Llama

Since my family has a well in the house, I've decided to use well-water to fill the aquarium instead of using tap water (and having to deal with the chlorides)

We usually use this water in the washing machine, so I suppose its clean enough.

I checked its pH and it comes out as a 7.5 , bit too alkaline for my liking but can be fixed I suppose.

Is there anything else (in terms of minerals) I should look out for? Anyone has experience with using well-water?

navyscuba

I haven't use well water but i know they have too many minerals that can be damaging to your fishies. On top of that over time it going to create a later of white hard residue on some areas of the tank probably the filter intake and where the rotor spins. This will be like the calcification on some shower heads and the only way to get it out is CLR or the a calcium remover and as we know chemicals and fish don't mix. Well I hope this help you. Good Luck.

aquarist48

I have well water also. I prefilter my water for 10 days prior to my water changes. I treat the well water as I would with any other water. I use Nova Aqua, Amquel and Immune Plus. I haven't had a disease in my tank (knockin' on wood) for 8 years now. Good luck. I'm sure you'll do fine.

Llama

Hmm, mixed answers, interesting...

Any idea what the major problematic minerals are? Maybe I can get a test kit for them...

What exactly is the pre-filtering for? And how exactly do you do it? Just stick a filter in the bucket and leave it?

Shawnie

I have well water also and dont use a conditioner unless im healing up fin damage and in the past i used it prior to learning about cycling with fish (had to detox ammonia).....otherwise mines straight from the tap (aka well water)

Llama

Hmm, very reassuring, thanks. Guess I'll be going on with the original plan.

aquarist48

I have an additional 29gallon with a Whisper 5 filter attached, using carbon and floss to prefilter the water for my changes into the 155g. I believe it helps to add aged, and pretreated (with chems listed above) water instead of taking it directly from the tap and into the tank and then adding chemicals. I siphon the 29gs into gallon jugs. I warm the jugs as needed to get the same temperature as in the 155g. For me, adding tap water directly into the tank just doesn't sit right. (My 29g is outside on the screened porch)

Too, sometimes well water may come out of the tap with a bit of silt in it making it a bit cloudy. Prefiltering the water eliminates this.

Razimith

If your nitrates are fine I would not bother using filtered water if I were you. Using filtered water is alot more work than it is worth. I have used well water for the last 8months and all my fish are fine with it. My PH is around 8.5 in all of my tanks. Yes you do get a little white crusty stuff on the top of your tank but it will usually wipes away with warm water. PH of 7.5 is great there is no need to change it like I said all the fish in my aquariums are fine with the high Ph and are doing quite well.
Just recently however I have had a spike in nitrates in my well water which is around 25ppm I had no choice but to go with a RO unit. I decided to use a in line house filter from calligan to prolong the life of my ro unit's filters. This main in line house water filter by it self lowered my ph from 8.5 to 7.1 -7.3 I used the level 4 filter you have to change it out every 3 months and runs around $40-$60 I thought this was quite interesting however it did not bring down my nitrate level which is why I still have to use the RO water. Which I am slowly converting my tanks over to with 5% water changes everyday to bring the PH down gradually. Now that I am using RO water now you have to start worrying about GH and KH and your ph will vary a lot more so you have to monitor that as well. The best thing about well water is it has a huge buffer therefore your ph never changes at least very little. If it were up to me and you have low nitrates and all your other water perameters are ok I would stick with the well water and save your self a lot of work. Just my thought since I am going threw all this stuff right now.

Llama

Hmmm, just discovered my well-water has an amount of nitrates in it... its not too much, around 10 mg/L... any way I can reduce it? Should I use tapwater instead or something? How dangerous is 10mg/L anyway?

Razimith

That is lower than I am currently have and you would have to do more frequent water changes. Not the worst thing in the world I see you have some plants in your aquariums that should help quite abit that is what I ended up doing for while to hold off the cost of a RO unit. Maybe you could add a few more plants to improve water quality even more.
Don’t get me wrong about filtered water it does allow you to have certain types of fish like discus and maybe in the future a reef tank which would be cool. I am hoping that I will not have to do water changes quite as often. For me it was a tossup a CO2 injector or a RO unit I really wanted the CO2 injector but needed the RO unit for a better water source. (AH well maybe next year) However there are a lot of hidden costs one might not think about when using a RO system. Besides actually buying the RO system you will also need other supplies depending on how much water you are going to use when doing a water change. You will also need a storage container or barrel makes sure it is made of HDPE#2 plastics. I thought my garbage can I was using the Rubbermaid brute garbage can was but is not. The cover is made of HDPE but if you tip the can over you will see that the can is made from LDPE which leaks chemicals into your water. You will also need some sort of pump to pump the water to your fish tanks. You will need a heater to heat the water to the same temperature as your tanks. Some people say you should use an air stone in your water storage device so then count on buying an air pump and extra air stone as well to Ararat the water. Not mention the fact you will have to change out some filter media every 6months and also the membrane every year which these are quite costly. Make sure you buy a big enough RO unit so you will have enough water when it is time to do a water change. My water pressure in my house is around 55 to 65 psi I have a 100GPD unit but only make around 30gallons a day. You can use a booster pump but they are expensive as well they run about $200 bucks or so maybe one day I will get one. One good thing though is you do not have to buy bottled water anymore this will save some money LOL…. If you got money to burn and you don’t mind testing for extra water parameters then go for the RO system. I hope this helps a little bit anyways it has been a great learning experience if anything LOL….

Easy answer:
Filtered water more money and time
Well water less money, more water changes due to the higher nitrate levels, less time testing water all the time for PH and GH.
I know with the economy a lot of people do not have the money right now so then I would use the tap or well water and just do more frequent water changes.

I am by no means an expert I have only been doing this now for about 9months although I must be doing something right for all my fish are doing great. I am just telling you the information from my own experiences that I have run into. Therefore everything I just told you do not take a factual only as recommendations.

Llama

Hmm, interesting enough.

I guess I'll risk the well water then.

scootfish

I started my tank with RO water but expense was an issue so i slowly switched to my well water 3 weeks ago... my water parameters are the same as yours(Llama) and i have had good luck. My African Cichlids have never been happier I do 20% WC weekly w/ the addition of Amquel+ & NovaAqua+... Hope this help!