Don’t top off with tap water! Here’s why and how to fix it. 

Thanks :) I have no idea why this doesn’t get talked about :( I’ve seen it cause so many catastrophes over the years, I just had to try and address it :)

Excellent, good job :)

Wow thank you! very much appreciated :)

Thanks Martin :) Welcome to the wonderful world of the balanced aquarium :) Enjoy your journey.

lol I threw mine away once I realized it wasn't helpful in testing my refrigerator water filters effectiveness, Now I need it.

@@aquaticsbynatureNow I got my first reading and it is already 62 ppm off compared to the tap water - I just topped it 4 times with tap water til now but since I'm now aware I can steer it into the right direction. I'm really surprised on how high this effect is in this short period of time.

Yes, it really can start to build up quite quickly with some water supplies. While 62ppm isn’t very much it certainly shows the benefit of keeping an eye on things going forward. Good luck :)

My well water stays around 30-60 ppm which is unusualy good but I've been fortunate with that and have tested over time

Thanks once again Ken :) Would love to keep Caridina shrimps sometime 🤔

Glad it was helpful! :)

Thanks for your comments. I’m very happy you found my little video useful :)

Thank you. :) It was by far the most difficult video to make I’ve ever done. 🤔

Thank you so much, I was a bit concerned about doing it. But it’s such an important topic I wanted to try and cover it in my own way. :)

Wow, thank you so much, appreciated :)

Thanks William, I actually still belong to a fish club, only 12 of us, but it’s still nice to have a good old chin wag about the good old days lol.

You are a lucky chap to have a club even if it is small in membership. Clubs of all sorts are very much in decline, all very sad. @@aquaticsbynature

Very sadly true ;(

Thank you so much :)

Glad it was helpful! :)

Thank you for your comments. Glad you found my little video useful :)

Thank you :)

You're very welcome :)

Glad it was helpful!

Your very welcome. I hope you have better luck next time :)

The heater in my tank makes a great hardness remover.It builds huge sheets of scale monthly(our water is VERY hard lol)

Thank you so much fro your comments. It’s so easy to overlook this, so I’m glad you’ve remembered your TDS meter :) Dilute it nice and slow :) Good luck :)

Thank you for your comments :) Sounds like a cool tank :)

Thank you :)

Thanks, happy to hear that :)

Awesome, thank you!

@@aquaticsbynature got a tds meter and my tap water reads at 500 ppm now what .....????lol

500 is fine for most things, mine is around 450. But like me you may need to top off using RO or rain water, to prevent it rising too much over time.

@@aquaticsbynature thank you very much for the reply!

Thanks for your comments :) It sounds like your water is quite soft and or the plants are removing most. But yes, keep an eye on things :)

Hi Pieter, Yes sometimes a little hard tapwater can actually be beneficial to add minerals back. But just don’t let them creep up :)

Thank you :) Yes removing nitrates is much more difficult than preventing them building in the first place.

Thank you : )

Thank you so much :) thanks for style sub :)

Thank you so much :)

Thanks for your comments. I really happy my little video was of help :)

Thank you :)

Thanks for your question. I always find that once a natural style aquarium really matures that the water clarity is never an issue. It remains crystal clear. Subsequently I never use carbon etc.

Thank you :) I have a three part series on the plants in the main tank here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YgetAVv9JYk.html if your interested. The smaller tank I will cover in the future :)

Thanks for your comments. It’s truly amazing how much evaporation you can get in some tanks. I believe there’s a good chance that being in Florida you probably have quite a bit of sodium in the water. So definitely keep an eye on things. Good luck :)

Thanks for your comments. It’s certainly possible that if you have a very soft water supply the TDS can still fall due to the system and plants depleting things. I’ve had pure rain water tanks do just this, but the addition of a little dolomite gravel soon stabilised things for me. :)

Thanks Frank, I’m glad you found it useful. If yiu can I’d recommend going for an RO DI unit, as this will give you the purest results. Personally I’ve never been a fan of “re-mineralising” I prefer to simply mix a small amount of my hard tap water instead. I work on the theory that because I’m not doing water changes any impurities are soon removed by the plants. So once they’re gone there gone forever :) You may find the fog you’re experiencing initially is just because you have no plants yet to take up what ever is fuelling it. As with virtually everything time and stability is the greatest healer of all these things. So don’t panic :) It’ll pass :)

Yes, I agree with the using tapwater to "re-mineralise" instead of another consumable to be added to the grocery list, so to speak. And I'm not worried about the white fog. It's just that I've NEVER seen this happen before, and certainly not to this extent. I cannot see a couple of inches inside the aquarium, haha.

