Tropical Fish Forums

[unissuh]

You mean dGH and dKH? Thats actually not too bad...hardness is fine, just have to pull down the carbonate hardness level.

I probably wouldn't mess with peat in this case (if you don't know what you're doing, you can cause flunctuations in water parameters), personally I'd use RO water but I s'pose a phosphate buffer could be used (RO highly preferable).
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[fishy me]

If I were to use RO water were would I get it?

[unissuh]

Mmm, either purchase a RO filter or buy RO/distilled water from the supermarket.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[fishy me]

Will RO water lower carbonate hardness? What else can lower it?

[unissuh]

I feel like I'm reiterating myself somehow...

Dilution of tap water with RO/distilled water or peat filtration both lower carbonate hardness (KH) and therefore lower the pH.

A phosphate based buffer will not lower KH, but lower pH to a certain extent.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[khulsberg]

a lot of the pH buffer products like proper pH 6.5 & 7 use phosphate to obtain the pH level. Never use with a planted tank and get ready for some algae to show up. You will also see mineral precipitate on the glass and filter equipment. It can be a tough job to remove it. I used to use these buffers but quit because of the other problems that come with them.

[fishy me]

I located a water depot a couple blocks from were I live. They sell RO water there. If I did use half RO and half tap water, what would happen to;

pH 8.5
gh 5.5
KH 13.5

by the way, the water tested goes through a water softener (otherwise the gh is higher than 14). Is that OK?

[unissuh]

If you cut half and half with RO, you would end up with water that has 2.25dGH and 6.75dKH. According to a CO2 chart, you would then probably have a pH of 7.8 (typically CO2 is at about 5ppm offhand).

http://www.aquahobby.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=22507

Water softeners typically exchange Ca++ and Mg++ for Na+. Not changing much from your fish's point of view, only on the test kit. I would use unsoftened water because that will give you the right readings.
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Fishing in the Rivers of Light

[fishy me]

So if I do RO water with my tap water (hard) I should have about GH 7, KH 7, and pH maybe 7.8. I want to keep cardinal tetras, what would be the highest hardness I could do for that? I was also wondering: First, I tested my hard waters pH yesterday but the test water was a random shade of blue and I couldn't figure out what it was. When I layed it on its side it thinned out and looked like pH 7. Thats not how its supposed to be right? Secondly, the water coming out of my tap can't be heated (only one nob). What could I do to get it the proper temp.?

[unissuh]