Water Issue Solution

[PaulineMi]

I get lime/calcium and rust/iron build up in my water aging barrel.  I don't involve my husband in my fish keeping hobby and he is totally disinterested which is fine. 

This morning I told him about a few things I've recently found out about water, why I don't use water softener water and how I planned on addressing the build up issues in the barrel.  He said "you don't have to deal with it like that" then he picked up the phone and called the plumber!!! 

Today is a good day.   

[Mugwump]

See?, we care.... ...sounds like a good man...

[shatanka]

Well aren't you the lucky one!  Maybe you will get all your water issues taken care of without having to even do anything. Wish I had a good man around to help me with stuff like that...lol Boy , do I need help. (no comments from the peanut gallery, as my Dad would say! LOL) Good luck with it all.

[Frank The Plumber]

Humans tolerate quite a bit of salts, metallics and other compounds in their water. Fish have a different group altogether. For human water quality we can use zeolites and binders, various salts etc. This gives us a generally OK sort of water. Placing the zeolites and salts into the water can give us a water that becomes quite poor for the fish though. It can become hard to remove those zeolites and salts.

The thing to consider is how much water do you need that is specifically a certain specification? The cost, the efficiency of the cost and the amount of waste and serviceability. You don't want to get "sold" a unit that does not do what you want. You do not want to get sold a unit which requires added treatment to get you to where you need to be as far as final product quality.

The nice thing about this is that the product water and the aquatic water really do make a fine standard for base water for human consumption. A good water specialist will have a lot of options and be well versed in what equipment needs to be used. A basic plumber will be lacking in this knowledge. It is a specialty field.

[LizStreithorst]

How were you planning on resolving the issue before reinforcements were called in?  I know that Josie on Simply moved to a place with a lot of iron in the water.  If the plumber doesn't work out you may want to shoot her a PM and ask how she fixed it.   Her user name is Chicago Discus.  She's a sponsor there.

[PaulineMi]

See?, we care.... ...sounds like a good man...

Absolutely.   

Liz I think I read 2-3 yrs worth of posts about water on SD.  I do believe I got a lot of info from Josie's posts. I'll go back and review it again. Thanks for the reminder.  I did receive some advice from an angelfish person regarding a filter I could cobble in between the well water faucet and my aging barrel.  That's when hubby stepped in. Lol.

Frank if you were in my neighborhood I'd hire you.   

I have my fish to simply enjoy "as is".  Breeding isn't involved as finding homes for fish was difficult when I bred my angels.  (Live too far out in the boonies and have an awesome LFS 30 miles away) My plants grow well, angels spawn regularly and all my various species of fish do fine. So what I want to get control of is the iron and calcium.

[LizStreithorst]

Frank if you were in my neighborhood I'd hire you.   

Hire him?  Heck, if he were in my neighborhood I'd marry him

[PaulineMi]

Ahhhhaaaha!!!!

[Mugwump]

Frank if you were in my neighborhood I'd hire you.   

Hire him?  Heck, if he were in my neighborhood I'd marry him

I'm not sure he can cook....LOLOLOLOLOL...

[PaulineMi]

The plumber just left.  I now have my hard water running through a "Big Blue" type Culligan filter.  My iron issues should be at least lessened quite a bit now. 

Baby steps.....     Just wait til hubby goes to Florida for a month in a few weeks.......

[Mugwump]

Sounds good, you can also add a couple more 'big blue' type cannisters to further filter it out, if needed...

[Frank The Plumber]

Hmmmm. So what is within the big blue cartridges? A sediment stack? I wonder?

[LizStreithorst]

You're the plumber here, Frank.  I figured that you would know what the big blue things do.  I don't know for sure, but I think that it's difficult to remove iron from the water without having to go to a lot of trouble.

[Mugwump]

I believe the term 'Big Blue' refers to the container/canister....you can use various filters to remove the iron from well water,etc.....when we lived on the farm, we used a whole house large sediment filter that was made specificly for iron and minerals....not perfect, but worked very well...had to change the dang thing almost monthly tho....water was phooey...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20-Big-Blue-Water-Filter-Housing-Canister-1-NPT-w-PR-/270545332372

[LizStreithorst]

Now I understand.  Thanks Mug.