It may just be ammonia, depending on the soil you’ve used, but all temporary as you say :)

Thank you for your comment, that’s really wonderful to hear :)

Yes this does happen under some circumstances, I’ve found it most noticeably when you’re growing true hard water plants which can take up the bicarbonates and use them as a Co2 source.

Plants use minerals. In a heavily planted aquarium you can usually use tap/ground water without issue.

Thanks for you pr extensive comments :) You should find that by at least topping up with RO that you put a lid on things. This is what basically happened with my 28 year old tank. My tap has a tds of around 400, and now my tank has levelled out around 250. Always alkaline though .

@@aquaticsbynature I apologize for the spelling errors, I was rushing to finish the comment and kept adding things and bouncing around lol

Thanks for your comments. Certainly with very soft water thing tend to happen more slowly, but it can be quite surprising how things can build up over time in small volumes of water. Testing TDS occasionally is just a very simple way of keeping an eye on lots of unknowns. :)

I tested and did notice a wide range with older tanks tending towards harder water. I have changed some water here and there so nothing was extreme but I will switch rainwater for the wet season.

I also suspect the fact that I use water from my tanks to water my plants means I do quite a bit of water changes over time in the form of topping off after pulling some out for the plants.

Thank you for your comments. :) There are many ways of addressing the top off water that you can use. I simply chose the simplest option for my video to try and keep things as simple as possible. :) The most important thing is simply to keep monitoring things, so you can spot any trends going forwards, and then act accordingly.

Thanks for your comments. Wow that is low! That’s lower than my rain water normally is :) I’m definitely with you on the value of a TDS meter. :) I ran a pure rainwater tanks for a few years with just a bit of dolomite in the filter. It worked extremely well even with no water changes but with a TDS below 20, plant growth was slow. That said soft water plants did well and I had absolutely zero algae, not even on the glass. One extremely nutrient poor system! But still viable :)

Where are you located? I live in south Louisiana and have well water is a very low TDS (about 16) (just got a TDS meter a few months back). And what is your DIY "remineraliztion mix"? Thanks.

Wow that is low :) I’m in the U.K. about 20 miles from London.

Yes absolutely, in my experience it absolutely the best way of preventing things building up over the medium to long term. :)

Wonderful, so glad you found it useful :) Thanks.

Yes absolutely , there are almost infinite variables.

yeh I just had a similar experience. Rain water to replace evaporation crashed one of my tanks (not usually a problem for me). I think one of the variables is some people have substrates and objects in their tank that ‘buffer’ the water. My dirt usually buffers my water, but there was no buffer in this tank. Plants are another variable. I corrected the problem and the tank is recovering. In a tank completely inert with no plants then I agree you will get a hardness build up, but plants throw a massive spanner in the works imo. I have been doing rain water top offs for 3 years without major problems so I dont 100% disagree with this video. Am just skeptical is all.

Yes, tanks with heavy bioloads are very different. And therefore need addressing in very different ways. :)

Thank you, I’m glad you found my video useful :)

Your very welcome. :)

Thanks, appreciated :)

Also, is this the reason why I never have any luck with Amazon Frogbit? It just withers away and dies off. I was told that it doesn’t like water movement, but you have a pump pushing water around, no different to my tank, so I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s down to this… You’ve earned yourself a subscriber today… thank you so much!

Thank you for your comments. The difficult bit is always finding the middle ground where water changes are concerned. With a heavy bioload it’s inevitable that something will eventually start building up. So I think a simple TDS meter is a great bit of kit. As I said in the video, please be very careful about changing water with rain water, you may flip the levels too far the other way.

Yes Amazon frogbit definitely prefers soft water. I had it growing like crazy in pure rain water lol But water lettuce seems to be ok in my hard water hence that’s what I mostly grow and you can see in my tanks Many thanks for the sub :)

My tank has been up and running for the last 3 years, but only ever had water changed from the tap. Since my dad mentioned about rain water, I’ve started topping off with it, but I’ll definitely get a TDS meter to check tank and tap water beforehand, even if it’s just to know how far I need to go. I’d likely do small changes over a longer period. I’ve given up adding new fish into the tank, and got frustrated that new plants I add in don’t seem to do well. At the beginning the tank grew so well, and the fish and shrimp were breeding loads. I’ve never been able to get it back to that state. I’m beginning to wonder if this is why. It just slowly got worse and worse, even though all the tests showed no issues. I’ll get a TDS meter to check!

