Play sand

[mikeb]

I got my play sand this afternoon. I am currently washing it in a 5 gallon pail. Just adding water to the sand and stirring it up and then pouring out the excess water.

Does the sand have to dry out at all before I add it to the tank? Probably not since I am adding water. I also have some natural stones from the back yard that I would like to add. I assume I need to clean and then boil the stones before placing them in the tank.

What kind of water should I use when filling the tank?

 

[Aiken Drum]

You can use wet sand just fine.

Boiling stones can cause them to explode if there are airpockets in them, so be careful if you boil them. I normally just rinse off shop bought rock. Taking rocks from the backyard can be risky. Are you sure no chemicals got on them like pesticides or petrochemicals? A rinse or boil wont necessarily get rid of those.

What kind of water do you have available? Is there something amiss with your tap water? Most people just use tap water treated with dechlorinator. Water that has gone through a softener might be unsafe to use. Water that is particularly poor quality might not be safe. Do you drink your tap water? If tap water isnt safe, then some people use bought spring water, or remineralise RO water. Some people collect rainwater.

 

[mikeb]

Yeah, I read about the rocks. It would be neat to use my own backyard rocks, but you stated exactly what I am reading as well. Might just be safer to get store bought rocks. Any places you could recommend, or is the pet store the best in this regard?

I have a water softner, however I also have an RO system for my kitchen sink. Do I just test the water hardness before putting it in the tank? What should I look at in regards to water quality before filling the tank?

 

[Aiken Drum]

The problem with water softeners is how they work. They work on an ion exchange principal. The resin in the softener attracts the calcium and magnesium from the water to soften it, but replaces it with something else, most commonly sodium. Sodium is often not good for freshwater fish. So the reduced softness isnt the problem, its the increased sodium. Some people are OK using softened water, some people arent. Its probably down to a couple of reasons. How hard the water was to start with and therefore how much sodium needed to go in to replace the calcium/ magnesium. Fish that can tolerate higher salinity are going to be better suited to the higher level of sodium.

1. Is your softened water drinkable? If it tastes salty that is a sign that it might not be good for your fish.
2. Most water softeners have a bypass, so you could use unsoftened water in your aquarium.
3. Water softeners can use a resin that isnt sodium based (potassium i think) and this different resin is less of a problem.

If your tap water is softened, there's usually a reason. Do you have a water quality report of the water before it goes through your softener from your water supplier?

If you use RO water you need to remineralise the water before it goes in the aquarium. RO lacks minerals essential for fishes health. It has no carbonate hardness (KH) and so cant buffer pH swings. You can buy remineralising salts and then adjust your RO to whatever water parameters you want.

 

[mikeb]

Ok, thank you for such thorough answers. I do have a TDS tester as well as the water testing kit I bought it the fish store the other day. My TDS reading on:

Tap Water with Water Softner is 262 TDS
Tap Water without Water Softner is 260 TDS but very cloudy
RO Water is 32 TDS.

I will not be adding fish until we have everything setup so not sure if I should just use the RO water and supplement the minerals back in.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Your TDS reading before and after the softener illustrates quite nicely the ion exchange principal. If the softener was just removing calcium/ magnesium then TDS would reduce. Because it is replacing one thing with another the TDS stays the same. TDS gives no indication of whats actually in the water though.

260ppm TDS is actually on the low side for a freshwater aquarium, but if it is essentially all calcium carbonate (which i suspect it is) then it would be very high calcium levels.

I think the only way to know if your softened water is safe for fish is to try it. I suspect you might be ok though. Your TDS is still on the low side so that could indicate sodium levels still arent on the high side. Would be useful to know what the general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) of your softened water is, and a water quality report of the source water from your water company would be helpful too.

 

[mikeb]

Thank you. I will work on getting a water report from the city. However, I thinking about using the RO water for a couple of reasons. #1 I do not have to worry too much about the higher calcium levels. #2 the pH was around a 6.5, and from what I have read it generally seemed it was easier to bring the pH up rather than down.

The pH on the water from the tap was 7.4. From what I read in the water testing manual I think Tetras liked a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. I do not know the right answer, I guess that is why people like the cycle process b/c it allows them to dial in the tank prior to putting the fish in. You know you have a it as close to right as possible.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you. I will work on getting a water report from the city. However, I thinking about using the RO water for a couple of reasons. #1 I do not have to worry too much about the higher calcium levels. #2 the pH was around a 6.5, and from what I have read it generally seemed it was easier to bring the pH up rather than down.

The pH on the water from the tap was 7.4. From what I read in the water testing manual I think Tetras liked a pH of 6.5 to 6.8. I do not know the right answer, I guess that is why people like the cycle process b/c it allows them to dial in the tank prior to putting the fish in. You know you have a it as close to right as possible.

If you go the RO route, make sure you remineralize it because fish do not live in pure RO water. The minerals and salts that the filter removes are life essentials. The good part is that you can control how much of these minerals are present.

 

[mikeb]

Thank you.

 

[mikeb]

I know this might feel like a slow process, but just trying to work on this when we as a family have time.

I have the play sand in the tank and we did some hard scaping this morning with some beach rocks from Home Depot. We also drained about 1/2 the water in the tank. So that said we have some very cloudy water. I assume this is fairly normal, while using play sand.

Will this play sand support plants? Is this where the root tabs come into play?

The plants we are thinking are:
Java Moss
Anubias
Jungle Val



Would like to add photos, but can not quite figure out how to add a picture.

Would like to find some natural landscaping with a bit more depth/height.

 

[Andy Sager]

The good news is that Yes, play sand can support plant life if you add ferts to it for root feeding plants or have a large fish load that is supplying nutrition. That said, The Valesnaria needs bright light while the anubias do not and will do better in lower lighting. The Java moss can go either way but bright lights can help produce algae. If your lighting gives you the ability to lower it in some areas while brightening it in others, this combo can work well. If not, you may want to keep plants that need similar lighting to each other for an easier time keeping them.
As for adding pictures, if you scroll down to the " additional options" section of your new post, you will see a section called "Attach files". Use the "manage attachment " button to add your jpg files.
Hope this helps.