Tropical community tank and water softener?
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 at
4:20 pm
Hi,
I’m going to be setting up a tropical community tank. However, we have a water softener. Is that going to be a problem? I’m pretty sure our water is saltier than it would be normally.
Thanks!
Isaac
What is GH and KH? How do I test for them? What levels should I be looking for on those and for the Ph?
You say guppies + mollies are ok. How about cherry barbs and dwarf gouramis? These are the other fish I’m interested in.
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Filed under: Water Filter System
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My first recommendation to you would be to test your tap water for the GH, KH and pH. Water softeners can affect the water for your aquarium, so be careful. If your water parameters are near neutral, you should be fine for using your tap water.
My friend has a water softener in her house, instead of worrying about using it, she buys water from in town and hauls it in a large water tank on the back of her truck (mind you she has about 10 tanks). So if you have to get your source of water from somewhere else, I would recommend it.
Edit: GH is general hardness, and KH is carbonate hardness. general hardness measures the minerals calcium and magnesium in your tap water, and KH measures bicarbonate and carbonate, and is in close relation with pH, and is what keeps the pH stable. This chart will help you determine the levels your parameters should be at http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2154&aid=3355. Water softeners for household use are often not good for an aquarium, because of the type of ion exchange.
Remember that there is chemistry and biology in the fish keeping hobby, and understanding it and knowing how it all works will help you to care for your fish properly. Hope these links help you
Discus don’t absolutely need to be in softer water. I am an avid discus keeper, and they are in 7.5 pH and very high GH. Even though a fish should be in a certain parameter, it is not essential, and often times the fish will become acclimatized. Yes mollies are actually brackish fish, and guppies do well with salt, but it still doesn’t mean that water from a household softner is any good for a fish.
Your tap water won’t be salty – then you wouldn’t be able to use it. We can’t drink saltwater.
Test the pH out of the tap with the softener – ideally a softener isn’t a good idea but it will depend the full readings out of the tap you plan on using, and in turn stocking fish that are suited to those parameters.
Soft water is no problem as long as the PH is stable.
Buy water test kits to see what your Tap-water chemistry is. General hardness, salinity, ph..etc. The test kits should break down ideal parameters in the instructions.
There are tons of fish out there, and many prefer soft water. Many tetra’s, angels, and barbs, will easily breed in soft water. You can have a better chance of success with Discus with soft water.
Softeners do add some salt to water. That’s why doctors don’t generally recommend that people drink softened water. But in any case, it’s not a lot.
Whether or not it is good depends on the fish. Many insist that Mollies must have salt added. Guppies like salt too. Cories tolerate some salt, certainly the amount in softened water. Some fish don’t like much salt at all. Seems to me the Plecos are like that.
Best is to take each species you are interested in, and do some research as to what it’s requirements are. There really is no one perfect water that all species do best in.
So anyway, you can confidently use guppies and mollies, both will actually live in salt water tanks.
Anything that is classified as a brackish fish should also tolerate it well.
I can’t help you on plant selection they vary in what they like too.
Marv
If your water is hard/alkaline, it may be softened by the water company, either through buffering agents or by filtration, most of the time it will be a buffering agent which tends to break down after about 24hrs.
You need to test the water from your tap for its Ph level, save the rest and re-test after 24hrs this will tell you what it is at 2 different timings.
GH is general hardness
KH is Calcium hardness
For the fish you looking at both of these will have little effect apart from the Mollies which prefer a slightly brackish water, but will tolerate a normal variance, for individual fish mentioned you could look up what they prefer, however, as long as the Ph is around 7 both the GH and KH should be acceptable.
Its always best not to mess around with the make up of the water if you can help it however, for some species like Discus it becomes important to get it right.
You can get test kits from your lfs for all 3 tests.
Your water should be fine, just test the Ph of the water (most fish stores or Petco and Petsmart will do this for free) to make sure it is around neutral. I have a water softener also and have never had any problems with using it in my tanks. I have been keeping fish for 8 years now and have a goldfish (8 years old), green tiger barbs, harlequin rasboras, neon tetras, bloodfin tetras, blackskirt tetras, dwarf gouramis, bettas, corydora catfish, mystery snails, african dwarf frogs, and a red clawed crab. GH (general hardness) KH (calcium hardness) really don’t matter as the fish will adjust to these when the fish are put in the water. They won’t harm the fish.