Airstones? are they manditory? Water Softness in vancouver!!

[logan22]

i have a 90 gallon TS should i put an air stone in it ? is it important to have one?..also did any of you hear about the water being really soft in vancouver..fish are reportedly dying? my to fancy goldfish i had just died suddenly after my water change and switched them in to a bigger tank. my clown pleco died shortly after aswell POOR little guy i had him a long time.....could it be the softness of the water..? any suggestions

[Diztrbd1]

this might help answer the water supply issue
Water supply issue in the lower mainland

[kelly528]

I have goldfish and use crushed coral in my filter box which consistently keeps my pH at about 7.8, GH and KH at about 3. If you don't want crushed coral, Tim Burton or Aquaflora Nurseries sells GH booster for a reasonable $5 per pound and KH booster usually just consists of good old baking soda.

Airstones should be unnecessary in a goldie tank if you are filtering the tank sufficiently. For goldfish, this means double filtration so you will want 100 gallons per hour of filtration per 10g of water. In your 90 this means the total output of all your filters added together must equal 900 GPH.

[Rastapus]

Actually the majority of fancy goldfish are bred in hardness of 10dKH with GH around the same. 3 dKH is still very low. Again this is why we dont recommend crushed coral but proper buffering instead.