Tap Water Help

[Nelo]

My tap water seems to be less than ideal for keeping fish. Suggestions? Can I do rainwater with added minerals-tap water mix?

(Used a strip test to test GH and KH, results may be skewed a bit but should be mostly accurate)

GH- Close to zero (I have a Water softener)                                                                 
KH- Close to zero 
PH- 8.0+                (Tested with API)

I can provide a link to the test strips I used if anyone wants that. I  want to say the GH - KH indicators are faulty but until I get a different test , assume they are not... What would I do?

[Theplatymaster]

@Nelo i suggest adding a product like seachem equilibrium to raise GH and KH.

[Nelo]

I thought about using crushed Coral but I dont want my pH going any higher. Does Equilibrium raise pH?

[nabokovfan87]

For liquid tests, just do a sanity check and verify that you're following all directions with regards to what bottles to shake before use.

I would recommend doing what is called an off-gas test. Essentially, you're trying to understand how stable the PH is in your water.

1. Take a sample of water from your tap and check parameters you can test for.

2. Aerate tap water for 24 hours with an air stone and go ahead and restart everything again.

3. Test your tank and compare those results to your #2 results. This is what you would expect the tank to be at.

 

Are you by chance on a water softener or anything like that? Well water or city water?

[Nelo]

@nabokovfan87Thanks for the help! 

I did another pH test and got the same thing, Just started the off gas test this morning so will reply tomorrow with results.

I am on city water and do have a water softener.

[Biotope Biologist]

We don’t have liquid rock from the tap here but I believe if you have a water softener system you may have a bypass valve in the house? If so can you bypass and test the water.

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 2/23/2023 at 10:13 PM, Nelo said:

I thought about using crushed Coral but I dont want my pH going any higher. Does Equilibrium raise pH?

Equilibrium doesn't affect KH or pH. You could do Equilibrium for GH and crushed coral for KH, though, if the water softener doesn't have a bypass. What fish do you want to keep?

[Nelo]

@Biotope BiologistFound a Bypass valve for the water softener and tested.

pH- No change, 8+
GH- 25-50ppm (1.39 dGH - 2.79 dGH)                      
KH- No change, 0 ish

@Rube_Goldfish

So if aerating my tap causes a decrease in pH, in theory I just add crushed coral to raise the KH, Equilibrium for the GH and thats it?

Im going to keep some of the hardier fish like Live Bearers, cherry barbs etc until I can dial in my water.
 

[Nelo]

@nabokovfan87Finished off gas test and pH tested at 7.4-7.5

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 2/24/2023 at 6:26 PM, Nelo said:

@Biotope BiologistFound a Bypass valve for the water softener and tested.

pH- No change, 8+
GH- 25-50ppm (1.39 dGH - 2.79 dGH)                      
KH- No change, 0 ish

@Rube_Goldfish

So if aerating my tap causes a decrease in pH, in theory I just add crushed coral to raise the KH, Equilibrium for the GH and thats it?

Im going to keep some of the hardier fish like Live Bearers, cherry barbs etc until I can dial in my water.
 

In theory, that sounds right to me, yes. KH doesn't directly raise pH so much as it prevents it from falling, if that makes sense. You can test that theory out in a bucket or tub, too. Adjust the dosage for the smaller quantity of water, then test, then test again at 24 hours. (And again at 48 if you want to be really sure.)

I don't know cherry barbs, and I've never kept livebearers, but my understanding is that they like relatively high pH/GH/KH, so adding crushed coral and Equilibrium should do you just fine.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/25/2023 at 7:53 AM, Nelo said:

@nabokovfan87Finished off gas test and pH tested at 7.4-7.5

Perfect.  Makes sense!

So now you can repeat this at scale...  Use a 5g bucket or a tub with a known volume of water.  Add tap water aerate it for 24 hours, then re-test.  verify that PH drops and it's stable.  You can keep running it to see how PH maps out over say a week (or 3 days).

Add crushed coral, then continue tracking it.

Whenever you add buffers, this is my method for tracking the impact and then scaling accordingly for the size of the tank in question.  I get the values where I want them, then I use that to determine how much of the KH/GH buffer I want to use per bucket per WC.

