# Water for Paludarium



## HawpScotch (Oct 4, 2018)

I know paludariums get mixed reactions here. Especially when they are community tanks and I am no expert. But this is not my first tank. I’ve had successes, and some failures with a number of setups in the past. 

I’m trying to improve on what I’ve done before. One thing I’m struggling with is water parameters/quality for the water feature.

I used tap water in water features before and everything was happy. That is besides the glass that eventually gets stained with near impossible to remove mineral deposits.

I want to use RO or distilled water but it removes minerals aquatic animals need. Is there a balance to be had that won’t stain the glass but also provides nutrients that aquatic life needs? 

At this point I only plan to add some cherry shrimp and a few clown killifish to eat fruit flies that fall into the water.

I know you can use things like RO Right. But won’t that get you right back to glass stains?

I do plan to use RO water in the mister. But I find ponds in tanks(at least mine) don’t always keep the exact same perfectly level water line and you end up with unsightly mineral build up there. Any ideas on the best approach here? Aside from “don’t make a water feature” 😉


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## HawpScotch (Oct 4, 2018)

Given this some more thought and reading I’ll reply to my own post...

Perhaps instead of providing minerals directly via the water source I do it other ways. IE feed shrimp spinach and the killifish will already be getting dusted fruit flies. The pond and sump will also be planted. Will this be enough to offset the minerally deficient water?


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## tropfrog (Sep 6, 2018)

Not that I have tried it, but I do have an idea.

The mineral deposits you experience is actually lime. It formes when both kalcium and carbonates are present. For the fish, you really just need the carbonates to stabilice the ph. So RO water with added carbonates would do fine for most soft water fishes and will not create that lime build up. I am not sure about shrimps thou, they need some calcium. But maybe a lime stone would be enough? If ph is slightly above 7 it will not leak calcium to the water.

BR
Magnus


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## Socratic Monologue (Apr 7, 2018)

HawpScotch said:


> I used tap water in water features before and everything was happy. That is besides the glass that eventually gets stained with near impossible to remove mineral deposits.


What was the GH and KH of that water? 

I don't have a paludarium, but looking at the water line of my ten year old planted tank (measured KH 5, estimated GH 5) there is no spotting.

RO Right grows plants poorly, since it is mostly chlorides. If you do reconstitute RO water, Seachem Equilibrium works much better, since it is mostly Ca and K sulfate.

Minerals in the water are important for osmotic balance, and uptake by plants (especially Ca and K), and, as tropfrog pointed out, pH balance. Water with zero KH has very unstable pH.


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