Water Softener?

[michellebradford]

can anybody tell me how to find out how soft my water is and how do i soften it

I want to breed my rams and ive been told they need soft water

 

[Dubby]

can anybody tell me how to find out how soft my water is and how do i soften it

I want to breed my rams and ive been told they need soft water

You will need to use a PH indicator. You can buy these at most LFS and some of the stores will also do this as a service. Its useful to get the KH and GH reading as well.

You can use substances like peat, bogwood etc.to lower the PH (without using chemicals). RO water is an option too.

 

[CFC]

pH is not an indicator of how soft water is, just of how acidic or alkeline it is, water can be acidic but still high in its KH and vice versa. Water hardness is measured in two ways, by the carbonate hardness (KH) and total hardness (GH), soft water needs to be between 8 and 4 in both these values. Test kits are available for both units.

Soft water requires far more understanding of water chemistry and a lot more attention to parameteres than hard water, a low KH can lead to an unstable pH as organic acids released by the nitrogen cycle eat away at the calcium buffers which stabilse the pH, regular testing of the KH is needed and buffers such as bicarbonate of soda (baking powder) need to be added routinely to keep the KH above 4.
The easiest and safest way to get soft water is by using R/O water and tailoring it to suit your needs by adding back the correct measures of trace elements and buffers and then running it through some peat filtration or adding a black water tonic to acidify it.