water softener

[bea]

Hi,
I just moved in to the place with softened water. That can't be good with fish right? I am thinking of using my old 20 gal tank and get some goldfish in there. What should I do to get around this? Would reverse osmosis filtration work? What is it anyway? How about drinking water? Do fish like hard water like in dechlorinated tap water? What can I do? I am itching to have some company in my new home.

Thanks!

[icp]

i have a water softener and my fish don't seem to care

[fish_doc]

Some people add some salt to aquariums for health benefits. The small amount that gets put into the water is small enough where it should not be a issue. If it put high amounts in the water we as humans would be sodium freaks with high blood pressure.

[garfieldnfish]

I have a water purification system and my fish are doing great in the soft water. My glolights, ADFs and minnows are breeding and so were either the corys or otos (eggs fungused so I never found out what they were). With this system I also don't have to add any declorinator and that makes water changes a lot easier since I can use straight tap water. I do add some salt but only to prevent diseases.

[osteoporoosi]

Goldfish are huge waste producers, they grow too big for a 20g.
100 gallons would be more like it for 3-4 goldfish.
About goldfish size:

http://www.aquariacentral.com/specie...view_records=1
http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/fact_sheet...20goldfish.jpg
http://www.kevinwakeman.com/fpics/jun702goldy.jpg

[bea]

Hi!

Thanks for your advices. I'll let you know how my fish are doing once I set up a tank. Now i really have to think about the size of tank. I thought 20 gal is big enough for a couple orandas.

bea

[MyraVan]

I thought 20 gal is big enough for a couple orandas.

Yeah, it's funny, isn't it? Before I started reading about fish, I thought that too.

But if you want company in your new home, you can put quite a few fish in a 20 gallon tank. There are some other fish that are much smaller than goldfish (I mean, goldfish start out small but given good conditions grow quite large), produce lots less waste, and are tougher (I read somewhere that the fancy goldfish are so overbred that they come down with diseases pretty easily), and also don't need a heater. I personally wouldn't recommend livebearers like guppies because they produce far too many babies, but here are some suggestions of things that would work great without a heater (though you'd still need a filter), and provide you with more company than 2 goldfish in cramped conditions:

white cloud mountain mioonows
zebra danios
rosy barbs
gold barbs
peppered cories

Or you could get a heater and then keep almost anything!

[bea]

Oh yeah, I had an experience with guppies and platies. I started out with 4 in a 10 gal, I ended with 3 tanks.

Would a betta be okay with those guys you suggested? I have one at the office which I want to take him home.

[osteoporoosi]

guppy males don't go woth bettas because of their veiled tails.

Tank suggestion:
1 male betta
10 glowlight tetras
ph 7, temp 26 celcius,soft water

[Lexus]

Originally Posted by osteoporoosi @ Thu Feb 17, 2005 1:34 pm

guppy males don't go woth bettas because of their veiled tails.

I tend to disagree, if there is enough room the betta will leave the guppies alone, I had guppies and a betta in a 10,29, and 55 and they were fine. but it all depends on the betta

[MyraVan]

Would a betta be okay with those guys you suggested?

If you're going to keep a betta, you'll need a heater, so my suggestions aren't really relevant. Well, those fish can live in tanks with heaters too, but your main criteria for selecting fish would be compatibility with your betta., not whether thay can live without heaters!

osteoporoosi's suggestion of betta + glowlights is a good one, but it would be nice to include some bottom feeders as well. If you had fewer glowlights (or other similar small tetra), and you were actually able to find them, a shoal of 6 pygmy cories would be great. Or you could have a bristlenose catfish to keep the glass nice and clean (but they'll need additional food as well).

[madmatrixz3000]

I have found that if you want to you can put a betta in a community tank. ****I think this is a bad idea because it would require THIS. and that just seems kind of cruel, bettas need space too![/b]