Tap Water Treatment

["Chris Jewell" <chris@jewell68.freeserve.co.uk>]

Greetings!

Firstly, apologies in advance to anyone who gets this from a number of
lists, but I want to post it to a couple to get opinions from fish keepers
in different areas of the hobby. Sorry for any confusion this causes.

Basically, to cut to the chase, I'm giving up on my local tapwater. It may
be soft, free of nitrates etc, but I have now had a number of problems
(including a large wipeout in the last few weeks of catfish, apisto's etc)
that have been linked to "pollutants" in the water. Even thought the water
is treated with a dechlorinator ( API Stress Coat) and stood it doesn't
appear to eleviate the problems.

I was just wondering what methods people use to treat their water? I use
about 100-120 Gals a week, split between breeder / fry tanks and large
display tanks. I have a small R/O unit, and was thinking of upgrading to a
larger one to use 100% RO, but it would need remineralising before use in
many of my tanks ( Although I'm sure most of my apisto's wouldnt mind neat
R/O :)). The advatage of R/O I suppose would be that if I move to a
hardwater area in the future, I'm sorted.

I have heard of people using carbon block filters, are these any good? This
has the advantage of not having to be remineralsied etc before
use...........?
If people use 100% R/O water, what do they reccomend to remineralise it
before use in "community" tanks, where I need a kH of about 4?
Are there any other alternatives available ( I live in the UK)?

Thanks in advance for any input or advice given, and a cheers to Pete
Liptrot for his help thus far.

Chris





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