Soft/Hard water question...

[CleverBs]

So I am designing a tank to be a Amazon Biotope it will be planted and has driftwood and plants in it, i want to have Low ph 6.5-6.8 and Soft water my question is does lowering your ph from Co2 create soft water or do I need to use an RO/DI unit to have RO water to have soft water? My fish are German Blue Rams, Serpae Tetras, Cardinal Tetras all of them like Low ph acidic water.

Also i dont want to use peet moss

 

[jcolon]

Usually soft-water is treated water lacking dissolved salts / minerals except for sodium which I think is the only ion(+ charge) in soft water. So your looking at RO/DI or some other treated soft water source.

While the fish you mentioned do best is soft, low pH water, they will adapt to harder, higher pH water if acclimated properly.

 

[CleverBs]

I know that they can adapt however I belive that if I want to keep them then I need to adapt to them beings I have the capability to do so, and if I dont then I shouldnt own them. But thanks for the info on the Soft water things thats exactly what I was looking for.

 

[adeebm]

Adding CO2 will lower the pH, but doesn't change the hardness of the water. Since those fish are used to lower TDS water in the wild, you could mix RO water in with your tap to lower the TDS. They will adapt fine to most tap water however. I keep my cardinals in hard water with a CO2 setup and they have done fine for a year now.

--Adeeb

 

[aqua_chem]

If anything CO2 would probably increase you kh.