need help

irving216

question about the whole water conditioning bit, i have well water, pretty sure its non chlorinated, im no specalist but thats what im thinking... is the conditioner still needed? and the conditioner is actually tetra, so im good seeing how the safestart bottle says to use that.

Byron

With well water, unless you are adding them, chlorine and chloramine will not be present. So that leaves other minerals. If you know the water quality, fine; you might want to have it tested to see what is in it. Water will take up various minerals if it runs over rock containing them, or they leech in from the soil. Nitrates is another possibility, common in agricultural areas; your API nitrate test will ascertain that.

afremont

If you're using Tetra AquaSafe then it should be ok to add the SafeStart with it. Read this:
Q & A With Tetra about Tetra SafeStart
I like it, I think it's great stuff. It's not the same as products like StessZyme, though there may be new products that are the same thing as TSS. I kinda hope so, because it's so expensive. Products like StressZyme don't have quite the same bacteria, there bacteria tends to drown after a week, that's why you have to keep adding it. Aparently StressZyme and the like can clean up sludge pretty well if you ever have a problem with that.

irving216

wow thank you for all your hope. i added the TSS and im hoping this should do it. as far as agriultural areas, i live 1/2 mile from one corn field, anohters 2 miles down the road and a horse farm right across the way, so im sure i have a good amount for all that haha. i kinda live in the boonies. iv got to say, im a mechanic and im always going onto forums trying to find stupid simple problems out, this forum is probably the best forum iv been to yet. thank you so much for all your help. ill keep yall updated on everything.

Byron

Test your well water (on its own) for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. All aquarists should initially test their source water for these, as any one or more can be present in any source water, be it tap or well. It's good to know, as there are ways to deal with them if present.