of three Rainwater/Ro/Tap of varying degrees to suit what species of killifish I'm breeding at the time.
You need to be aware that the pH is not stable with soft water and can crash killing your fish. this needs to be buffered a little using a KH buffer.
For what its worth Ludwig I breed softwater killifish
In water made up from 8 litres Rainwater : 2 litres Reverse Osmosis then buffered (with KH buffer) to 34ppm which equates to 2dKH. (very soft) The buffer will raise the pH to a degree and help stabilise it.
but I don't worry too much as the fish are breeding and the eggs are viable. Mine comes out at 6.8
You will also need a TDS meter to measure the ppm. Once the TDS creeps up to around 50-60 do a waterchange.
Obviously your water will be a tad different than mine so just get you kits and testers and experiment with different permutations.
My rain water is collected by clear corrugated roofing sheet and channelled via guttering into a rainwater collection butt with a carbon filter attached.
Make sense
ATB
C

PS) 17.9ppm is one degree dKH.

 

[Tolak]

To drop pH use muriatic acid, but be very careful. This is something I'm contemplating starting with, as straight ro filtered through peat is giving me the softness I need, but not a low enough pH.

BigC; what are you using to buffer the kH? I'm looking to drop the pH to about 5.5-5.0, which is doable as far as I'm finding, stabilizing it is another story.

 

[BigC]

What is your rainwater like T, (stats)