Sounds like a plan :) Please report back, I’d be interested to hear what levels and potential differences you find between the tap water and your tank. Good luck :)

Hi , thanks for your comments. :) Sounds like you have things well covered :) Guppies and I’ve found Neocaridina shrimps are incredibly tolerant of levels around 1000, but I certainly wouldn’t want to keep something like an Apistogramma at anything like those levels. Although my tap water is around 400, my 28 year old tank runs around 250. Simply because I’ve been topping up mostly with rain water for years now. It seems to have levelled out around this level, presumably because of all the snail shells and accumulation of minerals over the years.

Snail shells great buffer

Thanks for give comments and questions. What you’re doing will indeed remove some of these minerals that can build up. I do much the same with the small tank in my video and whilst it may slow down the build up it doesn’t stop it unfortunately. I’d definitely consider checking your tds against your tap water supply.

Yes snails are incredibly useful in tanks, and I aways keep numerous species in all of my tanks. I’m very much a fan of letting nature do the work, especially in my 28 year old tank. But I’ve always found it necessary to limit the input of minerals.

Only around once a month, it’s not something that changes overnight :)

Yes good point, there are a few things like this to be aware of :)

Thanks, point taken about the noises, I’ve tried to reduce it, but it’s just something I do unconsciously.

Thanks for your comments :) Yes distilled water should be fine. You should find it has a tds of almost zero anyway :)

Thanks for your questions. Personally I always prefer to use internal powerfilters, they’re really simple, no plumbing, silent, and create a really nice gentle laminar flow for your plants and gas exchange. If you haven’t seen it I have a video in the equipment playlist on my filters. :)

​​@csbynaturebut do I need gas exchange or will these filters do enough of that? I will check that out, thanks for the reply (Edit: you mentioned gas exchange and I didn't see it, I hate browsing on smartphones lol)

@@otallono All you need to do is set it up so that the outlet flow creates a gentle ripple on the surface. This should provide all the gas exchange you need for a sensibly stocked planted tank. You can see this in the surface of many of my videos of the 28 year old tank.

Every tank and water supply is different, but generally speaking the really important thing is to keep it stable. Changing the pH tends to lead to way more problems than just working with what you have. Assuming your water supply isn’t crazy extreme, just try and keep the pH around that level.

Thanks for your question. Yes if they add chlorine or chloramine to your water that’s fine :)

@@aquaticsbynature i use borewell water i have a bare bottom tank for my oscar fish and there is a lots of mineral buildup on my glass and even or heater and powerhead filter.

Thanks for your questions. My water in the 28 year old tank is pH 7.4 in the morning, higher later in the day GH13 KH 7 TDS 250 Love pencil fish btw, just goes to show how some species are adaptable. Out of interest what species do you here? I’m guessing Beckfordi as they’re the hardiest in my experience:)

@aquaticsbynature Sounds like we have very similar source water. They are beckfords. I have a colony now of about 15 of them and growing. It's my first time keeping pencilfish, let's just say I am a big fan.

Wonderful :)

Hi, thanks for the question. I’m my experience Undergravel filters can work well in planted tanks providing they have at least 3 inches of fine gravel and are run with just a gentle flow. High flow rates can cause them to compact. But they generally take 6-12 to become fertile, so you need to be very patient :)

@@aquaticsbynatureyeah i’m running it in a slow flow for 3yrs now.

I’ve always liked the Magfloat ones :)

Thanks very much. Still enjoying all of your videos

Thanks for your question. :) It’s a very bold Cryptocoryne affinis :) This generation grows tall and is quite rare today. I suspect what you have is something like Becketti petchii

@@aquaticsbynature Yea, it could be this, or Willisii. It stays very compact.

willissii tends to stay green except maybe under very strong lighting, but petchii is pretty much always dark :)

@@aquaticsbynature Is it the Wendtii Affinis variant or the true Affinis? I have the former. Still a great plant. Anyway I thought about buying a TDS meter but I'm in two minds. As soon as you put any form of chemical/fertiliser or fish food in then your TDS will rise. Adding botanicals or anything else will see a rise. You say do a 20% water change but surely the bigger you do, you are diluting the build up of organics/nutrients. This can also stabilise your TDS ? Interesting video though. Food for thought.

