I never had shrimp, but when I lived in Los Angeles in my parent's house they had a water softener. I had a number of tanks and several kinds of animals and plants. I had African Dwarf frogs, corys, tetras, loaches and a few tree frogs and bettas as well. They all lived for all three years I was there. I had to give them away when I moved. Someone on here got them all. This is the kind they had http://www.lifesourcewater.com/green_home_view_case.php?greenhome_id=2 Hope that helps.
Softened Water Fine in Aquariums?
Like the title states, is softened water (the salt based kind) okay to use in aquariums?
More specifically a shrimp tank. I'm not quite sure how water softeners work, but would love to hear from people who have water softener systems and use their tap water in tanks. Seems to me like it would be a lot easier to draw water from my sink than having to haul buckets of water from my hose outside my house where the water softener doesn't reach.
I'll have to do some water pH tests on both my sink water and hose water to see if there is any actual difference.
More specifically a shrimp tank. I'm not quite sure how water softeners work, but would love to hear from people who have water softener systems and use their tap water in tanks. Seems to me like it would be a lot easier to draw water from my sink than having to haul buckets of water from my hose outside my house where the water softener doesn't reach.
I'll have to do some water pH tests on both my sink water and hose water to see if there is any actual difference.
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Water softeners will take the GH to 0 but will leave the KH alone.
So my well water, which has a GH=25dgh and a KH=20dkh comes out of the softener at GH=0 and KH=20.
So if shrimp can thrive in high KH water, it'll be fine. I dont think they'll like it though.
I run the softened water through an RO unit before dumping it in my shrimp tank. That takes both GH and KH to 0. I then reconstitute the GH and KH to something considerably lower than what comes out of the well.
However, I do use softened water directly in the other, non-shrimp tank with no problems whatsoever. Again, I reconstitute only the GH in this case.
So my well water, which has a GH=25dgh and a KH=20dkh comes out of the softener at GH=0 and KH=20.
So if shrimp can thrive in high KH water, it'll be fine. I dont think they'll like it though.
I run the softened water through an RO unit before dumping it in my shrimp tank. That takes both GH and KH to 0. I then reconstitute the GH and KH to something considerably lower than what comes out of the well.
However, I do use softened water directly in the other, non-shrimp tank with no problems whatsoever. Again, I reconstitute only the GH in this case.
I had no problems breeding cherry shrimp in water softened tap water. Stick with neo's and I'd think you'd be fine.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
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