Water hardness - Port Elizabeth

Hi,

Is PE's water generally considered as Hard or Soft?

 

Hi Pauline. Not sure if this will help but in my area the tds is in the 200 - 250 range and the pH6,5 after being airated for 24hrs. Ive not tested the gh and kh individually though.

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Don't mean to hijack, but while on the topic of PE - does our water have Chlorine or Chloramine?

 

Hi Pauline,

From my experiences with sending folks my fertilizers and discussing matters with Lauré le Roux who used to stay in PE and now stays in EL, we found that the water varied quite a lot depending on where you stayed in PE, because different areas are supplied from different sources and then we also found that water varied a lot because the PE water authorities would change the supply to different areas depending on whether there was a drought in one area and another area still had enough water.

In general the water is not soft, it does contain a fair amount of general hardness, about 4 dGH, and very low levels of carbonate hardness, about 1-2 dKH. So this water is relatively soft, but low in KH and so you must be careful of pH drops if you keep for example guppies and other fishes that want to be kept at pH values around neutral. In low KH level water the pH can drop drastically especially if you feed strongly in a tank and then you can have problems with pH crashes.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks to everyone and the prof

I am adding snail rid to my tank; recently filled and has no special treatments/ferts added yet. So basically been filled and standing with some guppies and danios cycling it.
Basically I think there must have been snail eggs in the substrate (which was damp) - even though the tank was empty. So trying to get rid of them before I add plants.

Will snail rid harm plants at all? It mentions being careful if your water is soft. From the above comments, I'd assume our water is not soft?


Thanks.

 

@Immy - I have no idea, sorry

 

For crying out aloud!!!!!!!

Why did you add this stuff? Who told you to add this stuff? This stuff belongs to the museum of fishkeeping and belongs on the trashheap of fishkeeping.

Most of the concoctions against snails contain copper sulphate which may kill the snails but will sterilize your fishes, would upset fertilization of aquatic plants and will cause long term upsets in your filtration and will remain in your gravel for an extended period of time. Copper is a divalent cation, by that I mean it contains two positive charges and will compete with many other beneficial divalent cations which are essential nutrients for plants and animals such as Calcium, Magnesium, iron and manganese.

Then I do not understand this phobia about snails. I PURPOSELY ADD RAMSHORN snails to all my aquaria. And I specifically add them to tubs in which I feed baby fry because they eat uneaten brine shrimps and they eat any uneaten food, but they DO NOT EAT PLANTS. As far as I am concerned the beneficial effects of snails far outweigh the negative aspects, so I would never try to eliminate them and NEVER with snail away or whatever this stuff is called.

Quite frankly, this is the one case in which I would recommend dismantling the tank completely and cleaning out the gravel and starting again. You may find that those fishes will also not be able to reproduce normally again.

Sorry about this outburst, but I really do not understand why this stuff is sold any longer, the suppliers should be shot.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

what did i do wrong?

 

It was recommended by the fish store this morning; and I bought 2 bottles. I have not yet dosed my other tanks. (And will NOT be dosing them, after reading that - thanks Dirk!)

 

be right back - busy emptying 550 litres of water out the tank.

 

Sorry Pauline for mucking up your Sunday.

Can you please tell me which product this is and what it says it contains on the bottle?

 

Not a problem Dirk. Thanks for the excellent advice before I ruined 3 tanks.

First lunch and wine then I'll be back

 

It is Snail Rid

1g/litre copper sulphate

 

Thank goodness I stopped you from adding that to the other tanks! There are ways of eliminating snails by using specific antihelminthics, but not in this way, this just intoxicates everything. If you really want to eliminate the snails I can inform you which substances to use, but not with copper sulphate!

 

Thanks Dirk - hugely appreciate the fact that I did not ruin all 3 tanks!!

Yes, please do advise how I can eliminate them, thanks?

Busy with water draining; and then to rinse gravel.

 

@Dirk, I am very keen to know other ways of eliminating snails, please?


Tank has been emptied and rinsed thoroughly as well as double rinsing the gravel. *tired now* LOL

 

Ok sorry to have tired you.

If you really would insist of getting rid of snails then you can use a medication against worm parasites such as mebendazole or flubendazole (speak to Phishman Andrew about this). You could do a two in one of eliminating the parasitic worms on your fishes and your snails at the same time.

Which snails do you think you have here actually?

Kind regards,

Dirk