Need a primer on maintaining H2O params

[rsa1]

I have been keeping a few dwarfs. Some of the easier ones have spawned in my tap water. I'd like to try changing my water parameters and see if I can have some success with some more difficult fish.

I have ordered a Hanna combo meter. For now, I must rely on grocery store RO water (i.e machine that dispenses H2O by the gallon) as I do not have a location in the house where I can install a RO unit. I can't tell you my current parameters as I do not yet have the test meters. I live in south Marin county California. Last year I checked my water using some old test kits. I can't remember exact results, but I think I had fairly soft acidic water (hardness ~ 60-70 ppm, pH ~6.8)

Can anyone recommend a basic primer for a beginner? I have questions such as

1. How fast should I change parameters? I assume a gradual change in water conditions is easier on the fish.

2. How to estimate mix of tap water/RO water to achieve desired levels? Is it something like
(volume Tap_H2O * Tap_H20 hardness) + (volume RO_H2O * RO_H2O hardness) = (total volume * desired hardness) ?

3. Regarding grocery store RO water. How reliable is it? I have read other posts saying it's hardness can vary depending on the age of the filter. How about cloramines etc? Should I be testing this? If I need to treat the RO water for cloramines, won't this raise TDS?

Thanks!

 

[tjudy]

1. pH is the parameter that will do the most harm if it is changed too quickly. A gradual change is always best.

2. The fast and easy way to determine the approximate mixture of tap and RO is to take the ratio of the desired ppm to the tap ppm and reverse it as a ratio of RO to tap. For example:

desired: 100 ppm tap: 500 ppm ratio: 1:5

reversed ratio = 5:1 RO to tap, so you would mix 5 parts RO to 1 part tap

Once you get your meter, however, you can be much more exact. Just add tap water in small increments until the TDS is what you want it to be.

3. Store RO is a crap shoot. RO alone will not remove chloramine, but deionization will. Any time you add a chemical to a solution the TDS will most likely go up.

If you are not testing for KH (carbonatae hardness) you should be. It has been shown that even 'soft water' apistos have a higher tolerance for not carbonate TDS than is generally thought, but even a KH 2 may cause egg and wiggler development problems. This is actually not bad news, because it means if you start off with a very low TDS and a neutral pH it is possible to lower the pH chemically and still have a tolerable TDS level.

It is also important to note that pH is very unstable in water with no carbonate hardness whatsoever. I have gone to taking pure RO/DI and adding just enough pH buffer to create a KH of 1-2, then adjust the pH down. Some of the KH is usually removed in the process, but enough stays to keep the low pH from crashing.

 

[aquaticclarity]

rsa1

Check out Aquarium Pharmaceutical’s Tap Water Purifier. It’s a very small portable D.I. unit that you can hook up to your sink. You simple get it out of the closet when you need to make water and put it back in the closet when you are done. The down side is the unit generally only makes 30-50 gallons of water, depending on your water source's values. The harder the water you start with the less purified water the unit will produce. Refills are available for the system.

This is the unit I started out with when I first dabbled in lowering the TDS in a single 45 gallon planted tank. It’s not a great system if you need a lot of water…more then 10 gallons a week, but it's great for a single tank supply. But if you are buying store water this may be comparable in cost and deliver a more consistent water supply for your fish use.

Jeff

 

[AdamT]

I used the aquarium pharmaceuticals unit for a while.

I ended up switching to buying RO water from an aquarium store.

The unit performed ok, but the plastic faucet fixture tended to spray water if the tap was turned on too high. As a result it really needed to run for a long time in order to produce enough water to do a change with (I was changing a 30 ga at the time, the filter had to run most of the afternoon). But there was no float valve or anything, so you kinda needed to keep an eye on it. The water it produced was fine, but it lengthened my water change process so much that I ended up discontinuing its use.

If you want to buy water consider checking some of the local fish stores. That's where I got water 'till I picked up an R/O unit of my own. The one I used sold water from the same supply as it's own internal use, and also had a sticker on the dispenser showing the dates of regular maintanence. I had a greater degree of trust in it than in grociery store water.

- Adam

 

[rsa1]

thanks!

Thanks for the info!

 

[STOKER]

If you go to this link it explains the in and outs of what to do to alter your water conditions.

fins.actwin.com/mirror/begin-cycling.html



Mike