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Thanks all. I thought it was unlikely, but was just trying to thnink through all possibilities.

Ovwr the last few months I've had a lot more algae than I used to get. I know there are various factors I can look at but I'm trying to consider what has changed. A significant difference is that I've moved from tap water to rain water. Our tap water is off-the-test-chart hard. Literally...

How about BGA? I've had an outbreak since switching to it, but as the butt has a lid (ie no photosynthesis) and there are other possible causes, I'm assuming it's not the culprit

How to pump from a water butt is useful to know (I think the caravan pumps you're talking about are made by Whale - I used to use them for water changes), but doesnt really help me know whether I should be using rain water or not 🤣🤣🤣. What are the down sides to using rain water (fish species...

At the moment just some Neons, a couple of Kuhlis, a small plec (not sure what varaiety - it was donated), a single Amano and some Assasin snails. I know the shrimp and the snails will like hard water, but I'm not really tied to other species.

Our tap water is off-the-test-chart hard. Literally. GH>180 and KH >240 with a pH around 7.2 Our rain water is GH<40 and KH<30 with a pH of 6.3 I've never bothered with rainwater before and have no species related preference (fauna or flora), but was wondering about using rainwater in my low...

Having spoken to the water company on the previous occasion, no matter what their perceived obligations may be, I have every confidence it would be a fruitless exercise. In the meantime, I need to do a water change. Last time dechloribator, de-chloramine-ator, de-heavy-metal-ator etc wasn't...

i recently had a catastrophic tank crash which may have been attributable to works done on a water main a couple of roads away. (This has been discussed at length on another thread.) I was planning to do a water change the other day an noticed there were more (unrelated) works on a water main...

Ah yes. Stupid question!

Deleted.

George - Fair point on soil break down. I want to get some Killifish. The cognocenti seem to think they need soft, acidic water, but I don't know how neccessary that really is. Tubamanandy - I was under the impression that de-ionising filters just replaced one sort of salts with another sort...

I haven't tested the water recently and my test kit is probably past it's use-by date by now. The pH used to be about 7.4: I can't remember what GH and KH were I'm afraid, but I know they were relatively high. (We live in a chalk stream area.) I've looked at RO before but, for various reasons...

I'm vaguely thinking about trying to reduce the pH and hardness of water in my tank so I can keep fish that prefer softer, more acidic water. It's a while since I read up on this sort of thing, but from what I remember I could use peat to simultaneously reduce pH and hardness. I think my best...

Is it conceivable that a piece of standard, uncontaminated, garden hose could leach toxic chemicals into water passing very briefly through it. And if so, what might those toxins be?

Don't know if it's an issue in this case, but surely that's only ok if you have no fauna?

The advice I've seen is to just go for the bottles sold for ponds - cheaper and just as effective. (Someone may correct me on this.)

Original question changed to keep the tread on topic. Thanks for the responses though - useful food for thought.

Both good points well presented. Irrespective of the test kits innate accuracy, I find them potentially accuracy on the grounds of "well, it could be grew, or yellow, and that red is nothing like the reds on the chart". That said, IMHO they do at least give some indication of which extreme the...

If adding tap water with relatively high nitrate levels when doing water changes, how quickly will they be taken up by plants? What are the effects on fish during such nitrate spikes? How do these spikes compare with those resulting from adding ferts? Should you consider some way of reducing...

@LondonDragon - we used to live in N London and got water from the R Lea which is chalkstream so should be pretty hard, and we certainly got a lot of scale in the kettle. According to Thames Water the hardness is 289 mgl CaCO3. Where we are now is supposed to be 348, so even harder than London...

Oh b*****x! I knew someone was going to beat the c**p out of me with some full on chemistry ;) Unfortunately I'm still not clear whether I've got any options (other than those I've listed as difficult for me) to soften my hard water. From the above it sounds like peat will help...

Thanks again Ed. So other than RO and rain water are there any real ways to reduce hardness? I had read that hardness wasn't a problem for the plants but I was thinking of softening the water for the fish. (I'm not interested in Cichlids ;))

Thanks for that Ed but (don't take his as ingratitude) it doesn't actually address either of the questions I asked.

1st point for confusion: There seem to be a lot of references to Alkalinity (as measured by KH test kits) as if it something entirely different to Acidity and pH. From what I remember of A-Level chemistry (albeit 20 years ago), Alkalinity and Acidity are just the opposite ends of the pH scale...

Thanks Darrel. A that's explained a couple of things I've never bothered to wonder about for years, but sheds some light on why the very limited planting I've had in the past didn't always thrive. A big help.

(Without wanting to get my own thread off topic straigght away ...) I haven't tested the tap water recently (as I threw out all my od test solutions) and I can't remember what the stats were, but the water company quote our "Total Hardness" as 348 mg/l (300+ very hard). There wil be bogwood...

I was about to order some dechlorinator online but was confronted with a gazillion different brands all claiming slightly different things: removal of chlorine and chloramines (both of which I know are needed), "instantly detoxifies ammonia" (I don't think "detoxifies" is a real word, but never...

Phew!

My new tank will be 225L, and hopefully will be both moderately planted and moderately stocked. I am considering CO2 and I haven't really got my head round fertilizers/nutrients/etc yet, but that's all TBC. My old tank was 60L, and whilst it had plants, could not be thought of as a planted...