Hey all, a quicky really.

For some time Ive been using RO bought (fairly cheaply, other than the fuel to go get it *UK fuel prices shudder*) on the assumption that my tap water is just too hard to use, therefore, Id just like to run it by you to check.

KH 9 degrees
GH 13.5 degrees

Before I wade in, no pun intended, and check what else is in it, just thought id ask you guys/gals. Its so hard it kills my kettle if i don't filter it!

One of the things Im not sure of is just how hard would it be to get any meaningful levels of CO2 into the water with a KH of that level, obviously I can select hard water plants that will handle it.

Thanks in advance

I would use the tapwater. Adding CO2 wont be more difficult for you than any other else.

You can always use half tap water and half RO water to drop the KH down to around 5 dKH. But, I doubt that you would see any difference in the tank.

thanks for the advice guys, Ill go back to it I think, it costs way too much fuel to go and get RO every week, and Id like to be doing 50% water changes and not only 25% as I really want to give EI a try.

Hopefully that will get rid of my algae problems and get me on the right track again.

Thanks again folks.

A few species of plants do not care for higher KH's, but that's about all.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Ive decided that being able to carry out bigger, more frequent water changes will be far less hastle in the long run. Having to be more picky about plants and possibly loosing a few due to high KH I think will present me with far less stress.

Ive gone right back to basics after spending a solid 2 days reading the vast amount of info from you guys in various posts, Ive had some algae problems (not huge, but still annoying) since just about day 1. So Ive made sure Ive stabalised CO2, reduced lighting a bit as the water change brightened the water so much I wondered if I was having a problem with suspended algae problems and didnt notice so much. Also did a big scrub out of every bit of rock/wood in the tank, cleaned the glass, hoovered up the substrate, pruned off all the leaves that had brown/black goo all over them. Realised also that I was PO4 starving my plants, so Ive bought some Nourish Phosphate and Im carefully building that back up now too.

Its amazing how wrong you can go when you read some bad info from people that dont really know what theyre doing. Im so glad I found this site and so grateful for all of you guys for putting so much time into it. Already I feel more confident on what Im doing. I hope that one day Ill know enough to be able to contribute more fully.

Okies, I just got an email back from my Water company to see what they add, here it is.

pH - 7.3
Ammonium - <0.01 mg NH4/l
Nitrite - <1 mg NO2/l
Nitrate – 36 mg NO3/l
Calcium Carbonate 285 mg CaCO3/l
Hardness – 19.95 English Clarke degrees
Free chlorine – 0.23 mg Cl/l
Total chlorine – 0.26 mg Cl/l
Chloramine - No tests done as no chloramination is carried out.

That gives my tap water a KH of about 16 degrees doesnt it? *boggle* Or am I doing something wrong?

That sounds about right for a lot of the UK's water.
Hard and high NO3's, use a RO water filter if you drink/cook with that stuff.
It's fine for washing, showering etc.

You can also replace K2SO4 instead of KNO3 for the dosing, you have plenty of NO3 and the fish waste added to that ought to round out the week if you do 50% weekly changes, you might add say about 1/4 of the normal KNO3 dosing if things look okay and there's a fair amount of plant growth.

Regards,
Tom Barr

It is very hard, I run all my cooking water and drinking water through a Britta water filter, which makes a huge difference. Id buy a proper RO unit, but Im on a water meter and the wastage of those things would cripple me in about 3 months!

I was really interested in the water report, although my test kit wont show up anything like that much NO3, which is annoying. Ive ordered some dry powders now, and Im going to do proper EI. Ive also ordered a proper pressurised CO2 kit! At long last! So I can get that stable to, it even comes with a solenoid which is great.

I have a cyanobacteria problem at the moment, its not massive now since Ive brought up the PO4 to a sensible level, (it was zero before). Once Ive got my dry ferts (today hopefully), Ill dose as suggested and turn the other light back on again and see if I can get things going. If that doesnt work Ill have to do a blackout I guess.

Thanks for all your help Tom

Britta filter are just carbon filters, you can put one of those on the entire system, it does not remove NO3 and hardness, a DI resin will.

Those also can be added for about 20$ for each type and 10-20$ for each cartiage with no waste water.

Regards,
Tom Barr