# What water would you use, tap/soft/RO?



## flyboy320 (Feb 6, 2010)

I have a choice of using either city tap water (I live in Burlington), softened water out of my home water softener, or RO water from my under-sink RO system. Which would be best to use for water changes for my 6G tank?

My concern is with soft water from a water softener, does it add salt to the water? Also with RO water I would add Seachems Equilibrium to raise the GH, but I'm unclear if there is an obvious choice here...


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

flyboy320 said:


> I have a choice of using either city tap water (I live in Burlington), softened water out of my home water softener, or RO water from my under-sink RO system. Which would be best to use for water changes for my 6G tank?
> 
> My concern is with soft water from a water softener, does it add salt to the water? Also with RO water I would add Seachems Equilibrium to raise the GH, but I'm unclear if there is an obvious choice here...


What kind of fish do you have?

You can't use pure R/O there's nothing in it and it isn't stable. Softened water is good if you're out to kill your tank.


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## flyboy320 (Feb 6, 2010)

AquariAM said:


> What kind of fish do you have?
> 
> You can't use pure R/O there's nothing in it and it isn't stable. Softened water is good if you're out to kill your tank.


Sorry....guess that info would have helped...It's a 6G fresh water, bunch of low light plants like crypts, vals, java fern, and about 3 platties, a guppy, and an otto.

Softened water bad because of the salt?


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## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

flyboy320 said:


> Sorry....guess that info would have helped...It's a 6G fresh water, bunch of low light plants like crypts, vals, java fern, and about 3 platties, a guppy, and an otto.
> 
> Softened water bad because of the salt?


Yup.

Those fish will be fine in tap water. The platties are actually going to be slightly happier in tap vs really soft R/O that usually comes out 6.8>7 after remineralizing and being in the tank a couple of days


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

As will the plants as they need the minerals that are in tap water as well.


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## flyboy320 (Feb 6, 2010)

Thanks for the help guys. I'll go with tap water then...


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

I posted earlier but it seems to have gotten lost...I'm in Burlington and have used tapwater + prime for years, no problems for FW planted or even SW when I've had to do large unplanned w/c's... No chloramines and well buffered to protect against swings...


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## flyboy320 (Feb 6, 2010)

carmenh said:


> I posted earlier but it seems to have gotten lost...I'm in Burlington and have used tapwater + prime for years, no problems for FW planted or even SW when I've had to do large unplanned w/c's... No chloramines and well buffered to protect against swings...


That's interesting you say no chloramines. I was at a hydroponics shop on Guelph line last week to get some KNO3 and KH2PO4, and the shop owner said Burlington used to use chlorine, but has switched to chloromine. I know nothing about the difference, but he said he noticed that his plants were starting to do poorly and according to him that's when the city switched to chloromine. I take what he said with a grain of salt, because also according to him the GTA has recently started putting a sedative drug in the city's drinking water (so the government could easier control us). It was an enlightening if not entertaining 30 minutes in his shop!!


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

LOL, sounds like a character! But no, no chloramines... You can find the complete report at...
http://www.halton.ca/common/pages/UserFile.aspx?fileId=35496
there are some things that one would rather not ingest or add to a tank, but the quantities are very very miniscule (well withing acceptable standards) and may well not be removable by RO (or softener) anyhow...


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## flyboy320 (Feb 6, 2010)

Ah thanks for the link, I was looking for that yesterday!

Ya what a character, but at least I got my KNO3 which I hear is starting to get harder to find since it's "supposed" to be banned in Canada.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

KNO3 is an oxidizing agent use in gunpowder and it's "on the watch list". On a similar note, so is Sasparilla extract...used for the manufacturing of recreational drugs.


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## Aquatic Designs (Apr 2, 2006)

BTW water solfteners are a misnomer. They do not softened water as in the PH. All they do is change the way it feels to us. Hence why it was given the name softener. But they do not softened water for out fish. What they do do for our fish is add a lot of sodium that will kill most of them.

Plants don't like it too much either.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

Aquatic Designs said:


> BTW water solfteners are a misnomer. They do not softened water as in the PH. All they do is change the way it feels to us. Hence why it was given the name softener. But they do not softened water for out fish. What they do do for our fish is add a lot of sodium that will kill most of them.
> 
> Plants don't like it too much either.


That is strange to say Water softened water kills fish. I have been using a water softener water for about 18 years in all my tanks straight from the tap. I do need to use water conditioner since Brantford does use chloramines.

I have been not only able to keep Discus and breed Tropheus, Simochromis, BN Plecos, and alot of other fish.

I have fish that have been with me over 4 years


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