Clean water for water change

[Sydsmom367]

I live in an area with very hard water and was wondering if using water from a PuR water filter would be a better source than from the tap?

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[BBradbury]

Your Tap Water

I live in an area with very hard water and was wondering if using water from a PuR water filter would be a better source than from the tap?

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Hello mom...

Unless you're keeping rare fish, the water from the tap should be fine. Most, if not all of the fish you get at the pet store will easily adapt to most public water supplies. Just treat it with a product like Seachem's "Safe" to remove the chemicals the public water people put into the water to make it safe to drink. No need to use filtered water.

B

 

[Sydsmom367]

Thanks. But I am worried that if the city changes the chemicals in the tap water it might harm the fish and thought filtered water might be a better choice.

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[Delapool]

Out of interest what is in the filter? Is it mainly carbon/charcoal?

 

[Sydsmom367]

Not sure. Came with the Great choice 10 gal kit. Internal filter.

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[Sydsmom367]

Power filter with carbon cartridge.

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[Delapool]

Power filter with carbon cartridge.

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That's what we have on our fridge filter I think. It is palm husk (or something) charcoal mainly to filter for taste. I've briefly looked at it and thought that between the water conditioner I use which is meant to sort out heavy metals and ammonia plus running a small amount of carbon in the filter, I don't have to filter tap water here. My tap water is quite soft.

I don't think carbon filtering will improve water hardness of kh or gh. Out of interest have you done any tests on unfiltered and filtered tap gh?

Mainly my lfs uses the same water i do and I try to roughly match fish species to my water specs.

I know some people mix in RO water to dilute but have never done it.

 

[Delapool]

Thanks. But I am worried that if the city changes the chemicals in the tap water it might harm the fish and thought filtered water might be a better choice.

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I've only seen one thread here where it was suspected they had done something like that. Seachem prime may have stopped it but we weren't sure what exactly went wrong except the fish seemed to have ammonia or chemical burns.

What sort of chemicals would you be worried about?

Separate issue but I've noticed our tap water goes super soft on kh over summer. Like a seasonal change.

Have you tested tap for ph, ammonia, nitrates, etc?

 

[Sydsmom367]

The water seems to test out fine but I just want to give my fish the best environment possible.

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[Paul1792]

If you live close to a Walmart, they should have Culligen (or similar) drinking water from a dispenser at 27 cents a gallon. It is actually reverse osmosis R/O water and very "soft." If you use 25-30% with the rest being tap, you should be OK.

My tap water is horrible .... too hard and too many phosphates and other bad things. I use 40% spring water, 30% bottled spring water, & 30% R/O.

My water is now crystal clear and parameters checked with API test kit are fine now.

 

[Mebbid]

The water seems to test out fine but I just want to give my fish the best environment possible.

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If your water is testing okay then you really have nothing.to worry about. The water can't be changed too much because its really really heavily regulated and controlled. It has to be safe for people to drink after all The additives in the water can only be increased soo much and prime will take carw of those additives.

 

[BBradbury]

Tap Water

Thanks. But I am worried that if the city changes the chemicals in the tap water it might harm the fish and thought filtered water might be a better choice.

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Hello again mom...

I never worry about changes in the public water supply. As long as I use the proper water treatment and change a lot of tank water and change it often, I figured my fish and plants would be fine. Over the last decade or so in the water keeping hobby, this has been true.

B

 

[Sydsmom367]

Would the pur water filter help with lowering ph levels? I'm running close to 8

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[Mebbid]

Would the pur water filter help with lowering ph levels? I'm running close to 8

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As long as your pH isn't over 8.5 you don't really need to worry about pH either. Trying to fiddle with it will cause more problems than it will solve. For example, my tanks run at around 7.8pH and the fish do great in it. I even have a few fish that prefer softer water.


As for what that water filter is going to do, I'm not sure. I don't know what's inside the filter.

 

[Delapool]

Would the pur water filter help with lowering ph levels? I'm running close to 8

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I don't think it would much - not straight carbon. I'm not sure what other minerals are used (clays, zeolite?) but also think wouldn't make much difference.

As above - as water is testing fine I would leave as is. Tank ph will usually try to drop over time due to biological activity. Over summer I have to tweak kh up otherwise ph tries to drop due to the soft water.

 

[loachy dance]

It shouldn't reduce most hardness, but it will reduce heavy metals. Less lead is good.

 

[OwduaNM]

If you live close to a Walmart, they should have Culligen (or similar) drinking water from a dispenser at 27 cents a gallon. It is actually reverse osmosis R/O water and very "soft." If you use 25-30% with the rest being tap, you should be OK.

My tap water is horrible .... too hard and too many phosphates and other bad things. I use 40% spring water, 30% bottled spring water, & 30% R/O.

My water is now crystal clear and parameters checked with API test kit are fine now.

How long have you been doing this and how well has it worked for you? Our local tap water is very hard and it has made maintaining my fish tank very difficult and I have had a couple local fish keepers tell me to do something along the same lines.


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[Paul1792]

How long have you been doing this and how well has it worked for you? Our local tap water is very hard and it has made maintaining my fish tank very difficult and I have had a couple local fish keepers tell me to do something along the same lines.


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I have been doing it for almost a year. It works fantastic. I don't even check parameters anymore except for nitrates. Water is crystal clear and polished (using Purigen & micron polishing pads as well) . Fish are very healthy with vibrant colors.

As a side note, I set up my 38 gallon (now tropical community) as a goldfish tank in Dec 2010 in Gulf Breeze FL using the Midway water system in zip 32563. The water was always cloudy. This was very frustrating after using Kansas City tap water ..... where the water was always clear. It turns out the phosphates and other "bad parameters" were causing some combination of algae or bacterial blooms and who knows what else.

All it took was one 50% change with bottled spring water and the water cleared up. After that, I used only spring water and did 25% changes once a month. I didn't start the mix of tap, spring, & R/O to keep the cost down until I joined this forum, added another tank, and found I needed to at least triple my water changes. It's a pain hauling water and the expense is about $25 a month for two tanks to do 20% weekly water changes in both tanks. Nonetheless, the trouble and cost are well worth it to get the desired result.