Switching from stream water to well water questions

[KittenFishMom]

I want to switch from using stream/lake water to using well water in my tanks.

The well has a UV filter and a mechanical paper filter for the grit, nothing else is done to the well water.

The tank water is from the stream and the lake.

I finally got a quiet moment to test the tank water and the well water to compare them, using Aquarium Coop strips:

Tank: Hardness (GH)ppm=300  Buffer (KH)ppm=  80 pH=7.2

Well: Hardness (GH)ppm=   25 Buffer (KH)ppm=180 pH=8.4

Can I just start doing 25% water changes with the well water, or do I need to go more slowly than that?  Like a 25% change with half stream half well water? I am aiming at weekly water changes. 

I know this is a very busy time for many of you, so I won't start using well water until I get a number of replies.

Thanks in advance.

[Gator]

@KittenFishMom; Changing 25% of your tank water each week and replacing it with well water is fine, you'll eventually have a tank that is 100% well water. I'm wondering why your well water has a GH of 25, but a pH of 8.4, the pH is indicative of a high level of Calcium carbonate.

[KittenFishMom]

@GatorOur well water is strange. We had 2 companies look at it because The first company said it was very soft, but it acted like the water at home when the softener ran out of salt. Lots of floating soap scum and such. The second company also said it was very soft.  I tested the water with JNW test strip that had been open for a while so I opened a new bottle from aquarium coop. They both said the water was soft, but had a high pH. It doesn't make sense. but it is very consistent.

Edited December 25, 2021 by KittenFishMom

[Gator]

@KittenFishMom; Interesting.

[KittenFishMom]

We do not drink the water here. My husband says it tastes terrible.  It does not smell of sulfur which is common in the area. The porcelain fixtures are not rust stained. The water comes out of the tap cloudy with some gas that clears right away.  It is a deep well, over 100 feet.

But I am glad you do not think it is necessary to use stream water for the water changes. The stream is running right around 34f. and there is snow on the ground. Bringing stream water from 2 doors down and warming it one bucket at a time with an aquarium heater is a hassle. We have just had too much going on to find out if the well water was OK for water changes.

Also, people have said that with our pH, we needed to get fish that do well in hard water. But our water isn't hard. Or at least it isn't hard with CaCO3. I am not sure if we should get fish that like soft water, or if we should get fish that like high pH. 

[KittenFishMom]

Update: the QT with out carbon filters has the same hardness, but a higher pH than the filtered tank, but those are both stream/lake water, not the soft well water with the high pH. (We are testing cold tap water from the well)

Original: hmmm I tested the water in the tank with carbon filters.... This post talks about that. I'll go test the tank with just a sponge filter (the quarantine tank)

https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/high-ph-soft-water.306738/

Edited December 25, 2021 by KittenFishMom