 

[Lennie]

We have a water softener system aswell, meanwhile it gives me 0 gh, I still have around16 kh, normally you'd expect it to be very low or zero too.

I would personally test before adding anything

[Nelo]

@nabokovfan87LFS and all the chain stores around me are out of Crushed coral so I have to order online. Is Carib sea fine? Also had to order equilibrium online.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/25/2023 at 5:38 PM, Nelo said:

@nabokovfan87LFS and all the chain stores around me are out of Crushed coral so I have to order online. Is Carib sea fine? Also had to order equilibrium online.

There is CC available from the co-op. I'm not sure on price difference. Just make sure the aragonite / CC you get is what you want. The aragonite commonly sold is sold as substrate and has a very very high QTY per gallon to be added as if you were always trying to max out the KH in your tank. If you're slightly trying to buffer the water, do so slowly. Run some tests in a 5G bucket and scale up accordingly. If you get coral that's crushed really fine it'll dissolve quickly but may not last as long as larger Coral to buffer over time.

Caribsea has about 3-5 different versions of aragonite so just be careful with what you get and how you use it. Someone on the forum had posted ( @Chick-In-Of-TheSea) and things didn't go well.  We are still trying to understand what happened and why. Just one of those things.... Whenever you buffer water run tests at scale, verify over time and try not to shock the system (the tank) with massive swings in KH, GH, PH, temp, well... You get the idea.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/25/2023 at 10:17 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Caribsea has about 3-5 different versions of aragonite so just be careful with what you get and how you use it. Someone on the forum had posted ( @Chick-In-Of-TheSea) and things didn't go well. 

Here is that thread. Friend used same product (caribsea aragonite) you posted a photo of but we don’t know if the parameters swung too fast or If there was a contaminant or what. Could have been a number of things. Personal opinion, you should buy your crushed coral from aquarium co op @Nelo
because they have a thorough quality testing procedure with their products. 

P.S. the axolotl you see pictured here is fine.

 

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/26/2023 at 4:51 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Personal opinion, you should buy your crushed coral from aquarium co op @Nelo
because they have a thorough quality testing procedure with their products. 

ever since i saw the prices on crushed coral at my LFS, thats a product im NEVER buying from ACO again.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 2/26/2023 at 7:41 AM, Theplatymaster said:

ever since i saw the prices on crushed coral at my LFS, thats a product im NEVER buying from ACO again.

It’s a trade off between price & safety of the tank inhabitants. I’m just leaning away from CaribSea Aragonite at this point, if I had to make a purchase. 

Edited February 26 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/26/2023 at 7:42 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It’s a trade off between price & safety of the tank inhabitants

my animals are fine with the stuff i got from my LFS, and its pretty much identical to the ACO stuff.

[Nelo]

 

On 2/25/2023 at 3:30 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Add crushed coral, then continue tracking it.

Package arrived faster than expected. Filled a 5 gallon bucket with 2.5 gallons of water, put an airstone in and waiting for pH to stabilize then will add CC in... How much CC should I put in the bucket to start? How long will the CC take to fully affect the water?
 

On 2/26/2023 at 3:51 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Here is that thread. Friend used same product (caribsea aragonite) you posted a photo of but we don’t know if the parameters swung too fast or If there was a contaminant or what.

When adding to the tank Ill make sure to rinse very well and add it over time to hopefully avoid a large KH/GH swing.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Tagging @TeeJay and @Katherine. I believe they both use crushed coral.

[Katherine]

On 2/26/2023 at 3:15 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Tagging @TeeJay and @Katherine. I believe they both use crushed coral.

I do, but my water parameters are very different from OP and I'm not sure the CC actually helps anything in my tanks.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/26/2023 at 12:10 PM, Nelo said:

Package arrived faster than expected. Filled a 5 gallon bucket with 2.5 gallons of water, put an airstone in and waiting for pH to stabilize then will add CC in... How much CC should I put in the bucket to start? How long will the CC take to fully affect the water?

I gave it 48 hours with 1/2 lb per 5g.

That first test was to just see if there was any difference, then test every few days following that.