UAE. Could be Distillation or bowled water.Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. Where are you located?
Test strips are notoriously inaccurate. Where are you located?
Thanks Watercrayfish for the advice.Its hard to believe there is no chlorine added in a tap water and chlorine is not good for your plants.
For plant only tanks you don't need a filter, but you need mild water circulation which can be achieved by air stone or power heads.
Also to be safe you can store the tap water in some bucket for 24 hours which would gas out the chlorine. Probably you tested a water which was stored somewhere in your household to get that zero chlorine reading. In that case you don't need Prime or any kind of water conditioner.
Good that you mentioned the pH because I have an 15 gallons tank and I suffered from pH fluctuations and losing fish. it was out of control.Chlorine is a very mild disinfectant at the levels used in drinking water. It is normally carefully controlled to a level which will keep the bacteria and disease in the drinking water down to a level that is safe for most people but not strong enough to kill too much of the good bacteria in our digestive track. So how it may work with your plants is an open question. We don't normally find drinking water that is not treated in many of the crowded countries so it would be good to determine what is done in your case. There are places where treatment is not needed but it is not uniform around the world. Knowledge is power so do ask some questions of the local supply.
Fish do need to have the chlorine removed in most cases so some product like Prime is needed if there is chlorine or chloramine present. If it is only chlorine, storing the water for a day or so before use will let the chlorine gas off but testing is needed to figure out what and how long.
Your tests show your water is very soft( not many minerals?) and somewhat acidic. The lack of minerals may be due to the treatment, distilled water? This may tend to make the PH very easy to change and do abrupt changes which fish may not find good. Plants are less prone to harm.
Best of luck with the project!
Yes. As I thought might be true. When seawater is used, the minerals are often removed in the process. I have not used this water but it may be worth the time to study/read about the PH/GH/KH relationship as the KH is often called the "buffer" and does act to resist drastic PH changes. How much importance to attach to the PH alone is often debated as many things are. However, I feel holding these somewhat steady is far more important than having any one part at a certain level.Good that you mentioned the pH because I have an 15 gallons tank and I suffered from pH fluctuations and losing fish. it was out of control.
Being that you're located in the UAE I'm not at all familiar with your tapwater. Do you know what kind of process is used to make or keep your tap water potable? I know there is some desalination done there but not familiar at all with disinfection processes.
Hope this answered your question10.3 Chemicals and products used in treatment of distillate (remineralisation and
conditioning):
(a) limestone/hydrated lime/ calcium carbonate
(b) pH correction- sodium hydroxide (NaOH) + CO2
(c) primary and secondary disinfection by NaOCl (salt based) or Cl2 gas
(d) acidified water
(e) sodium silicate
(f) sodium hypochlorite
There is a chance the way water distribute in the city play big role in the parameters.Clearly the water suppliers there don't artificially raise the pH of their water to protect the copper and lead in water piping from erosion. Your pH would be considered too low for water in the USA, so it would come out of the tap at something closer to 8pH, then after a day or two the pH would drop down to the lower reading. Given how soft your water is I suspect it is either distilled/ desalinated, or river water. The more you can learn about the source of the water the easier it will be to decide what you should treat it with, if anything.
Thanks for the advice. I like less efforts too.Yes. As I thought might be true. When seawater is used, the minerals are often removed in the process. I have not used this water but it may be worth the time to study/read about the PH/GH/KH relationship as the KH is often called the "buffer" and does act to resist drastic PH changes. How much importance to attach to the PH alone is often debated as many things are. However, I feel holding these somewhat steady is far more important than having any one part at a certain level.
So it might be helpful to add a bit of calcium carbonate to the tank water will add some needed buffering to steady it a bit. There are items that can be added at each water change but I like to use less effort. In my area limestone is all around and I have high GH and KH but I also use a lot of limestone rock in my tanks. Since I have high GH/KH, it does not change my water but in your water, it might be a way to get the readings a bit higher without the need to mix and change every time? Sea shells. and coral are also good for this.
Perhaps some study, a small change and a bit of luck will help?
around 2 weeks or 3 maybe. It is 47x20x20 inch. Do you think I should go with co2?How long the tank is running?
If its a small tank you should setup a DIY CO2, worth the pain. With medium light the tank will be an algae farm, if the photo period is not reduced considerably.
