Water Quality

[timbruun]

I've been learning alot about my water now since I found out shrimp are alot more sensitive than my fish are.

My GH is 0,which I've read I can raise with aquarium salt. Is that safe? Will it work? Harm anything?

My KH is at 40 drops with the API kit which is 40dh or 716ppm, same as mg/l. Only way I've found to bring that down is either distilled or RO. I can get enough distilled to do my snail/shrimp (also 3 Endler and 2 fry) tank and mix it mostly distilled and enough tap to keep the pH and KH where it should be then add for GH.

Now my pH is at 8.5 which should also come down when using the distilled. I'll have to play with that and see what comes of it.

So using the distilled with my tap and salt I should be able to create an ideal setup for shrimp and snails. But with my africans in the 90 gal and piranhas in the 55 gal I won't be able to get enough distilled to keep those where they prefer. How hard is it on africans and piranhas to have such a high KH? The GH I will bring up with salt in those tanks also. pH is ok for africans but a bit off for the piranhas. The africans are happy enough that I currently have at least 4 holding and have had a few in the past but my piranhas have always been really skittish and now I'm wondering if it's because my water is so far off what they prefer.

Does temp come into play here at all? I have all my tanks at around 78-80F. Which I've read I should lower for the shrimp a bit.

And do these parameters have any effect on plants?

Sorry for the long post and any help is great.

Thanks

Edited February 10, 2010 by timbruun

[werner]

You can't raise GH by adding salt. Better do some reading here: Practical Water Chemistry

[timbruun]

Now I've read that calcium chloride will raise GH without raising KH. Calcium Carbonate will raise both which I don't want. Is that right?

[gobies et al]

A few random thoughts:

Your water is already hard enough without adding more calcium.

I was wondering how your water tests out before it goes through your water softener.

Also, a person on Crustaforum was asking about using mineral additives on this site: http://crustaforum.dedenet.de/board/showthread.php?t=1364 I wondered if that was available around here and if it might be helpful for you.

Now I've read that calcium chloride will raise GH without raising KH. Calcium Carbonate will raise both which I don't want. Is that right?

[timbruun]

Calcium would be to bring up the GH and leave the KH. At least that's the plan, since my GH is 0.

I'll have to grab some from before my softener here and try it. I've tested water from 5 mins away from the tap and the KH is still high and GH is 0 still. pH is a tiny bit lower.

I've actually taken from 3 different wells, RO water and distilled water and testing them all to see what they all come out as. But really, in the end with my big tanks I'm stucking using my tap water. It's only the small tank I'll be getting distilled for. Going to be finding the right combination between my tap and distilled either friday or saturday.