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Making my water softer

1K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  CatSoup 
#1 ·
i was wondering how you would go about softing your water i was wanting to do this for my plants because i heard they do alot better in softer water is there anything anybody reccomends I have really hard water where i live and i wasnt wanting it too soft just enough for my plants.
 
#4 ·
That's about 14 dGH.

If you did a 50/50 mix that would get you to 7 dGH (125 ppm).

Any change should be done gradually though to avoid stress on your fish. Best would be to just do the 50/50 mixture during regular weekly water changes to eventually get you to a 50/50 overall mixture.

Depending on the size of tank, that can be quite a problem to get that much RO/DI water and buying your own unit can be quite costly.

The alternative would be to get plants that do well in hard water, vals are known for this. Not all plants like soft water, but all need some measure of hardness to get nutrients (calcium, potassium, magnesium), I think 3 dGH is a minimum hardness.
 
#5 ·
No mention of the fish species has beeen made, and this is critical. As Geo said, many plants can adapt fairly well. Fish cannot, or not as well for some.

Also, to understand the relationship of GH, KH and pH, have a read of this:
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-articles/water-hardness-ph-freshwater-aquarium-73276/

It also mentions the safe ways to soften, but before going down that road (which I assure you can cause other issues) we should consider the fish species.

Byron.
 
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