Help!! Very hard water!

[agong]

Need some help! Over the months, my aquarium water has been very very hard. I think the reason is that I have a fire eel, and it refuse to eat any other thing except for live shrimps. not even blood worms, and needless to say he does not even see pellet food as food.

Thus I will haben to buy packets (abt 30 shrimps each packet ) every week to feed the fire eel. and because shrimps have shells, and with the constant shedding of their shells, my water hardness increased.

even placing some peat in the filter does not really help. some of my fish died quickly. I don't dare to buy new fishes for now.

anyone has any alternatives that I can feed my fire eel? or ideas to lower the water hardness other than water changes very frequently?

thanks! much help appreciated.

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[cheetf]

Bro I don't think it is the shrimp shells that is making your water hard. If so we shrimp keepers will have big headaches caused by the shrimps themselves. Usually the culprit is lack of water changes combined with high evaporation rates or stuff like rocks that cause the GH to go up.

You can lower the hardness by doing water change with distilled water.

[agong]

Thanks for your reply cheetf! Anyway this was my initial thoughts of why my shrimps could be causing the water hardness to increase so much, while shrimp keepers do not (please correct me if I'm wrong):

Shrimp keepers have a pretty much constant number of shrimps in their tank. Though the shrimps may perhaps shed their shells, and the shells disintegrate in the water, the shrimps form back new shells from the hardness of the water. Thus the carbonate was recycled.

However, as in my case, I am adding 30+ shrimps every week, each with their own shell. All these shrimps will shed their shells, yet before they can form new ones, they are eaten up all within a week. Thus the carbonate stays in the water. Furthermore, all these shrimps are eaten by the fire eels, which will then defecate out the carbonate content again?

I'm quite a noob in aquarium / fishkeeping. Have less than 2 years of experience. So please correct me if I'm wrong. haha!

I see, perhaps distilled water is a good idea. Any ideas how to obtain distilled water with as little cost as possible? Rain water? Or bottled distilled water in supermarkets?

Thanks!!

[troyjbon]

I haven had any experience. This can definately be a learning value. I read the api hardness test kit advised using a chemical solution to reduce hardness..maybe can see what they say.

[cheetf]

It's an interesting theory but I still have my doubts though.

Anyway you can use the life brand distilled water. It's one of the brands that some of the shrimpkeepers use.

[alvinchan80]

TS, what is the GH of your tank at the moment?

[agong]

TS, what is the GH of your tank at the moment?

my test kit showing 150-180. is extremely high imo. surprised how some of my fish still survived.

I have a few clown loaches that were fat and strong in the past. I'm now only left with 2, and looking so weak.
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[alvinchan80]

my test kit showing 150-180. is extremely high imo. surprised how some of my fish still survived.

I have a few clown loaches that were fat and strong in the past. I'm now only left with 2, and looking so weak.
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Hmmm.. 150~180 if based on TDS, GH should be about 4~7 on estimate... Which is not really very high...

Maybe furnish with more details of your parameter on whether the water is really 'hard'... GH will tell if the water is hard or not..

[dc88]

May be your situation is not due to "high hardness"but high bio-loading ? You mention every week your fire eel consumes 30+ live shrimp as its meal ? You didn't mention the size of the tank, I am guessing the eel eating all these live stock feeding the waste has to go some where. May be you should also check the other water parameter liked NH4, NO2 and NO3. Your fishes may be suffer from these instead of the GH.
But if indeed is the hardness problem, one common source of hardness increase is due to the gravel or stones used in the tank that has high calcium or magnesium content. You may want to check into these as well.
At minimum you may want to increase the partial water change amount or frequency.

[agong]

May be your situation is not due to "high hardness"but high bio-loading ? You mention every week your fire eel consumes 30+ live shrimp as its meal ? You didn't mention the size of the tank, I am guessing the eel eating all these live stock feeding the waste has to go some where. May be you should also check the other water parameter liked NH4, NO2 and NO3. Your fishes may be suffer from these instead of the GH.
But if indeed is the hardness problem, one common source of hardness increase is due to the gravel or stones used in the tank that has high calcium or magnesium content. You may want to check into these as well.
At minimum you may want to increase the partial water change amount or frequency.

I agree it's quite likely to be the gravel and stones that has high calcium. see lots of my stones losing its shape and some of them become smaller.

As for bio load, I think according to my water testing it's still not too bad. I have a 4ft tank with quite a few plants in it.. so hopefully it's not too bad.. haha.

yea.. I guess I will have to increase partial water change, and maybe do it with distilled water once in a while..



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[issacyeo]

what is your filtration? type of medias used? how is your water change regime?
what tests did you conduct for you to conclude that your water is "still not too bad"?
is your 4ft tank fully planted?

[agong]

what is your filtration? type of medias used? how is your water change regime?
what tests did you conduct for you to conclude that your water is "still not too bad"?
is your 4ft tank fully planted?

I'm using top filter which includes 4 package of sponge and bacteria growth aid. On the last filter package I've included peat.

I change my water once every 2 weeks. It's quite planted. Perhaps half of the area taken by plants. I use a litmus strip test.. its nitrite level is quite low.. however it's hardness hit the maximum colour.

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