Best Water - 125 gal Fresh water

[outflying]

Hello,

Where I live we have city water. I know that the city adds fluoride to the water. Another problem is our water is extremely hard (over 16).

Should I use:

1) water from our soft water loop? If yes, how do I get the salt out?
2) city water - bypassed from soft loop? If yes, what about the fluoride?
3) Add ro system to soft water loop to take salt out.

I've read that ro isn't always the best for fresh water aquarium so now I'm confused.

Please help.

Thanks!

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I have the same water and use straight city tap. Fish coming from a lfs will already be accustomed to the high hardness levels.

 

[jsoong]

You don't want to use softened water -- softener only exchange Na (or K) for the Ca/Mg, leaving the HCO3 unchanged. Far as the fish is concerned, the water is just as hard (more, actually, as you exchange 2 Na for 1 Ca), since all they see is osmolar load (ie number of dissolved ions).

Most people use water straight from the tap & bypass the softener. Most fish will acclimatize to harder water & the high pH. But if you have liquid rock, you can mix in r/o. Pure r/o is not good as it has no buffer (KH=0) & prone to pH crash. Most people use 1:1 mix or something simple to get at a reasonable ph & KH.