Water Softener

[salexjared]

It seems to be quite popular in Hong Kong LFS to have this water softener thing.

It is a tube with yellow/golden sand that water (via a submersed power head) passes through to absorb cations of Ca and so on.

The "sand" is some sort of tree resin that is designed to absorb such cations and keep water soft for planted tanks and also fauna.
But doesn't plants needs these minerials (not in cation form ?)

Do not see this in Singapore.

Anyone uses this and knows of its efficiency in keeping a stable tank ?

[illumnae]

i think it's not commonly used here as water in singapore is already relatively soft, negating the need for such a product

[Aeon]

Yea Singapore water is soft. But if you interested can buy from AquaticMagic.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Softenizer-1000-...QQcmdZViewItem

[salexjared]

Yeap, that is the one.

Popular in Hong Kong but never seen in Singapore.

Guess you guys are right, if the water is already soft then why play with it somemore. If it aren't broken don't fix it.

Thanks.
Will give it a skip.

Actually I am now having problem getting my PH up for my RCS and Snail tank. It is down to about a 6.0PH and I have to add buffer to bring it up to 6.5 and above. Hope that is not the reason for the RCS to be not breeding.

[Aeon]

Yeap, that is the one.

Popular in Hong Kong but never seen in Singapore.

Guess you guys are right, if the water is already soft then why play with it somemore. If it aren't broken don't fix it.

Thanks.
Will give it a skip.

Actually I am now having problem getting my PH up for my RCS and Snail tank. It is down to about a 6.0PH and I have to add buffer to bring it up to 6.5 and above. Hope that is not the reason for the RCS to be not breeding.

If you are using Aquasoil, give it a few weeks, the pH will go up and stabilise. AQuasoil has humic acid and ammonia which will become nitric acid... so it's acidic for the 1st 2 weeks or so.

[salexjared]

Yeap, I am using Gex for the substrate. I thought it would stabilize after a while. But it is already a month and it is still 6.0.

Added some carbonate tablet or something and it is now buffing to around 6.4 to 6.6.

But do not think it to last and it would return to 6.0 again. Would check it out after a week or so.

Thanks for the input.

For the CRS they seem to be doing ok but also not spawning. I put in Purple Zebras and I think most of them died after 2 to 3 days. Sigh... Not too successful yet for Shrimps. Will try harder. Need to get the formulae.
Hope it is soon else the replenishment would burn a hole in my pocket.

[illumnae]

i don't think your gex soil is causing your ph to drop so drastically. while i've been told by the LFS owner who sold me gex that it will keep ph at about 6.4-6.6, my experience is that it lowers my ph to approximately 7.2 (from 7.6).

i get a ph of 6.2 and a kh of 1.5 when my CO2 is switched on though

perhaps you could try using coral chips in your filter or seachem equilibrium to buffer up your water hardness

[salexjared]

hmmmm.... Then maybe it is my CO2.

I have a manual CO2 and being lazy I leave it on 24/7 at 1 bps.

I use a glass diffuser and it is I believe less efficient, I thought it would be ok. I only have shrimps in the tank and therefore not sure if they are "gasping" for air. Will investigate further.

But my other CRS tank is with solenoid and only turn on at 2bps when the lights are on (7hrs). Their PH is 6.0 also

I have one lapis small tank for fishes and snails and not much plants (only a moss ball. This tank using the same tap water is 7.4.....

Well, that is the interesting part about the hobby.

[lEddyl]

it's available in SG.
i know KS has it

[salexjared]

Yeap, I guess so. But the question is does anybody actually use it and have good results with it.

I guess so far not many in Singapore needs to use it unlike some other countries.

I will try it out in my tank in China and see how it does before setting one up in one of my tanks in Singapore just for fun.

Looks like it has to be driven by a powerhead ? Not sure if a high flow rate is going to work on this equipment (ie if you have a high flowrate filter like mine (1500l/hr).