Lowering Water Hardness (gh)

I was wondering what others use to lower the GH in their tanks. My water is incredibly hard, and I can't have that if I'm breeding Rams. What's the best way to lower it?

 

Use RO water

 

Youll need RO water regardless of the method. You can either use only RO water and remineralize it to your needs or you can mix your tap water with some RO water until you reach the desired gH.

 

The tap water has plenty of minerals, so 50/50 or so shouldn't be hard. I was looking at a few other ways (can't get RO water locally). I found a few about using distilled water or rain water. I'm considering trying both as it has been raining a lot here recently. I could do rain water for long though. Would distilled water or heated water from a refrigerator work?

 

Distilled water should work fine. Rain water could also be great as long as you are sure there are no contaminants in it.

 

Distilled water should work fine. Rain water could also be great as long as you are sure there are no contaminants in it.

There shouldn't be any contaminants. Most bodies of water nearby are pretty clean as well. Would filtered water from a refrigerator work if heated properly?

 

I live in the cavemen age and my refrigerator doesn't pump out water so I couldnt answer that question lol. I don't know what refrigerators filter out and what they don't filter out.

 

There shouldn't be any contaminants. Most bodies of water nearby are pretty clean as well. Would filtered water from a refrigerator work if heated properly?

Typically refrigerator filters are carbon or a combo of carbon/floss cartridge. So I doubt they'd filter out enough of the minerals you're trying to eliminate. The only thing you could do is pour some and test it. If you have a replacement filter handy or can look up the filter online you can see exactly what they filter out and what they don't.

 

Refrigerator filters do not filter out minerals. You just have to look at the calcium deposits on my dispenser to see that, and my water is actually double filtered I don't have any reason to lower my gH so I don't even test it anymore. It's always 300ppm+

 

Refrigerator filters do not filter out minerals. You just have to look at the calcium deposits on my dispenser to see that, and my water is actually double filtered

I don't have any reason to lower my gH so I don't even test it anymore. It's always 300ppm+

I believe the specific filter I have does. I changed about 1/3 of the water in my 20 and 25-30 percent in my 60 and replaced it with the filtered water. I'll hopefully test it tomorrow.

 

You can buy a RO system for your house. I have friends in the Midwest that use them for fish that need soft water.

 

You can buy a RO system for your house. I have friends in the Midwest that use them for fish that need soft water.

I've looked into it. I only managed to find one. It was an old used one that wasn't in good shape. I'm having to come up with other options.

 

Well, depending on where you live, maybe we can help you find a a place you can order from online.

 

RO units are easy to find.

 

I didn't even think about checking on Amazon! I'll consider paying 50-200 dollars for an RO unit if my other options don't work out. I don't want to spend the money if I don't have to.

 

I'm attempting 90 percent filtered 10 percent tap in the end as I work up to it.

 

[double post, sorry]