Water Well Question
Jimmy, It might be noticed that when I see Lenny and \Steve// responding to questions, I often refrain from replying unless I have something material to add to the existing replies, when I know the matter is adequately being taken care of. Such has been the case in your query up until now.
Your postings here of the results of your unfiltered water parameters testings prompts me to join in on this topic. With the pH being this low, I had to read back through your threads, as most water companies would have added chemicals to increase this pH in efforts to prolong the life of their infrastructure but it appears as though each home in your vicinity has their own private well including youself. Again, noting the rather low pH, I have to assume that you have either a shallower well than normally used or if you have what is considered as a deep well the shaft is going through bedrock devoid of limestone.
When such water is pumped to the surface, it is generally found to contain saturations of carbon dioxide, effectively lowering you pH. You will find that as the excess amounts of this gas dissipate, your pH will rise. Often, to increase the process of off-gasing, aeration is employed to expedite this in more efficient manner. With your alkalinity (KH) at less than 1, you can expect your pH to eventually rise to somewhere around 6.6 at the end of 48 hours — or within 24 hours if you aerate it to speed up bubbling this gas off.
Some breeders would consider your water a blessing, if they were raising South American Cichlids (Discus, Uaru, etc.) and Tetras enjoying this type of water, or West African Killiefish, although attention would need to be taken in keeping the tank water well changed (PWC’s) to prevent a pH crash. I have not found in your data, any preference as to what species you intend to breed, if in fact you intend breeding any fish at all, unless your water needs are just for maintaining fish. If breeding the afore-mentioned fish, you might consider bypassing the water hardening unit and use storage tanks to off-gas the CO2 to up the pH, since you’ll need to have the water reach room temperature anyway before using it. Otherwise, your hardening filter would serve your purpose fine to increase your KH (and GH) for most other species and/or, with the proper buffers, for those TDS and calcium-loving fish. Without a convenient method to off-gas your CO2 though, you may need to do more frequent smaller PWC’s rather than longer-time-framed larger PWC’s to help prevent a temporary pH bounce. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
