werner

Here are some good instructions, and more ideas and links for MacQuariums.

Do you have a printout from the testing? If you're in an agricultural area, then nitrates and phosphates from fertilizer run off might be an issue.

Apparently those weights aren't actually made of lead any more. I think they're zinc or zinc/tin. Been soaking them in my husband's scotch bottles for years, but he's still here... :hey:

Don't forget about killing the fish! In a freshwater aquarium, water is continually diffusing into a fish. In water with little or no mineral content, there is greater pressure on your fish's kidneys to excrete it, and the stresses from transport, disease or trauma can be too much. I would never use straight R/O water. Some proportion of tap water should be mixed in to maintain a healthy osmoregulatory system (to calculate this, see the Pearson's Square diagram in the Soft Water Aquarium article I linked to previously.) Acclimation to new conditions should be made very slowly- especially if your importer/fish store has acclimated the fish to tapwater and you're going to change it back to softer water. Another excellent article: Osmoregulation in Freshwater Fish

Snail populations grow to the size of their food source- you can control them by not overfeeding. So... the huge waste build up can lead to nitrate spikes and snail infestations if uncontrolled.

Hornwort and other plants like Elodea, Egeria, Vallisneria, and Najas can extract their carbon from the bicarbonate ions in the water (if CO2 is lacking). They produce calcium carbonate (looks like a dusty coating on the leaves) and can raise the pH to dangerous levels. Not what you're looking for! I just did a presentation for the CAS on reverse osmosis and softening water. Here's some of the information that might help you: Most of the time when we're talking about hardness, we refer to General Hardness/GH (the measure of Calcium and Magnesium ions). However we also need to be concerned with Total Dissolved Solids/TDS [the measure of of all charged inorganic and organic substances (<2 μm ) in the water.] The rivers of South America, Southeast Asia and West Africa are predominantly soft water rivers because the water is flowing across terrain that is poor in soluble minerals. The fish are accustomed to waters that are low many salts/ions, not just Ca and Mg. Water softening pillows are like household water softeners- they replace the calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions. While the water is technically "soft" if you measure the GH, you have not reduced the TDS. There are still all sorts of other ions in solution, including the sodium. Not really a suitable option for the fish. A reverse osmosis unit uses water pressure to produce pure, soft water, while rejecting most of the dissolved solids. If you want it even purer you can add a Deionization cartridge, which removes nearly all of the remaining impurities. Yes, you do get waste water. It depends on your feed water pressure and back pressure within the system, temperature of the water, and initial water TDS. I'd say the reject rate is generally around 3:1 or 4:1, but can go as high as 10:1 in a really inefficient unit. You can use the reject water for watering plants, the lawn, etc. You will probably end up mixing the RO water with some tap water to get a suitable hardness (50/50, 75/25, etc.), so like you said, you won't be using tons for water changes. If you don't want to use a storage bin with a permanently installed unit, you can just hook it up to the sink to fill a bucket as you need it. Of course, a ready supply is nice to keep around since they only produce water at a trickle. You can call it an "emergency water supply" if that makes your spouse feel better about having a big water barrel in the basement (ROs also remove bacteria, viruses, giardia, and cryptosporidium from the water ) Here's mine: I just attach a hose to the bottom and fill my WC buckets and top-off unit whenever I need to. RO units are really quite affordable when you consider the convenience. Especially if you compare your alternatives- hauling those jugs from the grocery store or collecting rain/snow! You can get a 5 stage, 100gpd RO/DI for just over $150 (free shipping!) from here. Once you have soft water, may not need to fiddle with it significantly to get the pH down. The water will naturally acidify over time from the biological processes of the fish, plants, bacteria, etc. If you do need to adjust it, it will be much easier because of the lower alkalinity. Here's a good article: The Soft Water Aquarium: Risks and Benefits

CO2 addition- we do it all the time in planted tanks. When dissolved in water it makes carbonic acid and drops the pH. Are you going to be using R/O water? Lowering the pH is easier if you've got softer water to start with.

When I was in Calgary, I had better results from the fire/safety place than the industrial gas suppliers (might have been the chick factor.) So I think I'll try Centratech here. Looks like they do the hydro testing when I need it again too. I have 5lb and 10lb cylinders, so Cdn tire wouldn't work...

Now that I've moved, I have no idea where to get my tanks refilled. Any recommendations?

Just add a light and throw some duckweed or other floating plant into your sump to suck up the ammonia.

Pressurized CO2 Primer

Don't forget Plasma...

You didn't mention anything about plants...

Here's a pic of one of their red/blue panels: It's not very bright. Maybe the white is better?

The CAS mini auctions usually have lots of plants. And they tend to go cheap because most of us already have enough. There were a couple bags of HUGE vals at the last one that went for $2 or $3.

Don't forget propagation. Many of our "aquatic" plants have to grow out of the water to flower.

Naw... I know next to nothing about catfish. I just have the entire CAS library at my disposal- found him in the first book I checked. :smokey: Apparently these guys hitchhike with corydoras shipments occasionally too.

What kind of tetras? They might be snacking on the guppies.

Brachyrhamdia marthae?

Baloney! Or are you just trying to keep customs from catching on to you? I won't tell them about your makeup bag hiding spot.

No kidding. There's only several thousand $$$ worth of discus there...

Last call for the group RO/DI system order... I'll be putting it in on Monday. BTW, all the diamond tetras I bought at the meeting had to live in a Tupperware bowl for a couple days before I went back home (I wasn't expecting to buy any fish). I ended up carrying them home in my water jug It makes a really great fish transport bucket. Easy acclimation too- add new water to the top, and drain the old out the water spout. They're all happy in their new home. Saw breeding behaviors right away too- must be my RO/DI water!!!

Sure. You can ask them as we go along too. (Hopefully I know the answers...)

Bump... The RO/DI raffle prize was delivered yesterday. Sweet little unit- you know you want to win it!

Just talked to Max Water Flow and they have offered us a 10% discount on a group order! I'll put a post in the group order section for those who are interested...