Re: Moving soon to fishroom

[IDMiamiBob@aol.com]

In a message dated 6/16/1999 8:05:06 AM Mountain Daylight Time, 
francinebethea@excite.com writes:

>    I need help and advice on how to successfully move fifteen tanks with
>  soft, acidic water.  This is my set up:  I started with a 30 gal tank and
>  cycled it normally.  The water where I live now is off a well.  The water
>  parameters are liquid rock and a ph of 7,6.  However, I decided to raise
>  apistos.  
>     I put peat in the filter. Once the ph dropped to 5,5, I removed the peat
>  and use two sponges in the Aquaclear 150.  Ever since then, I have been
>  doing partial water changes with pure steamed distilled water.  My water
>  parameters in the tanks are all a stable ph of 5,0 and a hardness of 70ppm.
>  I have seeded the other 14 tanks from the 30 gal whenever I did my weekly
>  water change.  Thus, no cycling.
>    I am planning a move and searching for the house with the perfect room 
for
>  the fishroom.  I plan to increase the number of tanks to 25 or 30.  
However,
>  I am in a quandry as to how to maintain this water quality without hauling
>  40 or 50 bottles of water each week.  Is this where you suggest a RO 
system?

Yep.

>  I know the principle of how it works, but I am at a loss on what size 
system
>  I would need, where to set it up, how to set it up.

Figure out how much water you will be changing each week, divide by 7, then 
get one that handles about 25% more than that per day.  Set it up in a corner 
of the fish room, or if you're really clever, in the room directly above the 
fish room, poke a hole in the floor, and set up a siphon with a valve to do 
your water changes.  That cuts the number of buckets you tote every week by a 
half. 

R/O units usually can be set up with a standard plumbing fitting.  Some will 
even accept a garden hose.  You can run the good water into a barrel or trash 
can, and run the discharge back to the nearest sewer/drain.  Call around to 
your local water treatment specialists, then visit one and see how it hooks 
up.  Then your choice of location within the house will be dictated by the 
water source location, the drain location, and the fishroom location.  Maybe 
you ought to see how it hooks up before you settle on a house, as that may be 
a deciding factor.

Bob Dixon 
  
>  I trust the apisto people to tell me about this moreso than the lfs guy I
>  deal with.
>  Sorry for being long winded, but I keep mulling over this and can't decide
>  what to do.
>  Thanks........
>  
>   
>  
>  Francine in MD
>  Fish - photography - genealogy
>  


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