Very hard water - How to soften?

[psicadet]

Hi everyone, I've been in the hobby for about 9 months now and currently have 3 tropical tanks.
(I'm not sure if I'm in the right area of the forum.)

I live in a place with very hard water (~20DKH, 8.5PH) and though the fish and shrimp are fine, my trouble is that I get some unappealing, thick calcium residue on my tanks.
I have to scrape then scrub a lot to make the tanks look nice.

It leaves white precipitate all over the equipment, is there anyone who lives in a hard water place with this issue?
I've heard suggestions of buying water bottles, but I have 130l total and I change 40% weekly. It doesn't seem affordable or practical.

My question is..

Is there a way to soften water, before it goes in the tank, without buying distilled water?
?

 

[kwi]

RO filtration system, though you would have to mix your source water back in to suit the fish requirements so may not really be a solution. Don't use a water sofetner as they use salt.
A simpler solution is to hide the area of the tank that is affected by tide marks, I used a 3cm wide length of car graphics vinyl around the top of the tank, and try to keep the water level above the lower part of that.
(3) Hiding tide marks. | Tropical Fish Forums

 

[FFGuest6357]

This topic keeps coming up. There are lots of good threads and knowledgeable members to help you.

I also have very hard water, and I am currently buying jugs of RO (reverse osmosis) water, and mixing it with my tap water to bring the general hardness down.

i will at some point be buying a reverse osmosis system, as that is really the only way to soften the water safely for fish. Using water from a water softening system is not good for the fish.
You should look into the fish you have and see if they are meant for hard or soft water. If you’re keeping soft water fish in a tank that is full of hard water, they may seem fine for now, but can suffer serious long term health problems later and you will dramatically reduce that fishs’ lifespan.

what are the sizes of your tanks, what species are you keeping?

 

[psicadet]

Thank you for the advice, seems like it's hard to remove calcium from water.
I have lots of reading to do on this forum, I'm ready to learn.

I buy distilled water for my small triop tank, so I could buy some more to dilute the other 3 tanks. I've heard that RO water and distilled water are two different things.

I have 2 54 litre tanks, and 1 30l tank.

tank 1 54l - 1 betta (f), 1 molly, 4 corydoras, 1 kuhli loach, 1 bristlenose pleco
Tank 2 54l - 11 Molly fry, 2 adult mollies, 2 panther loaches, 1 vittata pleco
Tank 3 30l - 1 betta (m), 12 shrimp

I have tried to consider bioload when I initially setup the tanks. There are live plants and hiding places. I intend to give most of the fry and 2 mollies to another person's tank very soon as I think the ammonia could spike as they get bigger.

I've thought about making rimmed lids either out of wood or plastic to cover up the watermarks/serve as a lid. I would like to hear your thoughts as I have not been keeping fish all that long.

 

[Fish4dawin]

Just some advice but either remove the khuli or buy some friends for it. They like the company of each other. You could probably add 3 more to make 4. You'd have to do water changes every 7-9 days though.

 

[psicadet]

Just some advice but either keep the khuli or buy some friends for it. They like the company of each other. You could probably add 3 more to make 4. You'd have to do water changes every 7-9 days though.

Thank you, that sounds like a great idea. I keep up with the water changes 5-10 days- no longer than that, I can't let it become toxic for them.

I have a fluval 07 external canister I need to setup- if I put it on "tank 2" then a group of 4 kuhlis could work out fine in the future.

I really like their loach behaviour, it would be nice to see the lone guy socialise with some friends.

 

[ember04]

As RO water can get quite expensive if you have a few tanks you could buy an RO machine. it is an expensive up front payment but will save you money down the line. as they are used in saltwater there are plenty of available ones

 

[FFGuest6357]

As RO water can get quite expensive if you have a few tanks you could buy an RO machine. it is an expensive up front payment but will save you money down the line. as they are used in saltwater there are plenty of available ones

That’s what I’m finding. For my purposes I’m only using 2.5 gallons per week, so it’s not too expensive for me right now, I fill up 5gallon jugs and it costs me less than $4 per jug to fill.

Its fine for now but I will likely switch to a system in the future.

 

[StevenF]

I buy distilled water for my small triop tank, so I could buy some more to dilute the other 3 tanks. I've heard that RO water and distilled water are two different things.

Distilled and RO water are made differently but otherwise the water they produce is basically the same. The purity ofdisstilled and RO water is basically the same a as rain water before it hits the ground.

In the distillation process the water is evaporated with heat and then the hot steam os moved to another container that is cold causing the steam to condense into pure water.

RO water is basically water that has been filtered by a special filter removes almost all impurities.

Both RO and distilled water should have GH and KH of about zero when measured with typical aquarium test kits. PH will be about 6 due to residual CO2 in the water. Distilled water will have a total dissolved solid level of o to 1 milligrams per liter of solids. My RO water is currently 9 milligrams per liter. A GH reading of 1 degree is 17.8 milligrams per liter. As the RO filter ages that will go up and eventually will have to be replaced.

 

[Colin_T]

solar still