Conductivity of the aquarium water

[JayZee]

Hi all. I'm new here and i have some queries which i hope some members can enlight me on it.
What does the conductivity does to the plants and the fishes?
What is the normal range?
If the value overshoot the range other then water change is there other ways to lower the conductivity?
If it keeps on increasing even when water change is done what does this imply?

[Verminator]

Conductivity in terms of electricity?

Huh, sorry. I'm guessing others havnt responded either due to no one knowing quite what you mean, i certainly don't. Apologies.

[benetay]

No worries,

here is one thread that mentions about conductivity.

http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...t=conductivity

[properfool]

Hi I think what you're referring to is using a "salinity" test pen to measure the quality of water.

Pure water is not a good conductor of electricity. The conductivity of water is measure by the number of free ions present in the water. Basic chemistry, the ions can be cations eg sodium, potassium, calcium or anions eg. bicarbonate. chloride, sulphate and nitrates. More free ions = greater conductivity.

So in effect by measuring conductivity (units in microsiemens) you have one measure of the amount of dissolved salts or "purity" of your water. If your water is very hard ie lots of dissolved calcium, then the conductivity will be higher.

In singapore our tap water in the range of 100-150 microS. Our rain water is somewhere between 70-90microS. It depends on your pipes and your air quality respectively

After putting chemicals in the water etc the conductivity goes up since most soluble chemicals are sodium or potassium salts. In some LFS the water is >2000 microS. In others it's less about 600-800. After I add dechlorinator alone to tap water at home, it's about 160-170



What I've found so far is that fish don't appreciate big changes in salinity/conductivity. I usually acclimatise my fish by adding my tank water so that changes of not more than 200microS take place every 15-20 minutes. When the new additions water is not more than 150 microS in difference I can usually add them in without problems.

Implications:
If the 'conductivity' in your water is rising than you must be adding some chemical to your new water every water change.

It's important you don't just top up the evaporated water otherwise over time you'll be concentrating the amounts of dissovled ions the water in your tank. You should take out a certain amount the tank and then pour in fresh water.

I guess if you want to reduce the salinity value in your tank you must either replace a volume of it with fresh water or get an ion exchange resin or RO plant

If you don't at some point your fish will start to look very twitchy, then lethargic then .

I used to think my tetras dying were due to infections and so i added salt to the water. Some was ok. More was a massive wipeout

[benetay]

Thanks for sharing such valuable information! It's not something that most fish keepers do but it's very important if you're planning to breed or show case the beauty of them.

In a planted tank on the other hand might result in higher conductivities due to more ions in the water column. Adding of various minerals in the water raises the conductivity by a tad.

Yes adding anti-cholorine will increase conductivity which is why i prefer not to add but let water stand if i'm breeding picky fishes. e.g. apisto. Wild Apistogramma paucisquamis require less then 40 microsimens.

We're hoping to have access to cheaper alternative instead of using RO or IE water.

Cheers!