Super Hard Water?

Question

Softening my tap water for Angel fish seems to be insurmountable. My tap waters measures extremely hard, about 12.0 to 13.0 it's terrible...leaves spots on dishes...can see mineral deposits in ice cubes and so on. I have tried to soften the water in the tank (55g) with a product called Amazon Rain which came highly recommended by the local fish place here in Arizona. It was expensive and I don't want to have to be dependent on buying an expensive product so what's the best way to get this super hard water down to a respective range for Angel fish? I have heard about filtering with peat but that sounds messy and not practical in an apartment (no garage or other area since it smells) Ideas anyone? Their experiences? Thanks much.

Answer 1

Truthfully, most freshwater fish have been captive bred for many generations (Angels definitely so). They are pretty adaptable and used to harder water than ther ancestors in the the wild. In most cases, unless you are trying to breed the fish, they should do just fine in harder water. Now, 13 is a bit hard. Do the Angelfish seem stressed by the hard water? If not and you are not trying to breed I would leave it alone. The constant up and down of adding chemicals and the pH shifting back up will stress them more than being in constant hard water! Seriously, you are fighting a losing battle. You are adding the acidic products to your water but the buffers in your water (all those minerals you are seeing deposits of) are buffering the pH right back up. Your fight to keep the water a stable, lowered pH will never end.

See if your Angels do okay in the hard tap water. If not, I would suggest that you change your tank into a Rift Lake cichlid tank. There are many Rift Lake Cichlidophiles who would love to have your "problem" tap water! Your water is perfect right out of the tap for these animals. You would also do well with a saltwater tank since saltwater aquariums need a higher pH.

If you are really set on keeping your Angels and lowering the pH you are going to have to buy distilled water from the store to mix with your tap water (finding a ratio that gives a good pH) or buy a RO (reverse osmosis) unit for your faucet and mix RO water with tap in a ratio that makes a good pH. Buying gallons of distilled water is pretty impractical long term and expensive. The RO unit will cost a few hundred bucks (not including membrane replacements) but would solve your problem.

Answer 2

Water softening / pH lowering chemicals don't work. Well, they'll work for a couple days, but water with high hardness and high pH have a high buffering capacity, which means that although your pH will drop for a day, it'll just go right back up to where it was.

Peat moss and driftwood and two methods are lowering pH, but frankly, it wouldn't do any good in your case. It might lower it a little bit, but it would vary, and it went from 13, to 8, to 12, etc, it may well kill your fish. You could give it a try with peat moss - boil some peat moss until it sinks (remove any floaters) and in place of the carbon in a filtre box, put the peat moss, and cover it with a sponge. It may taint your water brownish.

Have you looked into getting CO2? I recently invested in a Carbo-Plus CO2 system and it lowered my pH from 9 to 5.5 in a matter of a few hours. A pressurized CO2 would probably have the same effect. It wouldn't bring it down to 5.5, but it might bring it to 8, which would be fine for angels.

You could also get bottled water. Not mineral water, but regular distilled water. You'll need to add some essential minerals, salts and electrolytes though. Rainwater is also an option if you live in an area with a lot of rainfall. Boil it first. I would suggest investing in a quality canister filter (like a Rena XP3) rated for 150 gallons. That way, you could get away with doing water changes only once every 2-3 weeks.

Your last option would be to install a Reverse Osmosis unit on your tap.

Also, make sure you let your tap water sit overnight, or test right from the tank. Tap water often comes out of the tap with higher pH than it has once it has sat for a little while.

Lastly... consider trading in the angels for some malawi or tanganyikan cichlids. I know it's not the same, but they will thrive in your water conditions. Have you SEEN peacock cichlids? O.O

Answer 3

It depends on how much money you have. There is a water
filtration system available called reverse osmosis. You can
get them at places like Lowes, and Home Depot. They range
in price depending upon how many gallons/ day they will make.
This kind of filtration is fantastic for treating water problems
you're describing. They cost about two hundred dollars, plus
installation (about one hundred dollars) These are ball park figures, so please don't hold me to them. The system is
mounted under your kitchen sink. The filtered water is ideal
for drinking, cooking, and filling fish tanks. They also have
water softeners available, however I'm not a big fan of them.
The reason is that yeah they soften the water, however they
don't remove all the impurities that the reverse osmosis does.
Hope this was of some help.

Answer 4

Rain water. I have several large garbage cans outside that I catch water. It feeds my birds, garden.

Water from the store. We have several brands here that are all mountain spring water or artisan water neither of these waters should have any additives that would be harmful.

I was always told leaving water in a container for a few days to let the chemical dissipate is good. There are also water treatments that can be attached to your facet. I was thinking if it is bad for the animals, it must terrible for you to drink too.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Answer 5

As you've found it is very, very hard to lower the hardness/pH of water.

I recommend that you never, ever mess with the pH of a tank unless you plan on breeding very pH sensitive fish such as discus.

Virtually all fish will do just fine in water that is "outside the norm" for them. However they will not do well in a tank that has fluctuating pH.

Answer 6

i too live in an apt and when having pets you pretty much want the lest amount of mess and work...if i was you i would just go and buy a gallon of freash water. now i dont know how big your tank is but if you can get your hands on a 5gallon jug then you can go fill it up whenev you need to and it only cost about 2$

Answer 7

I have bred angel fish in harder water than that, although they are from the amazon, you don't need soft water for them.

Peat can help, I think what you are talking about is peat moss, no good. Kilin Dried peat fibers are what you want.

Answer 8

Brita water filter.