Two questions

[madasa]

G'day fellow fish lovers

1. What is the best and cheapest way to soften water?

2. Who uses discus geoliquid and opinions?

Thanks

Pete

[ILLUSN]

I use HCl (brickies acid) to soften my water, it converts CO3 (kH) to CO2 and O2.

I dont use geo liquid, but i have been using aussie geo mineralson my planted display tank after each big (50%) water change.

[madasa]

So the brickies acid softens and lowers?

What about sodium biphosphate?

I have both

[gypsy3]

illusn, do you have problems using the hcl?...i tried it for a while,got the aged water in the barrell about 6.2 or so but my ph still went up in the tankafter i added the water, so i gave up. its usually at about 7.6...i know its not ideal but is that acceptable?

[ILLUSN]

I get the aged water down to 5.0, most of the tanks run at 5.0-5.5 except the planted display tank which runs at 5.5 -6.0 (used onyx sand in the pots to leach CO3 for the red swords).

anything that reduces the CO3 of the water will soften it, my kh is effectivly 0 (1-3 max!)

I dont like phosphate buffers cause i have some plant tanks, have a read of this, it will help answer your questions

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Gussie_modifying_water_chemistry.html