Ro Versus Tap Water

[Memz]

Hello, I do hate to moan about my lfs but they seem to have told me soooo many fibs. I know I should have done more research before blindly wading in with my request for a little aquarium for Christmas. After immediately seeing a 15 litre tank is ridiculous for keeping fish and quickly replacing it with a free 48 litre, the shop told me that the Cardinals had died as I was keeping them on tap water (not that Cardinals don't actually like a new set-up) and I should convert to RO with added minerals. This I did but have read with interest that this really isn't a good idea. We do have extremely hard water and I was wondering if it might be an idea to go half and half? Maybe every other water change? Would the fish cope now with a 20% change with tap water?

I have:

4 Tetras of debatable type (they look like Neons but paler and were called 'Golden' in the shop)

2 Glow-lights

3 Peppered Cories

2 Bluetailed Guppies

1 remaining Cardinal called The Soldier

2 Cherry Shrimp and a couple of rampant snails whose eggs keep being removed!!!

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Redbone]

Hello, I do hate to moan about my lfs but they seem to have told me soooo many fibs. I know I should have done more research before blindly wading in with my request for a little aquarium for Christmas. After immediately seeing a 15 litre tank is ridiculous for keeping fish and quickly replacing it with a free 48 litre, the shop told me that the Cardinals had died as I was keeping them on tap water (not that Cardinals don't actually like a new set-up) and I should convert to RO with added minerals. This I did but have read with interest that this really isn't a good idea. We do have extremely hard water and I was wondering if it might be an idea to go half and half? Maybe every other water change? Would the fish cope now with a 20% change with tap water?

I have:

4 Tetras of debatable type (they look like Neons but paler and were called 'Golden' in the shop)

2 Glow-lights

3 Peppered Cories

2 Bluetailed Guppies

1 remaining Cardinal called The Soldier

2 Cherry Shrimp and a couple of rampant snails whose eggs keep being removed!!!

Your thoughts would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Redbone]

I'm having questions about water ph, stability, best,safest water params too. Just filled a 55 gallon tank with my well water which seems to be very hard (near8). For first time used API "Proper PH 6.5" product to soften. Don't particularly like doing chemical altering, but we are having a drought here in Florida,USA and I don't know what sort RO unit to invest in to maintain two 55's, a40, and a30 gallon setup. Anyway-- one dose didn't seem to do much, so I re-dosed a day later. Surprise.. my ph level seems to have come to nearly neutral. Don't know how stable this can be... want to find more testing supplies to look further. I want tetras to be in good envirement and more soft water cichlids (Apistos) Thanks, Jim

 

[Tonyb111111]

I had the same issue but now use half and half Tap and RO. Stable pH at 6.8 and a GH of 6. I actually buy my RO from the LFS but may by an RO unit. I think you should do all you can to avoid buying pH buffers

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Cardinals do not need RO they need a mature tank with low nitrate

 

[Tonyb111111]

Cardinals do not need RO they need a mature tank with low nitrate

+1

I really wanted rams so a pH of 8.2 and a GH of 15 had to change, RO was the least damaging way of bringing it down

 

[Memz]

Hello again and thanks for the replies,

Here's a thing, I tested my water today ( nitrAte 10, nitrIte <0.1, ammonia <0.6 barely above 0, ph 7) then thought I'd test the ph of the water from the tap, it's between 7 and 7.5. Our water is VERY chalky, leaves scum on tea and furs up the kettle something awful but 7 - 7.5 isn't hard is it? Am I missing something? Can someone explain Ph and Gh please. Blimey, never realised I had to be a scientist too!! Fish keeping just becomes more and more interesting.
So am I buying RO water for no reason? It does make tank cleaning easier (no limescale) but am I doing the best by my fish?

Thanks again.

 

[fluttermoth]

The problem, your having is confusing pH and hardness. In nature, water with a high pH is hard, but tap water can vary a lot, and can have a neutral pH and still be hard.

To get a true pH reading of your tap water, you need to leave it to stand for 24 hours (to let anything, like CO2, to gas off) before you test it.

Hardness is, in general, more important for fish than pH. Hardness of water is determined by how much dissolved mineral content there is in it.

 

[Memz]

Thanks Fluttermoth, so I'll test the ph again tomorrow after letting it stand, would you mind advising me then on RO v Tap once we have a reading? Usually do my water change on a Saturday but I'm sure they wont mind waiting another day. Also are there any other tests I should be doing? After a really bad start (on my part due to ignorance and poor guidance) they all seem to be thriving but I'd like to be sure I'm doing everything as well and properly as I can.

 

[fluttermoth]

If your tank's new, you probably need to be testing for ammonia and nitrite as well.

I think if my tap water was as hard as yours sounds, I'd be doing half RO, half tap.

 

[Memz]

Brilliant, I shall do a full test of the tap water in the morning. Thank you.

 

[Memz]

Good morning, tested the tap water just now, it has been sitting for over 20 hours and these are the results:

PH, 7.5

Ammonia, 0

Nitrite, 0

Nitrate, 5

So, with these results in mind, is there any reason why I shouldn't use tap water every other week? I poured the required amount into the barrel I use yesterday and added the specified amount of 'Tap Safe'. Should I use this or just go to the lfs and get the RO water with minerals that they are used to? Thanks again.

 

[Chtheo]

hi,


I live in a hard water area, so hard in fact, its pretty much liquid rock.

the only advice i can realy give is when using Aquasafe, be generous.

that said, i am starting to move over to a half and half mix myself, just to soften the water a bit. If you go to the other extreme and have too soft water you will then limit yourself to what fish you can have (or so i have been told) my focus is to take the edge off, as i honestly think this will benefit my little fishies.

i dont think your cardinals dying were due to hardness/tap, i mean you have glow-lights. they last a matter of minutes in my tap-tank

 

[Memz]

Thanks Chtheo, I've just done a 20% water change with the tap water. I can't see that eventually having 50/50 tap and RO can be anything but good for them.

The fella in the shop told me that it was probably due to the tap water that the Cardinals croaked, but I have read countless times here that Cardinals just don't cope well new tanks. Mine went into a 2 month old tank.

Hope you get your liquid rock a bit softer soon, thanks again.

 

[Tonyb111111]

Good morning, tested the tap water just now, it has been sitting for over 20 hours and these are the results:

PH, 7.5

Ammonia, 0

Nitrite, 0

Nitrate, 5

So, with these results in mind, is there any reason why I shouldn't use tap water every other week? I poured the required amount into the barrel I use yesterday and added the specified amount of 'Tap Safe'. Should I use this or just go to the lfs and get the RO water with minerals that they are used to? Thanks again.

Hi Memz, like Fluttermouth says, hardness is an important parameter in the water and you could really do with getting a GH/KH test kit to see how hard your water is. You say you get furred up kettles and scum in tea, this would suggest a fairly high hardness reading and this could potentially limit the kind of fish you want in there. Maybe if you list the the type of fish you want and get some hardness results, people can advise you further