Enea - newcomert to Ottawa - huge Tanganyika fan

Nene · May 10, 2018, 09:53:53 AM

Hi guys,
newcomer to Ottawa (newcomer to Canada indeed) here. Looking to set up a new Tanganyika cichlids tank. Have been keeping and breeding a few cichlid species over the years back home in Italy.

Also wondering about tap water parameters in Ottawa. Is ph and hardness good for Tanganyika (i.e. ph around 8 and hard water) or would I need salts? I heard the water is pretty soft here. How much is total hardness and KH in dh?

Thanks,
Enea

donJ · May 10, 2018, 10:03:01 AM

Hi Nene. Welcome to Canada, Ottawa, Sandy Hill and OVAS. I used to live in Sandy Hill and had a Malawi tank. You may be interested in a post I did a while back....

http://ovas.ca/forum/index.php?topic=405.0

Nene · May 10, 2018, 01:35:11 PM

Thanks Don,

wow ph of 7, GH=1dh and KH=2?!?!?!? that's crazy soft water! Not the best for my tanganyikan setup LOL
I see the discussion is from 2004 though. Has the situation improved since then? In the second post I read the goal for the municipality was to have ph at around 9 (which would be much better for the biotope I fancy)
Also, where do you get your aquarium stuff? I know about big Al's in the east end but haven't been there yet.
Was considering to take the trip to Missisagua and finatics to stock up on the fish I'm looking for (Xenotilapia, small Lamprologines etc.)

Enea

Nene · May 10, 2018, 01:49:33 PM

Just for the fun of sharing, a couple shots of my former fish and setups

Nene · May 10, 2018, 01:52:32 PM

More pisc of Xenotilapia papilio tembwe II and Cyprichromis jumbo Kigoma

Eackone · May 10, 2018, 03:25:52 PM

Welcome to Ottawa!

Although I'm not very well versed in Cichlids, Tanganyikans have always seemed the most interesting to me.
I'll be sure to follow your progress as you set up your tanks, keep us updated!

nerdRVT · May 10, 2018, 05:03:34 PM

Welcome!

I monitor the city water at my facility and I can confirm that the water in Ottawa is shockingly soft. Previous parameters in the thread are accurate! It's also fairly consistent year-round- KH is always very low, and conductivity ranges from 140-170μS on average.

donJ · May 11, 2018, 11:02:12 AM

Hi Nene,

Great pictures. What camera did you use to take those?

As for where to buy aquarium stuff, I am just getting back into this and may not be the best person to ask. Perhaps others can jump in. Typically I would price compare between Big Al's, Petsmart and Critter Jungle. And there's always Amazon. You can get good stuff used at great prices on this site or Kijiji.

Nene · May 11, 2018, 11:59:25 AM

I shot them all with sony a58 (entry level reflex) with 50mm old macro lens from Minolta

BeginAgain · July 23, 2018, 06:34:56 PM

Hi there,

Welcome to Ottawa!

The water hardness seems to really vary depending where in the city you live. Luckily the city is very good at posting this information on the web site. Here is a useful link (the reference to hardness is about 1/5 of the way down the page, you will see it ranges from "very soft" to "hard" depending on the water source):
https://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-and-environment/drinking-water/drinking-water-frequently-asked-questions

The Ottawa central supply is the "very soft" source but all of the outlying well sources are in varying degrees of are either moderate hard or hard.

Sorry to reply to a month-old thread but I figured it was still recent enough that some eyes might see this.

Jennifer

Nene · July 24, 2018, 09:24:50 AM

Quote from: BeginAgain on July 23, 2018, 06:34:56 PM
Hi there,

Welcome to Ottawa!

The water hardness seems to really vary depending where in the city you live. Luckily the city is very good at posting this information on the web site. Here is a useful link (the reference to hardness is about 1/5 of the way down the page, you will see it ranges from "very soft" to "hard" depending on the water source):
https://ottawa.ca/en/residents/water-and-environment/drinking-water/drinking-water-frequently-asked-questions

The Ottawa central supply is the "very soft" source but all of the outlying well sources are in varying degrees of are either moderate hard or hard.

Sorry to reply to a month-old thread but I figured it was still recent enough that some eyes might see this.

Jennifer

Thanks Jennifer! I think I stumbled before on the page you linked. Interesting info indeed. How do I know for sure which of the sources my water is coming from? as previosly said I'm in Sandy hill (Stewart and Friel)

BeginAgain · July 26, 2018, 01:44:16 AM

You're welcome!

Sandy Hill is almost certainly on the central supply (the others are outskirts) but if you want to be totally sure, give your City Councillor's office a call and they will be able to look into it (it's likely something they will have to call you back about) and they'll confirm your water source. I suppose it is possible to supply from different sources in times of main line repair or water quality issues.

If you learn anything interesting or surprising about your city water service I would be interested to know.

Good luck with your fact checking!