Water Report Help

[skerzfan]

This is a summary of my tap water. The water source is 20+ wells feeding a central supply. The report indicates minimums, maximums, and average for the wells tested. No chlorine or chloramine is added. What are your opinions? Do I abandon all hope of my 90 gallon luxuriously planted with New World plants and stocked with schools of South American tetras and catfish?

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[Biollante]

Anything Is Possible, So "they" Say

Hi,

Actually while the water might be better suited for African cichlids, I think you can have a reasonable tank, with patients and staying away from sensitive species.

If you are able to put sediment, lime and charcoal filters ahead of entering the aquarium, your odds go up remarkably.:gw

I assume this is Hastings, Nebraska, there should be a Home Depot, Lowes or such around that can accommodate you at a reasonable price.

Biollante

 

[Cyclesafe]

With 7ppm, there's lots of nitrate. With any decent fish load and weekly WC's, you won't have to supplement. You'll need to test for PO4, but my guess is that it's relatively high too. Agricultural runoff? Calcium good, magnesium good. No supplementation there either. Even iron is good. Your water is near perfect for most plants. Most fish too, but maybe not for breeding the tricky species. Carbon filtration will get any stray organics - like pesticides.

You water is perfectly potable, but I just can't sign off without suggesting that you put in an RO system for your drinking water.

 

[skerzfan]

I appreciate your responses. I'll gladly consider any and all advice. I've got an initial stocking of plants and am waiting for my cycle to complete. What modifications to the basic EI dosing would you recommend? I've been dosing the 60-80 gal. amounts.

 

[Biollante]

Whole House Filtration

Hi,

I rather agree with Cyclesafe, you probably can get away with little or no dosing.

I do recommend the filters ahead of putting it in the aquarium or for that matter any household use.

Depending on the nature/source of the Nitrates it may be nessecary to add some back when using a charcoal filter. The plants will tell you pretty quickly if you need additional dosing. Though when in doubt, dose, nothing in our routine dosing that will hurt anybody if it is high.

As long as you stay away from “sensitive” species, I think you will do fine.
most of the common Tetras should do allright, I would shy away from Cardinal Tetras though, as far as Catfish, most Corys will do well.

Biollante

 

[skerzfan]

Current situation

Thanks, I'll back off on the dosing then. To let you know what we're dealing with, here is the current setup:

Standard 90 gallon 48'X18"X24"
Soilmaster Select charcoal colored substrate 3"-5", 5 gr per sq. ft. of Osmocoate +, sprinkling of peatmoss
3X54 Catalina T5HO, 2-Noon-8:00 PM, 1 additional 1:30-6:30 PM 4" above surface
2260 Eheim Canister
Injected CO2, 20#, Matheson dual-stage reg., Burkert solenoid, Ideal NV, Bubble counter,
Rio 800 venturi powerhead driven 2"X16" venturi reactor
Sizable piece of Tom's Manzanita, not quite waterlogged, held down by matching chunk of petrified wood

Plant list:
Cabomba furcata
Didiplis diandra
Echinodorus amazonicus
Echinodorus martii
Echinodorus urugayensis
Hydrocotyle leucocephala
Eichhornia diversifolia
Ludwigia repens
Mayaca fluviatilis
Myriophyllum mattogrossense
Potamogeton gayi
Sagittaria subulata
Staurogen repens

Kept at 78 degrees, 2 drop checkers with different dKH, per Wet's calculator, shooting for 30 ppm+

Currently cycling, going through Nitrite spike, dosing with Seachem Stability

Waiting on cycle before introducing livestock

I recognize that some of the plants may be sacrifices to the plant gods! I wanted to stock up to stand a fighting chance against algae. Currently some, probably diatom, on top branch of driftwood near surface which is no surprise considering the light intensity there. I love the driftwood, but it does shadow the light somewhat. Plants aren't particularly 'scaped, just wanted to try to see if I can get them to grow.

Thanks,
Jeff

[attachment=811:name]

 

[skerzfan]

Update...

Here's a shot taken today, May 5th, Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

[attachment=834:name]

Many of the the plants have grown pretty well. Some struggle, my Stauro has been kinda shakey. The P. gayi hasn't amounted to much either.

 

[skerzfan]

On the subject of my water hardness, we have a home water softener. I don't us any softened water for the tank due to the high sodium content, only aged tap water. I have purchased potassium chloride to use in the softener instead of the sodium chloride currently used. I'll switch over once the current salt is used up.

Do any of you have experience or opinions on using water from a potassium chloride water softener? I would think it would be best to slowly transition through topping off, blending and water changes. Any downsides other than than the expense of the potassium chloride versus salt? Potential for shocking the fish due to changes in the hardness?

 

[Biollante]

“Heresy is a cradle; orthodoxy a coffin” Robert Ingersoll

Hi,

At the risk of being declared a heretic...

Unless the softener is passing extreme amounts of sodium or you have particularly sodium sensitive species I see no real problem with water softeners.

The same goes for KCl based regeneration, unless you have sensitive species (I know there are some, just cannot think of any off-hand) I see no real problem with KCL based water softeners.

Generally I believe KCl is harder on critters that have weak kidneys or heart problems.

The resins are really removing mainly calcium and magnesium.

There are many cheap filters for knocking down the general hardness, I tend to recommend bypassing the water softener.

Biollante

 

[skerzfan]

Yeah, I think I'll just stick with un-treated water now. It may not be ideal but at least it's stable. Most of my plants are growing quite well. As a matter of fact I may start tweaking the lighting levels down to slow things up somewhat. While my fish may or may not spawn, they all seem to be healthy and colorful. They seem to have acclimated to their new environment.