Well Water Woes

[BettaBabe94]

Does anyone else have terrible well water? my well water definitely has iron in it as my tub is basically pink lol and I honestly have no clue what else is in it that may be harmful for fish. Past aquariums haven’t done so well when using my water, but I'm not sure if it was my lack of knowledge on how to properly care for an aquarium or my water (probably both).

Currently I go down the road to a family members house since she has a good filtration system. I’m just getting sick of having to use her water and I’m sure my husband is getting sick of lugging 5 gallon buckets (I don’t have huge tanks so 10 gallons is enough for weekly maintenance).

Any good water tests that don’t require me to buy a million and one different kits? Or has anyone with well water dealt with this in the past?

[DeadStang]

I also have terrible well water -- the well is only 28' deep in long-used farmland. I suspect some mineral (not iron -- I have white hard-line deposits at the top of the toilet water line that is extremely difficult to remove when you clean the thing, and we finally had to re-pipe the entire house as the old lines were eaten thru and springing leaks every few months.

The plus is, there is a reading of 40ppm nitrates from the tap(!) and I can grow plants like crazy...the fish thing -- I'm still working on, lol. Having that nitrate level from the tap is not good, obviously, but one needs to try to look at the bright side, lol! [No, we do not drink the water but I've used it to cook and for literally everything else but drinking for 25 years and am not dead or sick yet, lol!]

So I (being a major newbie), would recommend you buy a master test kit and kits for GH and KH (if you don't have them already) so you can test the water straight from the tap. Then let a bucket sit out overnight and retest your pH. My pH comes from that tap from 6 to 7, depending upon the time of year (rainy season, etc.), but off-gases CO2 (or whatever happens for the chemical reaction) and hits a pH of 7.6 to 8 overnight.

Once you know the standard 4 parameters from the master test kit and your hardnesses, you heavily plant the tank (if you have high nitrates like I do), and get some snails as they seem to be pretty tough and are super cool. Then you get easy, hardy, not-super-spendy fish that will work within your baseline well water. There are lots of cool fish that I just don't worry about getting that are picky about water hardness and lower pHs and such, but I just admire pictures on the internet and move on. I could try to acidify or change hardness and such, but I find keeping fish enough of a challenge with my water that I am unwilling to add that work to keeping fish. It's difficult enough to lug buckets of water to the tanks just in the house, let alone from some else's place. or go out and buy gallons and gallons of spring water from Walmart [yes, I thought about it, tho!].

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/5/2023 at 7:54 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

Does anyone else have terrible well water? my well water definitely has iron in it as my tub is basically pink lol and I honestly have no clue what else is in it that may be harmful for fish. Past aquariums haven’t done so well when using my water, but I'm not sure if it was my lack of knowledge on how to properly care for an aquarium or my water (probably both).

Could be rust on the pipes or copper?  Have you looked into a whole home filter?

cc @KittenFishMom

You're basically wanting a good size (again, whole home) membrane filter + Carbon block filtration setup.

[Andy's Fish Den]

I have well water, but thankfully mine is pretty good. I do have a little bit of iron, if you don't clean the bathtub often enough you will see a orange tint to it. the pH comes out between 7-8 depending upon the time of the year, and how much rain we have had, TDS is usually around 300-350, both KH and GH are right around 10-15, so I do get the mineral deposits left on the glass as water evaporates, but that is easily taken off with a razor blade. 

I would get as someone else mentioned either the API freshwater master test kit, or the co-op test strips so that you can test your water. There is a company called sj wave that makes test strips that test something like 16 different things in your water, you can find them on Amazon, they test everything like iron, lead, copper, We sue these at work since we have a well there as well, with our own mini treatment plant. 

https://www.amazon.com/Drinking-Aquarium-Sensitivity-Hardness-Chlorine/dp/B07WNJJVKN/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1GA9R3Y79YBVY&keywords=sj+wave+16-in-1+water+test+kit&qid=1673003971&sprefix=sj+wave+%2Caps%2C118&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFVVENYUURPSVMxTUsmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA1NDk3MjgzTjBLSk9HRVpLMUNYJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA2NTMwMDEzUE5DUlJLM0E1RDZKJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[The endler guy]

I love having well water, cuts out the need for dechlorinators, I suggest you get your water tested, because if it’s that bad it may not be safe to drink from the tap

[KaitieG]

I also have well water, but it's pretty good.  For the others I know around here with well water that has iron issues (there are definitely issues with that in areas of our state), the filtration system is the only thing I know of to deal with it.  The ACO test strips or tetra test strips have been pretty accurate and good for me in the past, along with the master test kit.  Strips are just a lot faster for overall water quality.  

[Huckleberry]

On 1/5/2023 at 10:54 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

Does anyone else have terrible well water? my well water definitely has iron in it as my tub is basically pink lol and I honestly have no clue what else is in it that may be harmful for fish. Past aquariums haven’t done so well when using my water, but I'm not sure if it was my lack of knowledge on how to properly care for an aquarium or my water (probably both).

You definitely have iron. Iron is just a mineral in the water.

On 1/6/2023 at 12:07 AM, DeadStang said:

I also have terrible well water -- the well is only 28' deep in long-used farmland. I suspect some mineral (not iron -- I have white hard-line deposits at the top of the toilet water line that is extremely difficult to remove when you clean the thing, and we finally had to re-pipe the entire house as the old lines were eaten thru and springing leaks every few months.

From what you stated here that's hardware with low ph. The low ph is what causes the pipes to get pin holes.

 

 

 

I'd recommend both to call your local well drillers, some do free water testing. They will tell you what's in your water. 

