# Soft Water -want it? I got it!



## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

Most people are trying to soften their water for their tanks, I've got the opposite problem! I had posted about starting from scratch and planting pretty heavily. Check and check. Did both. An additve was suggested increase the Gh and KH that are low in my tap water. Got it. So it's been just over a week and I did a 25% water change and tested beforehand. KH and GH are still low and pH has dropped a couple of points.

GH - <50ppm
KH- 50ppm
pH 7.2 (used to be 7.6)

I know with the KH being so low, the pH is likely to fluctuate more and I've been hoping to avoid that. I've used Kent Marine's R/O Right to try to bring up the GH and KH. I just followed the amounts listed on the bottle (ie: 2 tsp / 5 gal) and I'm not sure how long it would take to see increases. I would think by now, but I'm often impatient with many things in life, so I'd like to be sure.

I added a piece of driftwood that I soaked for 3 weeks. There are still some tannins being released into the water, so I'm probably battling that as well since I read that tannins will soften water also.

Is it safe to start increasing the amounts of the Kent R/O I'm using? I'm tempted to just "go big or go home", but don't want to swing too far the other way. Would I be overreacting?


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## Fortuna Wolf (Feb 3, 2007)

Try... not worry about it too much. 

I have soft water here and can easily grow some plants, but have trouble growing stuff like java fern. 
I added some calcium carbonate and magnesium sulfate to raise it to around 50-100 ppm hardness and thing sare doing fine. The water is a constantly changing chemical soup and I don't bother trying to keep anything at one particular level because it would be impossible. Just don't let it get too hard, and don't let it get too soft, but if you keep it in a range from 50-150ppm I think you'll be fine.


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## modster (Jun 16, 2007)

i don't think your water is that bad. I might be wrong, but doesn't dosing GH/KH booster increase your hardness instantly?


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

^ Yep. RexGrigg sells booster on the cheap - or you can roll your own.


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

My water is as soft as yours, plus I'm injecting C02. I have no problems with PH fluctuating, not to the point of harming the fish anyways. I use to try and raise my KH with baking soda, but gave up when I found that it was not a permanent solution. I think it is more important to add less water parameters altering solutions and just go with the water your have. Besides, the tannins & RO right are just working against each other. I would just do 50% weekly water changes and add carbon to the filter to remove the tannins.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

One of the problems with test kits is that people feel they have to use them. Then, they have to react to what the test kits say. Most of us would do better to just watch the plants and fish, and pretend we don't know what the pH, KH and GH are. Success with a planted tank depends on many factors, but pH, KH and GH are very, very minor factors.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Many people would die to have your water! It should work out fine just like it is. Don't overstock, don't overfeed, do a few regular WC's, and figure out what grows in the water you have. The number of plant species that demand hard water is much, much smaller than the number that demand soft water. When it comes right down to it, the vast majority of plants do fine in just about any hardness.


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## Impatient (Nov 12, 2007)

Okay cool. Glad to hear I'm overreacting a little. I'll grab some carbon to get rid of those tannins and keep up with the water changes to help.

Thanks for the peace of mind guys!


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Limestone, clam shells, oyster shells, or egg shells will all keep your GH up. People who want very soft water are always having trouble keeping their GH down, and the reason is usually some form of calcium/magnesium carbonate somewhere in the tank.


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## puttyman70 (Aug 7, 2007)

I have tap water very similar to yours. I also worried a lot about ph swings, especially when I added pressurized co2. I read and read and read. I finally decided to listen to the people who said don't worry about it. My ph drops about .4 ppm between lights and co2 on and lights and co2 off. So far I've had no problems. I think the less stuff you put in the water the better. My angelfish frequently have fry, so it must not be to bad!


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

I've had a KH of 2 degrees (about 36 ppm) for several years and have not had a pH crash issue. Your KH and GH should be just right for a wide variety of plants.


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## zuker (Jan 3, 2005)

Impatient:

Years ago, when I was trying to develop a recipe to reconstitute R/O water to make it like yours, I found a mixture that worked well. Below, you will find a thread I posted back when this site with the "Wet Thumb Forum." While I don't think Kent makes their "GH+" product anymore, I have simply used my recipe without it with good results. Read below:

_The journey to re-constitute Reverse Osmosis De-Ionized water, with commercially available products, can be an interesting task for the aquarist. Specifically, "building," the water for a naturally planted aquarium requires specificity and managemant of appropriate parameters.

Through much experimentation, I have finally derived a recipe that, I feel, is yielding good results thus far. Before discussing this recipe, however, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

This recipe assumes that CO2 will be used to slowly lower PH, once the water is in the aquarium. This is the case due to the fact that I have found it impossible to raise KH without raising PH...however, this recipe provides a decent amount of KH without putting PH through the roof.

Also, bear in mind that I am using the following RO unit that yields the following product water:

Kent Maxxima Hi-S - 60 GPD
Product water:

[email protected] = 6.0 
TDS = 0.00

Here is the Recipe:

Add the following to 10 gallons(US) of water:

3/4 TSP, "R/O Right"
2 TSP "Botanica GH+"
3/8 TSP "PH Stable"

The above will yield these, approximate, results:

PH = 7.5-7.6
TDS = 170
GH = 2 degrees
KH = 1.9-2.0 degrees

Once I add this water to the tank, and it is subjected to CO2, the PH will begin to drop slowly.

Again, these are the results I have achieved, and have been satisfied thus far. My hope is that this will help anyone who is wanting to re-constitute RODI water.

I continue to experiment with different water samples and will post future results here. And, by the way, I don't work for Kent Marine ...I have just found that these products work well...considering that I tried almost every product out there.

Good luck, and I am open to any feedback you may have._


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