All right, my tank is cycling happily along and I'm realizing that my little bucket approach to PWC for the 10 gallon will drive me crazy with the 50/55 gallon. I want to use tap water rather than try to heat 10+ gallons of water from our hose outside. The problem (?) is that our tap water runs through a water softener. Can I use it anyway (oh please )?
I think I have most of the relevant test information:
pH 8.0-8.2 (no matter if it's tap water, hose water, tank water or 24-hour-old hose water. And I don't mean that it varies between the two, I mean that it is always right between those two colors.)
KH 161.1 (tap water and 24-hour-old hose water)
(LFS didn't have any GH tests but if necessary, I can trek out tomorrow and try to track one down.)
I think the KH is high enough that I can stop worrying about buffering the pH. I haven't added any aquarium salts to anything - would the small amt of salt in the softened water be trouble? Is it something that I can alleviate with Prime or similar? I know not to start pH upping and downing but haven't added anything yet as we don't have chlorine or chloramine.
Thank you -
~g
I think I have most of the relevant test information:
pH 8.0-8.2 (no matter if it's tap water, hose water, tank water or 24-hour-old hose water. And I don't mean that it varies between the two, I mean that it is always right between those two colors.)
KH 161.1 (tap water and 24-hour-old hose water)
(LFS didn't have any GH tests but if necessary, I can trek out tomorrow and try to track one down.)
I think the KH is high enough that I can stop worrying about buffering the pH. I haven't added any aquarium salts to anything - would the small amt of salt in the softened water be trouble? Is it something that I can alleviate with Prime or similar? I know not to start pH upping and downing but haven't added anything yet as we don't have chlorine or chloramine.
Thank you -
~g