Re: Hard hard water

[Stuart Hall <sturob@swbell.net>]

>Hello from Australia
>
>However on Simon's dwarf cichlid board, we are conversing with a lady from
>West Michigan where the water is HARD (300ppm gH and kH) and she is trying
>to keep soft water, acid fish.
>

I've had very good luck attacking this problem with two weapons.  The 
first, of course, is filtering over peat.  It's not really all that 
wonderful for softening, but for acidifying, it can't be beat.

For softening, I use SeaChem Neutral Regulator and Acid Buffer. 
These two products work by (1) adding buffering agents and (2) 
precipitating out calcium/magnesium/hard water nasties.  The great 
thing is that you can mix them and design a target pH for your tank.

I like to use this combination because I've seen peat filtration drop 
the bottom out of the pH, and I don't like to have to get rid of it, 
because I think the fish like the tannins, etc., provided by the 
peat.  The buffer helps to keep the pH steady.  What I've done when 
the water seems quite hard is to add the buffer every other day for 
several doses; if you keep adding it in the same ratio, you can keep 
precipitating out more calcium.

Of course, there's always reverse osmosis, or supermarket-filtered RO 
if the tank's small . . .



Stuart
-- 
--
Stuart Hall
(sturob@swbell.net)
(gasdocstu@my-deja.com)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@listbox.com.
Search http://altavista.digital.com for "Apistogramma Mailing List Archives"!