Hi again :) This is one of several true affinis I have in my collection, not the wendtii you see sold in tissue culture these days. My aquaria are all natural style tanks so I don’t add ferts, but generally as long as you don’t test the TDS immediately after adding them you won’t see a huge difference.

Sounds like fun. :) Wish I could do that with my tank's Personally I’d still monitor levels long term though even with all of those terrestrial plants working for you. Some minerals like sodium may not be taken up sufficiently. Obviously this depend enormously on the composition of your water supply. :) Basically endless variables :) Have a great day.

This is fantastic advice from James, clearly explained with his little walnut demonstration. Perhaps, but only to a limited degree, you might have a point, with tap water that is soft things are not too problematic, but some tap water is very hard, mine is so hard that even boiling an egg results in deposits. Tap water may also have quite high nitrate levels, especially in the summer if extracted from rivers affected by agricultural run off. Plants don't consume vast quantities of calcium, but leaf curl in Hygrophila polysperma may indicate inadequate calcium, so balance is required. With 'rich' or 'polluted' or 'contaminated' water, collected via a downspout into a water butt, from a typical urban roof, it is actually very easy to dump far more ammonia, nitrate and phosphate into a tank, than plants can utilise, algae will love it, eutrophication, pigeon poop is to blame, collecgted in the gutters, it will potentially turn collected rainwater into concentrated rich plant food, like poultry pollution in the river Wye, even for tomato plants such water would need to be diluted with 'clean' water. Supermarkets sell deionised water very cheaply, ideal for top ups, for modest tanks, though dangerous to use otherwise, for example setting up a tank. With open tanks with significant loss through evaporation top-ups must be approached with great care, nobody wants their tank to turn into, as James said, the 'Dead Sea', unless your municipal supply is off for example granite mountains top ups need to be with 'pure' water.

Hi, generally speaking most of the nutrients that build up in aquaria come from the fish food your adding, and yes fertiliser if you’re using that. How much is consumed is different in every tank, and subsequent levels will depend on how much plant material you’re removing each week or water changing out. A simple comparison of your water supply to your tanks TDS is a really simple and easy way of determining if anything is building up.

@@aquaticsbynatureI've been topping up with tap water for about 6 months now. The water is very hard. I did think removing plants helped remove the minerals as well though? What do you think about topping up with water that has gone through a water softener? the water softener parameters are 200ppm KH and 0 GH. pH 7.0. The normal tap water is 8.2pH both GH and KH were high but can't remember the exact amount.

@@googleit7444 be very careful with water softeners as many of them use salt which will be an even bigger potential issue. I’d definitely get a TDS meter to see what’s going on and you can also test the water softeners water

@@aquaticsbynature I might try what you do and use rain water to top up in this case. What sort of container do you use to store it? I'll get a TDS meter too.

Thanks for the comments. There are almost endless variables with this, but the important thing as I see it is just to keep things as stable as you can.

I know lol, that’s really weird.

Hi, 400 isn’t terrible, but I’d definitely be carful moving fish across those different levels. It’s the shock that tends to be the issue more than the level really in my experience. :)

Sorry I did increase it to 110% this time, but maybe it needs a bit more 🤔

It’s annoying, the more I relax when making these videos the softer my voice goes, plus it doesn’t help that I recorded this in a room with no carpet lol. Will have to play around with it again.

Then put a timestamp in, and don't be selfish.

​@@fartrellclugginslmao, wut? How do you put a timestamp into the future of real life?? 🤪🤪

​@savingferris8279 usually with Raman.

@otallono. 😂😂😂😂

@@savingferris8279Haha that's what I was trying to figure out. It's 2024 and we can't do this yet :S

No worries. But yes water changes will help enormously, but with very hard water still you may struggle to keep levels stable long term. There are endless variables, hence why testing occasionally is very useful. :)

Thanks for your comment. Yes regular water changes will generally negate this issue. As this channel is mostly dedicated to naturally balanced aquaria, with little or no water changes. I decided it was important to cover it :)

@@aquaticsbynature water is changed in nature.

Sorry I recorded it in a room with no carpet lol.