Tap water filters and lowering hardness?

Lady Friesian · Post by **Lady Friesian** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:28 pm

Hi,
The pH in my tank is really high (8-8.2). I have one of those Brita-type water filters (made for drinking water, not aquarium use) on a sink - will this remove enough of the hardness so that I can use something to lower pH? Is this safe for shrimp? I'm not currently using filtered water for water changes. I can't get a reverse osmosis unit.

I tried to find information about this, but maybe I was using the wrong search terms.
Thanks!

Das Dee · Post by **Das Dee** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:57 pm

Hi,

please do not use Brita-filters for tank water. It contains silver which may dissolve.
So, "Is this safe for shrimp?" definitely not.

reverse osmosis

- now I know what r/o water is

You can use a full desalter(?) or demineralized water.

Br.,
Dirk

YuccaPatrol · Post by **YuccaPatrol** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 8:25 pm

If your tank is small, you can mix distilled water from the grocery store with your tap water to help bring down the hardness. Don't use 100% distilled though because you do need some mineral content.

You can also add driftwood, leaves (you should add leaves anyway), and peat as natural organic water softeners.

After that, you can use muriatic acid (HCl) to help drop the pH.

Lady Friesian · Post by **Lady Friesian** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:37 am

My shrimp thank you so much! It's good to know about the silver; I definately won't try the filter.

I thought driftwood only released acids, not doing anything about the water's buffering capacity. Should I just boil the wood and stick it in the tank, since the goal is to leach acids, or does it still need to be thoroughly boiled/soaked? Any particular kind of driftwood?

I'm adding some oak leaves soon anyway, for food.