Habitat - Indoor :: New tank and filter having trouble getting water right

[asphixiate]

New guy with a strange situation... sorry.

We have a female 8 inch res, after 5 years shes moving from a 40gal long with over the side filters to a glasscages 100gal long with a fluval 405 canister. She is still in the 40gal because we can't get the water right in the new tank.

Fluval 405 canister with the following in it:

Standard white filter inserts
bottom cartridge: pre filter and ammonia/carbon mix sock
lower cartridge: empty
upper cartridge: 2 sleeves of carbon
top cartridge: water polisher pad and bio max

We put in cold well water, after 36 hours the water is:
78 degrees
nitrates low
nitrites low
very soft
high alkaline
8.4 ph
low total ammonia

Whats throwing me for a loop is the soft water and high alkaline... just doesn't make any sense... once we get that straight I can work on the ph... Any suggestions? Appreciate anything yall can come up with.

[VeipaCray]

What are you measuring your water with? If you are using a dip strip type test... those are highly inaccurate. Drop based test kits are much more accurate. I can test my reef tank for KH with a dip strip and a Salifert kit and get two completely different results.

Do you have a lime based water softener in your house? That would produce relatively soft water and higher alkaline.

Also a PH of 8.4 for tap water is a little high. There's probably something in your water causing this.

You could try diluting your water with some RO water or distilled water.

[asphixiate]

I'm measuring with 5-in-1 strips and a separate ammonia strip. I'll pick up some drop kits on the way home today, I wasn't aware of the inaccuracies.

I do not have a water softener or conditioner, but I am using well water, east coast North America.

Thanks for your time and suggestions

[asphixiate]

I just checked http://water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alkalinity.html and it seems that water in my area is naturally soft and high alkaline. I guess I'm in the market for a RO system. Thanks.

[VeipaCray]

Going the RO route isn't all that bad other than the initial expense. I've read that you don't want to use 100% RO water with any reptile.... http://www.reptilechannel.com/snakes/sn ... ptile.aspx

I've been using 100% RO/DI water and then adding either Seachem's equilibrium or Kent Marine's RO right to put the trace elements back in. I started doing this about a year ago for my little guy and he seems to be doing quite well.

If you are looking for an inexpensive RO unit, I got mine from www.purewaterclub.com. I'm in no way affiliated with them... just passing along a good deal to a fellow turtle lover.

As far as the dip strip test kits... yeah those are darn near useless. If you look over on the reef aquarium forums or go to a good trusted local fish store.... ie NOT a petsmart / petco they will tell you or show you the same. While turtles aren't nearly as sensitive to water conditions as tropical fish and coral, if you're going to spend the time testing your turtle water (kudos for good turtle husbandry) you might as well test it with something accurate. Salifert, API, and Hagen make decent test kits. Salifert is $$$ but the most consistant. API is good too...easy to find and less expensive. Hagen is also very accurate, but I find their color charts difficult to read at times. "hey hon... is this green-blue, blue-green, or turquoise?"