Water softener

[Rob9]

Hey Guys,

Would like a little advice on softening my water. I generally use rain water for all of my fish tanks but due to the drought in the region I live in I have had to top the house rainwater tanks up with bore water. The bore water is good water except for its hardness.

I am trying to find a cheap option to soften my water for a new discus tank.

I was thinking of maybe getting an RO unit off Peter @ PSI FIlters but I am little reluctant to spend $340 although I think it may be the smartest thing to do. I have seen some pretty cheap RO units around but I tend to prefer quality and would like my money to go to a fellow aussie. The thing I was a little worried about was the ammount of waste water a unit like this could/would generate, with water being such a precious resource at the moment I don't want to be wasting to much.

I currently have a water softening pillow in another cichlid tank but I find that this does not work too well. With large volumes of water (~300+ litres) the process is quite slow and I am forever rinsing the pillow and putting it back in my tank. I also think buying multiple pillows would not be too costs effective and/or a smart long term solution.

I have pondered buying another rain water tank (at around $500 for a reasonable sized tank) and connecting it up to a different section of the roof but again its expensive and rain is not the most reliable thing in these times.

Any advice would be much appreciated....

Rob

[Big Daddy1]

I think you have a good idea of what to do.

Personally, I would not use the pillow with discus or really at all. It does not help with keeping TDS down to a minimum and isn't natural. Using peat would be a better idea. The RO does great and might be worth the plunge.

[Rob9]

Thanks Big Daddy1.

Yeah the more I think about it the more I lean towards the RO unit. Its just nice to have some fellow enthusiasts opinions.

[Matt15]

Rob RO units can sometimes be more harmful then good. You really need to spend time and money not only in buying the unit, but balancing your water back once filtered.

Your on the best wicket with rain water. My discus thrive in 100% rain water and my father uses 100% bore water and his discus also thrive. I guess it depends on what part of this great continent you live as bore water often changes from town to town.

[ChrisEddy85]

I wouldn't touch bore water on the West coast. Hardness is off the scale using a bore in Hillarys (northern suburbs of perth). Rain water is very pure though, although can be hard to get consistently unlike other parts in the east coast.

[Rob9]

Thanks guys,

The hardness on the bore water here is quite high and although we have had some rain the sediment in the rain water tank must be pushing the hardness up.

The particular unit I was looking at allows me to adjust the TDS reading of the filtered water so ideally I would play around with the unit and see what I can come up with.

Thanks for the warning Matt15 I hear your point. My plan was to plant my tank and get some school fish happy and thrving while I perfected my water for the discus. So time is something I am quite happy to spend.

The unit I was looking at...

PSI-020A

http://psifilters.com.au/Reverse-Osmosis-Laundry.htm