moving: trouble with water supply...

[Zerileous]

Okay, so my tank is running about 7.8 pH on a high day. We are moving end of this week (the tanks are going later, so this isn't an emergency), but I have some serious issues with the params on the water.

I took a two quart jug from the new house today (just took posession), planning to start acclimating the tanks to their future water supply. However, I saw some disturbing data on the city's water analyis, and even more from my own testing, ill present both:

pH: > 8.8 (not by alot, but definately off the charts); Nitrate: 5 - 10 ppm; Ammonia: .75 ppm ill have gH and kH soon, but the test hasn't arrived yet.

Chlorine (as chloramine): 1.81 - 2.64
Nitrate: 0 - 4.44
Alkalinity: 21 - 50
Ammonia: .110 - .590
Total Hardness: 69 - 152

pH: 9.2 - 10.4 (not ppm :P)
These params seem very problematic. Right now we have 2 tanks:
5 Gallon with 1 ghost shrimp, 1 male betta, 2 corydras
10 Gallon with 2 mystry snails, 3 oto, 5 male guppies

and a variety of plants that also shouldnt have water like this.

my biggest concerns are the basic water, hardness of the water, and treating that much ammonia with a conditioner.

RO/DI is an option i guess, but that leaves replacing alot of trace, plus cost (i know a place to get it fairly cheep, but still)

Can anyone suggest other solutions?

[salman]

Use 'Proper pH' to lower down and stabilize the pH to what you want it. There are medications to lower ammonia, im am not sure what they are called.

Or, you can get a RO system, it will take away all the ammonia, lower the pH, and the nitrate.

[Lady Hobbs]

This would bug me. You hope when you move you have better water. I've stated this previously but will do so again: Many of the water municipals are now treating their water with ammonia instead of chloramines as they used to do. They found the ammonia lasts longer. OBVIOUSLY, huh?

If this house has been sitting empty for awhile, you might want to flush the lines out good but if that isn't the problem, then you have one.

No one wants to keep adding chemicals to a tank and if your water is hard, only buffering first will hold the pH when you do drop it. Then you have that bouncing around and that's more dangerous to your fish than if they lived in a constant high pH. I can use the pH decreases and within 3 hours it's returned to normal so buffering is really needed. pH should not be changed by more than .4 points within 24 hours, either, and dropping huge amounts is not wise.

The pH problem alone would be enough but you also have the ammonia to contend with. Coming from the tap at .25 is generally what I've been hearing but .75 to much. In all honestly, I see no solution for you other than the RO.

You can get a decent one for around $130-150 but it stinks when it's money you hadn't planned on right now.

[RobbieG]

In small tanks like those you may be able to use bottled spring water, without needing 3 jobs to pay for it

[Algenco]

Why not set up a filtered holding tank , Purigen should take care of everything except the ph

[SkarloeysMom]

WOW are you moving to MY city! We have .50ppm ammonia and 10 ph water too! I use Seachem Neutral Regulator to kill both birds with one stone. Of course I can never have real plants because its a phosphate based chemical.

IMO, having this kind of tap water limits you to smaller tanks unless you're willing to take some extreme measures. I always wondered why I'd see people hauling huge jugs of water from the LFS. I'm guessing they have a huge RO systems and they sell water cheap to people who want to keep big tanks. For me that's not practical.

We have a home 3 stage RO drinking water system but it does not have a big enough storage tank to make it worth using for PWCs. It would take a week to get enough water out of it even if we were only doing a half RO/half tap change. I only use the RO for refills due to evaporation.

We also have a one stage RO system in one of our bathroom. I need to test the water to see if it clears out the ammonia and lowers the ph enough. This could work but I'm still researching.

I'm sorry for your water problems...I'm right there with ya!!!

[Jason87]

What is an RO, is it something along the lines or a water softner or filter.

[SkarloeysMom]

Reverse Osmosis...its a water filtration system. Works GREAT for drinking water. Saves you having to buy thousands of plastic bottles a year.

[Zerileous]

okay, well an RO machine is out of the question in the short term, but there is a place to get it for like 3.99 for 5 gallons :/. That would gover a weeks water changes for our tanks. We could always try mixing half and half, and then treat with enough prime to neutralize the ammonia and chloramine. Right now we use API tap water conditioner, and prime is about 3x as expensive, but it would be worth it if it can handle ammonia more effectively.

The nitrates are actually a good thing for us, because both tanks are planted. So at those levels its just helpful to the plants.

[Zerileous]

Okay, so I took a new sample today after running the water for a few minutes. The good news is that ammonia is down to .5 ppm. PH is still the same. I also got my kH and gH test today, and the news isnt so great. The water only has 2 dkH (38.5ppm) and 143.2ppm gH. This is softer than my current water. I guess that helps because it means there is less buffering, however I think 2dkH is not even enough buffering to make running DIY CO2 safe! (incidentally, I just started some tonight :0)

Any more suggestions?

[salman]

Okay, so I took a new sample today after running the water for a few minutes. The good news is that ammonia is down to .5 ppm. PH is still the same. I also got my kH and gH test today, and the news isnt so great. The water only has 2 dkH (38.5ppm) and 143.2ppm gH. This is softer than my current water. I guess that helps because it means there is less buffering, however I think 2dkH is not even enough buffering to make running DIY CO2 safe! (incidentally, I just started some tonight :0)

Any more suggestions?

My kH is 0, and i have no problems. You will be fine.. I think if you keep the water running the ammonia will get to 0 eventually.