Hard water?

[bettababe321]

When Cosmo died I did a water test and my water hardness came up really hard. What can I do to fix this? Is distilled water softer? I usually use stress coat added to just normal tap water. I'm thinking I'm going to go ahead and give Captain the 5 gallon and just reserve the 1 gallon for treatment if he gets sick.

[neenjar]

Distilled water is missing all of the the essential minerals and is not good for fish.

If your water is too hard you can add some peat moss in a filter bag to the filter or just hanging in the tank, but best in the filter. It is a natural way to soften water, much better than liquid chemicals that give you a short term solution, but are gone in a couple days.

If you age your water before doing water changes add some peat moss in a filter bag to the container you age the water in as well, that way it is already softened some before being added to the tank.

Replace the peat moss once a month.

[bettababe321]

Thanks for the advice! A guy at petsmart said to add a little more aquarium salt to the water to make it softer. I already add a pinch to each water change, how much is too much?

[Zan]

i use hard water. soft water that si treated with salt is not good as i asked this question when i got my soft water filter installed i have to go down the end of the garden to the only hard water tap in my place to get water now :P