Soft Water

[smithyif]

good evening all , ive had my water tested at a few LFSs and they have all said my water is soft 2 tried to sell me expensive powder and the other said you can buy this chemical but advised me to had espon salts and baking powder , is this true ? and also how much of both should i had to my 97 liter tank ?

 

[Curiosity101]

What fish are you keeping? I wouldn't advice messing with the water at all other than for particularly sensitive fish. Also did they actually tell you your kh and gh values? If not then do you know what pH the water is?

 

[smithyif]

What fish are you keeping? I wouldn't advice messing with the water at all other than for particularly sensitive fish. Also did they actually tell you your kh and gh values? If not then do you know what pH the water is?

im keeping tetras , corys , clown loach ,guppies a rainbow shark , the PH in the tank is at 7.8 but out the tap its actually 8.5 , but kept dropping quickly so ive been adding `tropic marine , a re-mineral tropic powder ¬ but this is becoming expensive and hard to get hold of

 

[Curiosity101]

I wouldn't bothered altering your water at all. By the sounds of it you may have a mid-low Kh but possibly a highish GH. Eitherways unless your pH is really swinging about all over the place give it a chance to settle. If it's holding at 7.8 on it's own then you certainly don't have a big problem. But what you would want is calcium carbonate, and a guide online on 'how to increase the kh of water).

You need to do it properly if you're going to do it, avoid sodium carbonate, stick to calcium carbonate. And make sure you know exactly how many degrees 'x' amount of calcium carbonate will change your water by before even debating adding it.

 

[shroob]

Are you experiencing any problems with your fish? If not I wouldn't change anything.