On 1/5/2023 at 10:54 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

Does anyone else have terrible well water? my well water definitely has iron in it as my tub is basically pink lol and I honestly have no clue what else is in it that may be harmful for fish. Past aquariums haven’t done so well when using my water, but I'm not sure if it was my lack of knowledge on how to properly care for an aquarium or my water (probably both).

You definitely have iron. Iron is just a mineral in the water.

On 1/6/2023 at 12:07 AM, DeadStang said:

I also have terrible well water -- the well is only 28' deep in long-used farmland. I suspect some mineral (not iron -- I have white hard-line deposits at the top of the toilet water line that is extremely difficult to remove when you clean the thing, and we finally had to re-pipe the entire house as the old lines were eaten thru and springing leaks every few months.

From what you stated here that's hardware with low ph. The low ph is what causes the pipes to get pin holes.

 

 

 

I'd recommend both to call your local well drillers, some do free water testing. They will tell you what's in your water. 

[BettaBabe94]

@DeadStang @nabokovfan87 @Andy's Fish Den @Aiden Carter @KaitieG @Huckleberry

I live in upstate NY, near Albany, if anyone is familiar with the water in that area.
I do have a master test kit and the aquarium co-op strips. It’s not just iron I’m worried about. We tried a whole home filter system but our water pressure drops drastically. We have to clean the holding tank this spring to see if that helps. In the mean time we have a valve that re-routes the water around the filters. We don’t drink our water, we use it for cooking, showering, laundry, etc. What makes me shake my head is my mother-in-law lives not even a full mile down the road and her water is perfect except for being slightly hard. That is where I get water from. She does have a small water filtration set up, but even before that her water was fine. 
 

@Andy's Fish Denmy tub is stained pink because the person who lived here before didn’t use real cleaners and didn’t clean it that often. So even when I clean it there is still a stain. 

Edited January 7, 2023 by BettaBabe94
Typo

[Flumpweesel]

Have you considered setting up a rain butt for tank changes?  

Or a reed bed to pass the water through before using.

[BettaBabe94]

On 1/7/2023 at 4:53 PM, Flumpweesel said:

Have you considered setting up a rain butt for tank changes?  

Or a reed bed to pass the water through before using.

By rain butt I assume you mean catch the rain and use it? I’ve thought about, but I’ve seen mixed opinions on it so I haven’t followed through. As long as I catch it before it hits the ground would snow work too? 

What is a reed bed?

[The endler guy]

On 1/7/2023 at 1:46 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

@DeadStang @nabokovfan87 @Andy's Fish Den @Aiden Carter @KaitieG @Huckleberry

I live in upstate NY, near Albany, if anyone is familiar with the water in that area.
I do have a master test kit and the aquarium co-op strips. It’s not just iron I’m worried about. We tried a whole home filter system but our water pressure drops drastically. We have to clean the holding tank this spring to see if that helps. In the mean time we have a valve that re-routes the water around the filters. We don’t drink our water, we use it for cooking, showering, laundry, etc. What makes me shake my head is my mother-in-law lives not even a full mile down the road and her water is perfect except for being slightly hard. That is where I get water from. She does have a small water filtration set up, but even before that her water was fine. 
 

@Andy's Fish Denmy tub is stained pink because the person who lived here before didn’t use real cleaners and didn’t clean it that often. So even when I clean it there is still a stain. 

Sorry I don’t know anything about your water I live farther south

[Procrypsis]

Buy a good reverse osmosis system. You won't be disappointed. Consistent water quality every time!

[flyingcow]

Yeah, I have high iron, slightly elevated arsenic, and the marvelous wonder that is a KH significantly higher than my GH (neither are low). I use an RO and re-mineralize with seachem stuff. I've been able to make very stable, consistent, middle of the road water which is good enough for me! 

 

On 1/7/2023 at 1:46 PM, BettaBabe94 said:

@DeadStang @nabokovfan87 @Andy's Fish Den @Aiden Carter @KaitieG @Huckleberry

I live in upstate NY, near Albany, if anyone is familiar with the water in that area.

Bless your heart... I used to live up in St. Lawrence County where the water had a reddish tint from all the freakin iron. My town water pH in Potsdam was regularly below 5. Upstate is the best place on earth and we're trying to move back there eventually (in NH now), but damn, I don't miss that water.

[Flumpweesel]

On 1/9/2023 at 4:31 AM, BettaBabe94 said:

By rain butt I assume you mean catch the rain and use it? I’ve thought about, but I’ve seen mixed opinions on it so I haven’t followed through. As long as I catch it before it hits the ground would snow work too? 

What is a reed bed?

Yes a rain butt is barrel used to collect rain water usually by diverting from the house guttering. Something like this.

Yes snow is fine if it's somewhere clean. As it's falls it's pretty pure but you need to keep away from yellow stuff (or any other colour)

I'm not a reed bed expert but it's basically passing water through plants to remove organics (and some minerals) you could use the principal to recycle the tank eater and reduce the volume you need to buy / collect from family. Zeno uses the principle in his pond builds of you wish to look into it.

[BettaBabe94]

On 1/9/2023 at 12:31 PM, flyingcow said:

Bless your heart... I used to live up in St. Lawrence County where the water had a reddish tint from all the freakin iron. My town water pH in Potsdam was regularly below 5. Upstate is the best place on earth and we're trying to move back there eventually (in NH now), but damn, I don't miss that water.

This is the first place I’ve lived that has had iron, but I would take the iron 100 times over before I’d go back to my moms old house with the sulfur water lol it’s just annoying that I have hard iron water, but literally a mile down the road it’s just hard water, no iron 🤦🏻‍♀️