Heidi125

Hello everyone,
I just want to hear people's opinion.
For water changes, which would you use? (if you could)
Spring water from a natural source
or RO water
or well water
or just tap water that is high in ammonia? (treated with prime)

KyWildFish

Well water tends to have high levels of elements (phospates, calciums, and the like) I know from the food industry is can really effect how a product turns out. Spring water is expensive but unless you get it from an actual spring it is from a city line and refined using a reverse osmosis process. RO water? New to me. If your tap is high in ammonia you need to call the provider, thats unhealthy for fish and man alike.

angelfish220

I use Spring water, but thats just because it is what comes out of our tap (we live too much in the country to get city water ) It has worked out well for me.

Heidi125

RO = Reverse Osmosis

The spring water I am talking about is from a spring that is untreated. People are there all the time getting water.

Dino

I have used well water here for 28 years with no problems.

Shawnie

uses all well water with no issues...yet been a few years for me but nothing like dino

tanker83

I know people who use tank water (outdoor tank to catch rainwater) and therefore don't use cond. because rainwater supposedly doesn't contain chlorine. But what about different elements(for lack of a better word) that the water has absorbed from the metal tank itself.

coyoteoverdose

I'v been using well water for 4 years now with my tanks and no problems

clinton1621

Rain water, distilled, and RO water should never be used as a sole source for your tank.... they contain almost 0 natural minerals and metals that your fish need to survive and be healthy. They also do not contain much buffering capacity because of this, which means the pH level would not be stable... again that would be bad for the fish. Mixing any of those 3 with spring, tapwater, or well water would be the only safe way to go =)

sirdarksol

You can also buy mineral products that allow you to mimic certain natural water sources (much the same way you can get salt mixes to mimic certain natural oceanic areas). These allow you to use pure water without mixing it with tap water, and allow you to more easily make a very specific pH and hardness.

clinton1621

Good call

Jess

In a perfect discus world. I would use our tap water aged in a large container and mixed with RO water and pumped up to the aquarium to have a constant flow. A flow to allow the water to change out 50% every day. The RO water would reduce the nitrates in our tap from 1 to close to 0 and reduce the phosphates too. I believe this would be the perfect setup for us. And man if anyone knows how to set that up send me the plans. : )

Or even go the way sirdarksol suggests. Only that would have to be an even more careful manipulation to make sure you have the proper balance of your minerals. I think this is what the serious discus breeders do, correct me if I'm wrong.

sirdarksol

I should say that all of this depends on your water sources. I have looked into the additive minerals because my local water supply is very heavily contaminated with nitrogen and phosphorous (runoff of lawn fertilizers), not to mention chemicals that have leaked from a nearby 3M plant. If I get RO, I'm going to go full-tilt and use the mineral mix to make the water I need so that I don't have to worry about these things.

Jess

I agree it depends on your water source. We all have different water conditions. I too was thinking of going all RO, but think it might be overkill as our water is pretty good and quite stable.
If you go full-tilt RO I would love to know how you do it.
What is "heavily contaminated" for you?
Thanks

sirdarksol

Nitrates of 10. (Not intolerable to fish, but this is the level I'd prefer my nitrates to be under, and that's really difficult to do if the water's starting out here. )
Rising levels of copper (still at about 10% of "acceptable levels," but since I breed inverts, it's a danger)
I don't know what the phosphorous levels are, but I do know that all of the surrounding cities have very recently passed legislation to lower phosphorous/nitrogen levels in the water. I also know that a glass of my water sitting in a window can grow algae without being fed. (EEEEEWWWWWWWW! )

Jess

That's exactly why I want to try and remove more Nitrates and Phosphates. I'm constantly scraping algae. (no it won't grow in a glass here, thank goodness)
How do you measure for levels of copper?

sirdarksol

There are copper testing kits, but I'm just going by my city's water summary (which is why I don't have the phosphorous numbers. I guess it poses a negligible danger to humans, so they didn't include it). They do a yearly report and post it on the web. The copper has been slowly climbing (as the pipes in peoples' houses degrade) over the years. We have little or no natural copper in the area. It's all been introduced.

Jess

You can get a phosphates test kit. Very easy just like all the other ones.
House of Fins (Ct) told me that is most likely why I'm having trouble with algae.