L007 water parameters

Hi everyone,

I currently have my vampire Pleco tank @ ph:7.0 and hardness of 600 ppm

Moving to larger tank water parameters oh 7.0 and hardness 400ppm

Just wondering if the water should be softer and what to use to make it so
I have a water softening pillow to put in sump anyone ever use one before are they fine to use and do the work?

Thank you for any help and advice much appreciated.

Ps tank is rimless open top should I make a cover or do they not jump?

I find Indian almond leaves are great but your conditions should be fine anyway.
I always have lids on my tanks now after losing fish before.
You'll also limit evaporation too
Hope that helps!
Nat

Hi all,

AshNickpl said:

Hi everyone,

I currently have my vampire Pleco tank @ ph:7.0 and hardness of 600 ppm

Moving to larger tank water parameters oh 7.0 and hardness 400ppm

Just wondering if the water should be softer and what to use to make it so
I have a water softening pillow to put in sump anyone ever use one before

Click to expand...

Depends on the water softening pillow, if it works by ion exchange (you re-charge it with salt NaCl) it will swap two Na+ ions for one Ca++ ion, or one Cl- ion for one HCO3- ion and that doesn't help at all.

Because your water is so hard do you use a pH buffer to regulate the pH (It should be nearer pH8, because of the CO2~HCO3- equilibrium). If you do, you can stop using it.

You can't really soften water by adding things to it, you just replace one salt with another. RO is an option, but you would waste a lot of water because your incoming water is hard.

I have hard tap water, but I live in the UK where it rains a lot so I use mainly rain-water for my water changes.

I think "Nat's fish" is probably right and your best to keep using the water you have.

cheers Darrel

Thank you for your help Nat and Darrel,

Nat: so you have lost a few vampire Plecs from jumping?

Darrel: what do you mean but not needing to use ph buffer?
My tap water comes out at ph7.4 so I use neutral regulater salts to keep it 6.8-7.0
I also do 2 water changes weekly of about 10% to try keep water more acidic

mine breed with straight tap water and water conditioner (prime) and no mucking about with ph or hardness... prefer warmer water and low nitrates...

Hi all,

Darrel: what do you mean but not needing to use ph buffer?
My tap water comes out at ph7.4 so I use neutral regulater salts to keep it 6.8-7.0

Click to expand...

It is because pH is such a strange measurement, it is a ratio of the H+ ion donors(acids) : H+ ion acceptors (bases). Because it is a ratio it doesn't tell us anything about amounts, just the balance between them.

You can add a buffer (usually phosphate buffers Na2HPO4 (the base) and NaH2PO4 (the acid)) to maintain a specific pH level, but they do this because there is a non-dissolved reserve of acid or base that can go into solution. The buffer will always raise the TDS.

Soft water is soft and acid because it has very few salts in it, and it only needs a few extra weak acids from humic compounds (dead leaves, peat etc) to lower the pH below pH7. Water that is naturally soft and acid is chemically very different from water that has added buffers to reduce pH.

In water with more than about 4 dKH the pH will always be ~pH8, because that is the equilibrium point between HCO3- (the bicarbonate ion) and dissolved CO2, at atmospheric CO2 levels of ~400ppm.

If you have water with no salts present at all, the TDS will measure 0, and the pH will be ~ pH4.8 because of the dissolved CO2.

If rain-water, or RO, aren't an option you are best just using your tap water, because anything you add that lowers pH will raise the TDS.

cheers Darrel

AshNickpl said:

Thank you for your help Nat and Darrel,

Nat: so you have lost a few vampire Plecs from jumping?

Darrel: what do you mean but not needing to use ph buffer?
My tap water comes out at ph7.4 so I use neutral regulater salts to keep it 6.8-7.0
I also do 2 water changes weekly of about 10% to try keep water more acidic

Click to expand...

I put lids on all of my tanks before I got the vampires but found quite a few fish dried up on the carpet previously. Mine breed the same as what Johnno said

Thank you Bigjohnofish that is quite pleasing to know they are hardy plecs.

Thank you Nat i Shall try and find something to make a lid with while still it looking nice

And Darrel thank you for that i never knew that about the salts we use for ph adjusting

i might mix RO in with some tap water to keep ph down cheers