Rainwater's pH KG and GH. Opinion please

[NursePlaty]

My rainwater's pH is 6.4 and I believe both my GH and KH is 1st or 2nd degree or 17.9ppm-35.8ppm. Hard to tell with only 1 drop in a 5ml tube because the color is so faint.

I am trying to lower the hardness of my water to achieve soft water. Is rainwater safe to use? I am not sure because of the low KH, it I think it might make the pH fluctuate rapidly and etc, IF IT DOES THAT, dont know if it will. im not sure.. Not sure if I am making sense. Need someone with a full understanding of this to help me

[Sigmar]

have u thought about using peat as a buffer or driftwood? I also age my water in a 55 gal plastic drum.

[NursePlaty]

have u thought about using peat as a buffer or driftwood? I also age my water in a 55 gal plastic drum.

I would need a ton of peat and a ton of driftwood because small amounts wont change anything. If I use a lot, it will release too much tannins and I hate tannins.

Even if I age my water, it wont lower the hardness.

[Michael]

If you want to use rain water, collect it from a clean surface after the first downpour has washed away any dust, pollutants, etc. It should be safe, especially if you are diluting tap water just to reduce hardness. In parts of central Texas many rural homes use rain water for drinking water.

Try it on some inexpensive fish first! Please let us know how it works.

--Michael

[woodnquilt]

I use rainwater almost exclusively. My co-op water is just too hard (8.4 PH) for my angels to breed in. I went through a long spell with no babies until I finally figured out that my water had gotten so hard. To switch them over, I did partial water changes (10 to 15%) every few days until I got the PH down to 7.3. Now my angels won't quit breeding! It's worth a try IMHO.

[NursePlaty]

I use rainwater almost exclusively. My co-op water is just too hard (8.4 PH) for my angels to breed in. I went through a long spell with no babies until I finally figured out that my water had gotten so hard. To switch them over, I did partial water changes (10 to 15%) every few days until I got the PH down to 7.3. Now my angels won't quit breeding! It's worth a try IMHO.

That is reassuring. Did you filter the rainwater through carbon or anything before adding to reduce contaminates? I wasnt sure if the rain would catch the pollutants in the air or not, because after all, we do live in the city.

[Dr. Awkward]

What hardness do you want your tank to have and what pH do you want it to have? I would try testing the nitrates in your rain water just to be safe. I think Brita filters and the like remove sulphates but I'm not sure.

If you want to get a really accurate reading on your KH you can increase the amount of water to 10ml or even 15ml, add enough drops to get the colore change and then divide the number of drops by the amount you increased the water, for example, if you use 15ml of water and six drops then you have KH of 2 degrees.

[Trallen44]

My rainwater's pH is 6.4 and I believe both my GH and KH is 1st or 2nd degree or 17.9ppm-35.8ppm. Hard to tell with only 1 drop in a 5ml tube because the color is so faint.

I am trying to lower the hardness of my water to achieve soft water. Is rainwater safe to use? I am not sure because of the low KH, it I think it might make the pH fluctuate rapidly and etc, IF IT DOES THAT, dont know if it will. im not sure.. Not sure if I am making sense. Need someone with a full understanding of this to help me


Why are you wanting to change the hardness of the water?

[NursePlaty]

What hardness do you want your tank to have and what pH do you want it to have? I would try testing the nitrates in your rain water just to be safe. I think Brita filters and the like remove sulphates but I'm not sure.

If you want to get a really accurate reading on your KH you can increase the amount of water to 10ml or even 15ml, add enough drops to get the colore change and then divide the number of drops by the amount you increased the water, for example, if you use 15ml of water and six drops then you have KH of 2 degrees.

I want my GH and pH low, maybe 5dGH and 7.2 or 7.4pH. API GH kit is too hard too read. I decided to use RO instead of RW because of the possible pollutants. I think my KH reading is pretty accurate because the color change is very distinct, just way off on my GH.

Why are you wanting to change the hardness of the water?

I want to lower it for my Crystal Red Shrimps.

[Trallen44]

Are you having trouble with the crystal red shrimps not breeding or dying off?

[NursePlaty]

Are you having trouble with the crystal red shrimps not breeding or dying off?

They dont breed. There was one time i saw a berried female, but never saw any babies.

[rbradbury]

I use rainwater almost exclusively. My co-op water is just too hard (8.4 PH) for my angels to breed in. I went through a long spell with no babies until I finally figured out that my water had gotten so hard. To switch them over, I did partial water changes (10 to 15%) every few days until I got the PH down to 7.3. Now my angels won't quit breeding! It's worth a try IMHO.
@woodnquilt: I experiance same ph issues with Keene's water. The ph was 8.4, gh1.5 and kh 15.6. I ended up buffering with Seachem Equarliberium to bring up the general hardness(gh) to around 3dh. I added limestone into the tank to keep leeching out calcium to increase the general hardness over time. I know this will drive up the ph so I buffered with Suffaric Acid to drop the ph down to 6.8. With the water having a high Carbonate Hardness(kh), that should hold the ph. The tank has been cycling now for a week. I'll check it this Sunday to see if anything shifted. Your close by, I can get you access to get well water for you to use as a buffer.

[rbradbury]

@NursePlatty: From what I read, it looks like they like moderate hardness. One source suggest weekly water changes to keep your nitrite and nitrate levels low. Keep your water 71-75. Now some fish require conditioning prior to breeding. What are you feeding them and how often are you feeding them? Now on your filtration system, do you have a sponge covering the inlet tube?

[NursePlaty]

@NursePlatty: From what I read, it looks like they like moderate hardness. One source suggest weekly water changes to keep your nitrite and nitrate levels low. Keep your water 71-75. Now some fish require conditioning prior to breeding. What are you feeding them and how often are you feeding them? Now on your filtration system, do you have a sponge covering the inlet tube?

I know the cherries require hard water and basic pH and i believe the crystals like the opposite, soft water and acidic pH. My ammonia and nitrite is always 0ppm. And about my nitrate; Before, i couldnt get it below 10ppm. Now it consistantly stays at 0ppm even with no water changes. I thought it was an error and thought my api liquid tests were outdated. I even bought a new set and retested. Same results. Must be the plants doing their job. I feed them algae discs and topical fish flakes. And yes I cover my tube with filter floss to protect the babies.

[Dr. Awkward]

RO water sounds like the way to go. That's what I would do.

[woodnquilt]

@NursePlaty. No, I didn't run the water through a carbon filter, although I do run a UV filter on the water before I put it in the tanks, to kill off possible bacteria. I don't know about city rain, though, because I live out in the country.

@rbradbury. Thanks for the offer, and if I have problems later, I may take you up on it. However, I have been using rainwater for about four or five months now, and no problems so far. Only once have I almost run out before it rained again, but luckily that tropical storm came into the gulf and filled me back up again.