Well Water Ph

[slowcountry]

I have well water at my location. When I test the pH out of the tap, it is right at 7.0. I have a 5 gallon water bottle I fill and leave set with an air stone in it for water changes or top offs, the pH levels out at about 8.3. I assume that this is due to CO2 trapped in the water and escaping over a couple of days.

Now, I know this pH is high for a community tank with live bearers, Neon Tetras and Anglefish. I expect that I should shoot for a pH of 7.0 as all these fish have a different suggested requirement for pH.

Do different salts used in water softners have a bearing on the pH? I currently use the salt with the additive for Iron removal as the water has quite a bit of iron in it.

Using the API GH and KH test kit, the water leaving the softner has a GH of 71.6 to 125.3 and a KH of 161. This will change due to the amount of water run before the softner recycles. If I bypass the softner and test the water, the GH and KH are off the chart given by API.

I understand the hardness issue and I understand its buffering ability. I do not attempt to modify the hardness and I understand that to modify the pH with the current burrering ability will be difficult. I had tried the peatmoss trick in a 5 gal bucket and had very little effect on the pH. If the salt is of issue, I can very easily cange to a different type of softner salt or go to the Potassium if that would make an impact.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the idea. In addition, other than water for breading purposes, how much of an impact will water with a pH of 8.3 have on the livestock over a pH of 7.0?

 

[rdd1952]

I'm not really familiar with those units and what you run in them but did find the thread below about the same thing. Hopefully, it has the answer to your question in it.

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=264580

 

[Mikaila31]

That's some hard water you got!

Well I have a well and a water softener...... I just fill up my bucket and dump it the tank. I don't touch my water at all, nothing is added. With those reading I would highly recommend keeping cichlids instead of community fish. Cichlids do great with a high ph and hard water.

Does the PH of the water still change if you take some before it goes through the water softener?

 

[fatheadminnow]

I have well water as well, and I have a pH of about 8.2.

-FHM

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

With those reading I would highly recommend keeping cichlids instead of community fish. Cichlids do great with a high ph and hard water.

Why? Tank bred fish are pretty much all going to be the same when dealing with pH, Gh/Kh.

Not only that, a lot of Cichlids come from habitats where the water is soft and acidic, completely the opposite of his water.


Take a look at my water.


http/www.calgaryaquariumsociety.com/Arti...lawi_Water.html

Hardness somewhere between 125-255. pH 7.6-8.4.

People keep all sorts of fish where I live and no one has problems related to these levels in the water.

 

[OldMan47]

My tap comes in at 325 ppm and a pH of 7.8 that does not change when left out. Unless I am trying to breed soft water species, all of my fish live in this water. That is everything from mollies, who really love my water, to angels and cories who would like it much better at less than pH 7 and a hardness of less than 100 ppm. Using a domestic water softener to replace calcium and magnesium salts with sodium or phosphorus salts will not be helping the fish at all. Your TDS is the same or slightly higher after you "soften" the water. The only thing you have changed is the element that is anion in the salts. You have also made the salts more soluble, which is the whole point of a domestic softener. I am not sure what is added to regeneration salt for high iron but would want to know before putting it into my tank by using "soft" water.
What we mean with fish being better in softer water has nothing to do with the thing that water softener salesmen call soft water. We are talking about mineral content of the water while domestic softeners are all about solubility of the salts in the water, not the total content. The confusing part is that we use the same terms and the GH actually measures the same thing, it is just not the right subject when it comes to fish. With fish you care about pH stability which is an unrelated KH, not GH and total dissolved solids which may or may not be reflected in the GH reading depending on the specific minerals that are present. Changing which minerals are present does not benefit the fish.

 

[slowcountry]

My tap comes in at 325 ppm and a pH of 7.8 that does not change when left out. Unless I am trying to breed soft water species, all of my fish live in this water. That is everything from mollies, who really love my water, to angels and cories who would like it much better at less than pH 7 and a hardness of less than 100 ppm. Using a domestic water softener to replace calcium and magnesium salts with sodium or phosphorus salts will not be helping the fish at all. Your TDS is the same or slightly higher after you "soften" the water. The only thing you have changed is the element that is anion in the salts. You have also made the salts more soluble, which is the whole point of a domestic softener. I am not sure what is added to regeneration salt for high iron but would want to know before putting it into my tank by using "soft" water.
What we mean with fish being better in softer water has nothing to do with the thing that water softener salesmen call soft water. We are talking about mineral content of the water while domestic softeners are all about solubility of the salts in the water, not the total content. The confusing part is that we use the same terms and the GH actually measures the same thing, it is just not the right subject when it comes to fish. With fish you care about pH stability which is an unrelated KH, not GH and total dissolved solids which may or may not be reflected in the GH reading depending on the specific minerals that are present. Changing which minerals are present does not benefit the fish.

I guess I am more lost that I had first thought. I am aware of the Ion exchange in the softener, but I thought this household water would be better than the water before the softener.

To lower the pH with the buffering ability of the water I have, I will have to soften the water correct? If the "softener" does not do this, what is the best method other than an RO filter? Once I obtain the correct pH and hardness, what is the best way to buffer the water so that the pH doesn't swing all over the place.

I apologize for the rookie questions, I thought I had a better understanding than what I do.

 

[OldMan47]

Do you know what total dissolved solids and KH of your raw water is right now? If it really needs to come down, one of the options is rain water. I collect rain water by using the gutter system on my house. After a hard rain has been going for a little while, the roof has been flushed clean and the water that I collect is cleaner than the RO water that I can make. It avoids the environmental impact of RO water and still gives me nice clean mineral free water to mix up for certain of my uses. If you need to always mix water to reduce TDS, it will take more water than I usually collect, but when it rains I stop when I have enough, not when the rain stops. A good hard rain for an hour could give you hundreds of gallons of rain water if you had a place to store it.

 

[slowcountry]

Do you know what total dissolved solids and KH of your raw water is right now? If it really needs to come down, one of the options is rain water. I collect rain water by using the gutter system on my house. After a hard rain has been going for a little while, the roof has been flushed clean and the water that I collect is cleaner than the RO water that I can make. It avoids the environmental impact of RO water and still gives me nice clean mineral free water to mix up for certain of my uses. If you need to always mix water to reduce TDS, it will take more water than I usually collect, but when it rains I stop when I have enough, not when the rain stops. A good hard rain for an hour could give you hundreds of gallons of rain water if you had a place to store it.

I don't have a method of measuring total dissolved solids, only GH and KH with the API test set. When I sample the water before the softener, the API chart does not go high enough to give me a reading.

I was more concerned with the pH of the water and its impact on the livestock.