Tony s

depends on your well, and how much work you're willing to do. do you know the depth. is it a shallow or deep well. if you're willing to age your water in a heated tank. then the bypass works fine. just fill your aging tank and heat that. you'd need a pump to move water from that though. and how many gallons of aquariums do you have is a factor as well, if you only have 1 50 gallon tank. or like me, have 250 gallons in 12 tanks. makes a difference.

most hobs give enough surface agitation so oxygen shouldn't be an issue. maybe he just likes it there?

that's kind of a stockholm syndrome thing? maybe better mentally to get some severum and geophagus. plenty of color and activity and tons less work

yeah. that's true. ours comes from about 125 feet down (they could have stopped at 60 feet for 25 gallon a minute. i had them keep drilling until I got 50 gallon a minute). so it's almost always about 45. so that would be consistent. but everybody's everything is different. and of course.... discus

panda corys would be ok. around 5 would work. they're on the small side for corys. but so much fun. and hardier than the other smallish corys. 3 honey gourami would work. they like to be in small groups. or 1 betta. I have no luck with neons. green neons could work for a schooler. Or could do a few harlequin rasboras (or other small rasboras) instead. a clown pleco if you want a pleco. zebra danios should be okay, but very active. could add in a mystery or nerite snail for cleanup help. to check your stocking levels, try aqadvisor.com. lots of choices you could make

OMG I would freeze in the summer. being outside all day in the low 90's and then coming into that. Brrr My daughter had national gymnastics in New Orleans last year. I was more comfortable outside in the heat. almost needed a jacket inside🤣

yeah, my wife so wants discus. It's one of 3 fish that I'm scared of even trying. The other's being apistos and german rams. I tried the rams once and failed. still working on solving that issue. almost ready to try again. but discus are on a whole other level. takes a lot to keep their water clean enough.

depends on how handy you are. and they may be able to tap the line before it hits the softener. the problem I see with any bypass, built-in or added, you lose the convenience of your water heater. you'll be bringing in cold water. I think the best way is to use your built-in bypass at your sink. let it run cold there for a bit, until you hit hard water. say about a minute. and then go ahead and use the hard cold water and the softened hot water to bring it up to temp. even if you're trying to hit 80-degree water, you have probably 50 gallons of hot water to use. and you won't use that much hot vs cold. so, wouldn't worry about a small amount of softened hot.

the problem there. the tetras are not going to like 68. but a constant 72 would be great, and very cheap. you can handle the 68? working outside all winter long, i sure cant. my warming up ability is long gone at the end of the day.🤣

@madmark285 nice diagram. That’s one that can easily be done. The two systems I’ve had only had one three position valve though. Much more convenient, and the companies caught on. Because there should be a sediment filter before the softener. Otherwise you fill your softener with gunk. Or your pipes. Nobody said well water was clean🤣 but actually much tastier than bottled. Unless you have sulfur in it. 🤮 thank goodness. None of our houses have any of that.

Nothing wrong with blanket statements. Sometimes it’s the easiest way to move information along. With the caveat that nothing works in every situation. This is biology we’re talking about. Sometimes just the littlest thing changes things an enormous amount

Just be careful with it. Someone here got a badly prepared cuttlebone. Started stinking and lost fish from it. put it in the hob behind the cartridge. At that point you’re going to have to figure it out. How to keep it in. With my ro water, I use seachem products to target my ph gh kh. Haven’t used the cuttlebone. But seems rather straightforward.

Softener off means no water at all. In case you have a sediment filter to change. Softener bypass lets the water flow but without going through the softener. So straight well water. That’s the easiest way to think about it. In reality, the membrane is used to remove remove the calcium. I say membrane, but the membrane is usually a 3 to 4 foot tall tank. Kind of looks like an oxygen tank used in welding. The salt is used to reset the membrane

Depending on the age of the system. It might already be built in. There’s usually a valve at the softener. 3 positions. Softener on, softener off, and softener bypass. Even the one we had in the old house had that. And that was 30 years ago. If it has that. Turn it to bypass and use your regular water lines

You absolutely could. Easily down to 74. Save some stress, and some money 😀 I didn’t say I would raise them that way. But I can find at least 6 growers (not importers) that say it’s okay. As far as I know there are only 2 Corys that can handle high heat. One being sterbais. Most can handle 78. Maybe 3-4 that can’t.

Sounds like you can go find some swaps or club sales now 😀

@only6foot6 I’d follow the directions on packing. Sometimes it’s not the med, it’s the carrier or binding agent. We see this with livestock meds. They will have different usda instructions from different manufacturers, even though it’s the same drug in the same amount. It can even alter medication withdrawal times.

Just studying your stocking plan, you could easily run the tank 72-74 degrees. Both congos and lemons can do 70 degrees. Same with your pleco and Kuhlis.

They can handle up to 82 down to 72 by one breeder. 78 would be perfect. ooh, this one has a bunch of inconsistent ranges. One breeder says 72-82. Another says 65-76. And it’s not just those breeders. There’s a ton of breeders saying both things. But mine are doing good at 78.

You have to find a way to stabilize your water at 200 gh. Fluctuations can actually cause stress, and then disease. So I’d pick a method and use it constantly. Crushed coral in a media bag is good, wondershell works good. Cuttlebone works as long as they prepared it correctly. The key is a nice flat 200 gh. it shouldn’t raise. Gh shouldn’t raise ph. Kh raises ph

Then, unless you have heavy metals. You don’t need a dechlorinater. I have same issue. Well water and Ro. I almost never use it But… if you find your parameters have gotten high. I’d use it then in the chance it detoxifies ammonia temporarily. A bit controversial for some people. I believe it works.

Mine are in a community. They do great in community temps

Paleatus ca handle up to low 80’s. So you’re good inkbird makes a good heater controller with it’s own temperature controller. Supposed to be great

Yes. But they’re rather small. Kinda like a midsize moth. With long antennae And they won’t stay around long either

I do the ro part. For fresh, you really don’t need the di part. But, you might just try the softened water. It’s really not that much salt. We hooked up a hydrogen peroxide injector to clear iron bacteria. It also clears beneficial bacteria. Hence the Ro. I don’t think I would use it otherwise. It’s kind of a pain to keep consistent. But I also use a 30g plastic trash can to mineralize in. Not remineralizing in the tank. Not everything dissolves either. Not even using a slurry @Cjbear087ask @jwcarlson about his discus. He keeps them in hard water. Very clean water. Healthy fish but no breeding.