Water hardness doesn’t require to be considered when breeding the easier fish, but is fairly essential when attempting to breed fish like the neon tetras, which prefer soft water. Water is said to be tough when soap refuses to lather readily in it and soft when it does. The actual trigger of hardness is the impurities the water contains; these could be divided into 3 main groups, dissolved, suspended, and colloidal. Colloidal suspension is a state between true suspension and answer. Suspended matter and matter in colloidal suspension can generally be removed by filtration.
It is the presence of dissolved compounds of calcium and magnesium that’s the main trigger of water hardness. Some of these minerals are absorbed by the plant life, but precisely how a lot this would decrease the hardness of water in an aquarium is problematical.
The total hardness of water includes both temporary and permanent hardness. The temporary hardness is because of the presence of calcium and magnesium bicarbonates, which could be removed by boiling the water. The permanent hardness can’t be removed so effortlessly; it doesn’t disappear with boiling. The trigger is because of the presence of dissolved sulphates and chlorides of calcium and magnesium. As these are in answer, they can’t be removed by filtration, or by boiling.
Particular chemical treatment is frequently needed which is beyond the average aquarist, but it is feasible to decrease the permanent hardness by the addition of washing-soda (sodium carbonate). This reacts with the calcium sulphate and forms a deposit of insoluble calcium carbonate, leaving sodium sulphate dissolved in the water.
All natural waters contain some impurities, even rain water which is the purest, as a result truly soft water is undesirable and an unnatural element for our fish; the presence of some mineral salts is important for both fish and plants.
Water hardness could be expressed in numerous methods, the modern trend would be to use parts per million of calcium carbonate. The composition of the ground over which the water flows after falling to earth as rain will determine most of the impurities it’ll contain, in addition to any it might have collected on the way down. Tap water also varies considerably with the district. The easiest method to obtain water of a definite hardness would be to use distilled water (pure) and add tap water or sea salt until the desired hardness is obtained. This could be checked by using a standard soap answer.
There are much more accurate methods like totally evaporating a given volume of water and accurately weighing the residue, but this technique is obviously far too involved for the aquarist. To assess the hardness by the standard soap answer technique, drops of liquid soap arc added to a given quantity of water and by the number of drops needed to obtain a permanent lather the hardness is ascertained.
If distilled water is challenging to obtain, clean rain water, filtered, and with just a little sea salt added (about one level teaspoonful per gallon) is a great second greatest. The subject of water hardness can’t needless to say be dealt with fully in this volume, but most of the points affecting fish-keeping have been covered.