Help! I am new at this! :)

Hi,
I have well water, and I have a water softner. I filled up my fish tank, and (as I wrote before about having bubbles) I was told by a pet store that I need to use bottled/spring water! OOps!! The girl at Petco told me it was OK to use my well water IF I used a chemical....Hmm? Is it true, or not? I have a good 20 hours or so put into it....so, do I need to re-do it with Bottled/spring water? Or is it ok? I am just anxious to get my fishies!! (I am sure you all understand!) But, I will wait it out as long as they will be ok---in a few days when I get them.
Please write me back!! THANKS!!!

 

Are there any sorts of chemicals in your well water? I'm not familiar with using water softeners so that could be a problem if there is harmful chemicals in it. If there isn't, then just add a good dechlorinator and as far as I'm concerned you're ready to go!

 

I don't have any chemicals in the water softner....but we have to put salt in the filter system. Its been sitting with a filter for over 20 hours.....I was hoping whatever was in the water-- would have evaporated & it would be ok....But the bubbles are a different story. Thanks for writing....

 

I have well-water and a filter as well. I havent had any problems, it is just a matter of waiting. What i normally do is buy some feeder goldfish and they seem to fix the tank and my fish seem to not have any problems.

 

Ok, I really want to get the fish, so I am just anxious about the whole set up. I don't want them to die if my water isn't good....or if spring water is better, you know? Maybe I will take a little bit of it and bring it to the pet store and have them test it....That's probably my safest bet. Ok, Thank you all sooo much for writing me back!! I apprecaite it!!

 

If you are anxious i would say to use distilled water. I have a de-humidifiyer which i use the water from there. But you can usually pick some up at a grocery store. Or at like meijer.

 

yes, get something like start right. that seems to work.

 

Your water should be okay. If you have well water, you shouldn't have any chlorine or chloramine (might be a good idea to buy a test just to be sure) in which case you won't need a dechlorinator.

As for the water softener, I've heard of several people having them and their fish are fine. Quite a while ago, I read an article about how water softeners affect aquariums and I can't remeber exactly what it said, but I'll do some looking around and try to find it. Also, you should NOT use straight distilled water. It has a KH of 0 which means your pH will be very unstable, and that's really bad for fish.

And before you get any fish, you need to cycle the tank. Otherwise you risk loosing them all to ammonia & nitrIte poisoning. I suggest reading this article:
http://www.flippersandfins.net/cycling.htmj

-Chelle

 

don't forget to cycle your tank before you put fish in it unless you want to cycle with fish

 

yup, dont risk the fishes life with just putting them in there.

 

Hi iluvmykittys,The well water should be fine. It may have a high PH if there is limestone rock in the well. Regarding the water softner and the salt in the filter, you need to check whether or not the salt is iodized. Most likely it is NON-IODIZED and you are safe there. If it is the iodized type it contains iodine which can be harmful to your fish. Other than that you just need to cycle the tank and everything should be fine.

 

Very true, but isnt iodized salt table salt?

 

Hi there, I would suggest that you get some water test strips (you can get at your lfs) and test the water from your tap. Write down your parameters and investigate what fish would go best within those parameters. You can save yourself alot of time and effort, not to mention money getting fish that match your own tap water. Softened water ( and I don't mean soft Amazon water) from your tap will be fine for your tank. I have "hard" ( meaning my KH or carbonate hardness is high ) water that comes from my tap, that has been through a water softener. The water softener will change your GH ( General Hardness) which I believe at any level will be OK for most fish. But again, be mindful of your PH and KH when choosing your fish. Hope this helps.
Good Luck, caj1968

 

Yes, but you can buy non-iodized table salt as well. If you go to a health food store you can find table salt that is made from sea salt. You can also buy salt that is not table salt that is or isn't iodized. There are all different kinds of salt that you can get some iodized some not iodized, some for the table and some for other purposes, but that would be for another forum.