# sea shells to soften



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

i head once i think.. that if you crush up seashells and use them as media it will soften your water. just liek peat moss will. is this true? myth? or what... thanks


----------



## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Crush up seashells is calcium and it hardens the water.


----------



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

ah,,, well i knew it did something, so i guess if you had really soft water and wanted to keep africans shells would be a good way to go but i have super hard water and i want to keep bolovian rams... i think they are southafricnas.... shells are a bad idea


----------



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

I have a south african....man  

I use peat to soften my betta's water. I sometimes brew it like coffee... to my husband's dismay. 

Caspar: "This coffee smells like dirt..."

Sunstar: "That's because it is. That's for my fish."


----------



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

lol you rule sunstar. yeah i think i will go get some peat.. how much is it anyway? does it matter what kind of peat? or just regular peat mossfor the bottom of house plants ?


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

you can get the regular peat at the nursery and boil it. Bioling it accelerates the leaching out of the tannins that help soften the water, and also sterilizes anything in the peat. You can also boil the solution to get a 'concentrated' blackwater extract.


----------



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

will adding the peat or black water to the tank hurt the fish? i mean its going to be a big chemestry change from hard water to soft water. should i add the black water slowly over time? or what do you think?


----------



## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

if the fish need the blackwater, then they will probably be much happer to receive it. I throw in leaves and that helps the situation.


----------



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

so since its a positive drastic chemestry change it wont matter?


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

do it slowly. osmotic shock can kill fish.


----------



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

well thats what i kind of figured. thease are Bolovian rams. pretty much full grown i think and ive had them for a really long time. they have not bread but it was brought to my attion that my water is WAY to hard for them. so i think i will boil some down to sterile it and then put it in a box filter. will the slow leeching of black water be slow enough for the fish? or should i put a small amount of peat. and then add a lil more every week or so?


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

If you can, don't boil it. Steam it. Steaming it will sterilize it, but you won't lose a lot of the tannins to the water like boiling. 
Or boil it and use the water.


----------



## sawman88 (Sep 29, 2008)

good call on the steaming. i dont want to add tanis becuse i dont want the shock to heppen


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

You have to add the tannins. That's the whole point of steaming the peat - keep the tannins in the peat.

The tannins area also effective in boosting immune function in fish too. It's good stuff


----------

