Some questions....

[Guest]

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to ask these questions, but here goes:


1.) Adding salt. Someone tell me some specifics on this. I have water that is bordering on being too hard, and concerned about future disease and have heard salt can help.

2.) Temp regulation. I live in FLA. It is VERY warm here, and difficult to keep the temp down on my tanks. Without shocking my fish, how can i slowly LOWER temp?

3.) small water changes. Can I just convert the declorinator treatment for new water based on 10ml/10gal? as in if i am only adding 3 gal, 3ml?

Thanks
P.

 

[rich311k]

1. I wouldn't add salt and I dont know what would do to soften your water. I know water softeners can use salt but that wont work in the aquarium. What are your KH and GH levles?

2. You could try blowing a fan accross the top of the tank with the lid open. It will help cool the water by evaporation.

3. Your math looks good to me.

 

[Guest]

I'll have to give you the KH/GH when I get home tonight. Thanks for the reply!

 

[dskidmore]

1. If you have a small tank, you can lower your hardness by using bottled RO/DI water for some percentage of your water change water. For a larger tank, you would need your own RO/DI filter. I have seen water softener pillows to put in an aquarium filter, but they really substitute one ion for another, and don't really lower the total dissolved minerals.

2. I agree with Rich. I'm currently doing this on my own tank, and have seen around a 5 degree drop, varying with humidity. If you don't have plants, you can also see about reducing the amount of time the lights are on, especially at mid-day. If you do have plants, you can shift the photoperiod to a cooler time of day.

3. What brand of dechlorinator are you using?

 

[Guest]

AquaSafe


And I have plants. The tanks are 10, 20 and 29.

 

[src]

Even with plants, you can turn the lights off for a couple hours in the middle of the day. In fact, that's a very effective algae prevention measure, too.

 

[dskidmore]

The financial breaking point between bottled RO/DI and having your own filter is around 4 gallons per week. Assuming you'd want to use a 50/50 mix to reduce your hardness, you'd have on average 3 gallons per week, so it would be cheaper to go bottled (based on my local price of $0.33/gallon in my own bottles.) Having your own filter would mean less lugging, and you'd have the water available for cooking and beverages too. It all depends on your budget as to what's best for you.

When you run out of AquaSafe, you might consider switching to Prime. Prime is more cost effective, because you don't have to use very much of it.