sherlock Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 I may be looking to move out to the country in the future and was wondering what people do to condition the water. I am pretty sure that using well water is not a good thing and packing city water home is not my idea of a good time. I have a 180 gallon tank and use the python system for that very reason. Emptying and filling with pails is not an option anymore. I don't really want to give up on fish keeping so I hope someone can give me some advise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 It depends on your well. I use well water and it goes straight from the tap into the tanks no additives, no conditioning Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 What kinds of tests can you do to find out if the water is good? My concern is mainly with the iron content, I have heard of some pretty heavy iron content from some wells. I know that you can run the water thru some conditioners, but what does that do to the quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLake Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Call the county in which you plan to move to. Many times well water is much better. especially for africans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bosshog Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Stop in at the local health unit and pick up a test kit. You fill it up return it and they send it away and have it analyzed. I pretty sure mineral content is included in the tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbruun Posted March 28, 2010 Report Share Posted March 28, 2010 Usually you need to own a piece of land where you're at to get the water tested. You can get it done for free once a year I think it is. I use well water in all my tanks except my shrimp. I keep mostly africans. I do run my water through a water conditionner and don't find any problems. Although now that I started doing planted tanks I did start adding MgSO4 and CaSO4 to the water to bring the hardness up since the conditionner softens it. My problem is also my water has very high KH and no GH to start anyways. Hence the reconstitued distilled water for the shrimp. I do use prime for all my water changes though. Mostly because of the metals aspect since there shouldn't be any chlorine or chloramine in the well. Although some people have shock treated wells with bleach/chlorine to get rid of biological problems and that can cause issues. You can get iron test kits fairly easily. The best is the health unit test though. They give a biological and mineral test. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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