WishyFishy

Alright! Maybe I'll go with 3 and 9, over 4 and 12; I just didn't want it to swing and thought 4KH would be better for that. Ok, good! I went with 4KH over 3 because I didn't want it to swing, but maybe I'll go a little lower so the GH is a tad lower. I'll measure that too next time 🙂 No worries! Thank you, I'll check those out! I'm new to keeping shrimp so I'm sure I will find them useful.

I was playing with Salty Shrimp GH/KH+ in RO water and got 4dKH and 12dGH. Is it more important to have a certain dKH or GH, which should I be looking at when I'm remineralizing? I was also able to get 3dKH and 9dGH; would that work better or is 3dKH going to give me pH fluctuation? I'm aiming to keep cherry shrimp, pygmy cories, and possibly ember tetras. Would they be okay at 4dKH & 12dGH? Thanks!!

Retested my tap's ammonia and got .25ppm. Whew! I also tested a bottle of distilled I have sitting around as a control, which came up 0. I'll test the ammonia again just to make sure. Any opinions on the salt from the softener/lack of calcium and magnesium? Is it worth going RO if I can bypass the softener? I'm leaning toward going RO but I'd love to see what people think about the softener itself. Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, you've all been very helpful!

I'll look into collecting rainwater! That would probably be a good idea and the tip about the tar roof is helpful, I wouldn't have known that. No managed lawns, farming area here so that's still a possibility. Those would be really neat, I have looked into them a little bit. I'm loosely planning a 20 or 29 gal so I will definitely look into them more, I hear they have pretty neat behaviors. Yes, very similar. I'm definitely checking the ammonia again. I'm not sure what actually gets put in the tap when it comes inside, I was told it was "chlorine bleach" so I'll figure out what we actually put in there. I didn't dechlorinate before testing the water, I had a sample in a plastic cup for a few days to get a more accurate pH reading so I took water from that. Thank you to everyone who replied! I'll look into the ammonia, it is definitely concerning. I don't know a ton about how my household's water softener/treatment systems work so it's theoretically possible it's from that or the well itself could have a problem. I'll look into testing the well too.

Breaking up the replies so they aren't super long. I am not 100% sure how the super high ammonia reading is getting there either. I'm not sure what actually gets put into the tap before we use it, I'm not the person in the household usually doing that haha. I will look into it more and retest. I'm using a pretty new, unexpired API master test kit.

I think it's the test picking up on ammonium and not ammonia-- don't quote me on that though I need to read up on it more. Or I have bigger problems. I'll test it again in a few days in case I did something wrong or there was a fluctuation or something. I'll also try and find out exactly what's getting added into the water to treat it. It's okay, I was asking about both! I do keep plants though I am a beginner with them and noticed they have..failed to thrive. I have some kind of anubias, rotala, foxtail and monte carlo I added about a week ago. I expect the monte carlo to die off I just thought I'd give it a shot haha. The plants are alive but not doing great and I was thinking the softener could have something to do with it. I will check that out!

I have well water that is very hard so it is treated through a salt-based water softener. I'm wondering if it wouldn't be worth it to go 100% RO water for my 13gal, currently my only tank. I don't really mind keeping harder water species but the problem is my tap has added salt and removed calcium and magnesium from the softener. Nowhere in the house has unsoftened water including the outside hose 😞 My tap parameters today were: 17 drops KH pH 8.2-8.4--in the middle of those colors 8.0 ammonia (I believe this is due to chlorine bleach used to clean the well water) 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 18-19 GH drops 50:50 mix of tap & water I bought pH 8.0-8.2 in between colors KH started to turn at 11 greeny teal Would’ve turned all the way at 12 but I dropped it haha GH 9-10 drops Would it be worth it for one tank? I would like to get a larger tank eventually but for now I only have one. I could buy RO or distilled by the gallon, add minerals, and eventually set up RO in my house. Would this be worth it? I am unsure because I don't mind my water being hard but the salt and ca&mg problems give me a pause. I can bypass the softener, but then there is the issue of residual salt still getting in. Thoughts?

Thank you everyone! This is a future project, probably for sometime next year, so I was just looking into if it is possible at all. Maybe the carpeted spot would be better since that is on an exterior wall. Unfortunately I do not have a basement or I would put my tanks down there, and it would be easier to check the joists! I think the tank would be perpendicular to them in the preferred place based on the way the house is laid out-- wouldn't make sense any other way. I will see about finding alternative places for it too to avoid that section of the floor with boards that flex. The house is about ~1920s.

Hi, I live in an old house with pine hardwood flooring that is admittedly not in the best shape. I'm sort of planning a 20 or 29gal but I only really have 2 options on where to put it, either: -on said hardwood flooring-- it does bend a little in places when you walk on it -on carpet (not my preferred spot haha) Should I be worried about the weight of a 20 or 29 (I would rather go with the 29) on the floor if I have a well-made stand that's level? I'm 90% sure my house is not on a concrete slab but I can check and confirm that. Most of the resources I've found on this issue are dealing with 55-125 gallon tanks so I appreciate any insight! I don't know if a 20-29 is enough weight to be concerned about.