Ro Water- What To Add?

[jaycat]

Hello everyone,

Still planning my rio 180 for some Discus. Few questions

1. I was looking at ro units today. Went to Maidenhead aquatics had a chat with head guy, he said ro unit takes ph down to about 6.2, but it can fluctuate, don't quite understand how, and if it does how do I keep it stable?

2. Also I want to use same water for my tropical tank, but ph too low. Man told me I would have to add minerals to BOTH discus water and tropical water, to put minerals back in. Is this correct?

3. He also said the minerals for tropicals would bring ph back up to what they need. Is that correct?

Thanks for your help,

 

[angelmouse]

It depends on your water, my r/o unit takes my water to about ph 7.
i use tap water to bring my r/o up to what i need. r/o water has no hardness (kh/gh) without this the ph drops in your tank so you need to add tapwater or minerals(can be expensive) to bring kh up which will stabilize the ph, i use 80% r/o and 20% tap to have ph 7.2 and 3-4 kh for my discus,
you will need to test your tap and r/o water to get the right mix for you.
If your tap water already has a low ph you won't need a r/o unit, just use tap or an HMA unit which just takes the nastys out of the water
have a look at ro mans website, good units and info
regards Angel

 

[codeajohnson]

So by using R.O. water, will it lower the hardness of the water in the tank as well? As of right now my water is on the rather hard side and I am looking at focusing my tank on Rams and I was wondering how to lower the hardness of the water? My pH is at around 7 right now. Thanks for any help!

 

[angelmouse]

ph 7 is great for rams.
kh and gh refer to the hardness of water with kh 2-5 soft and kh6-10+ slightly hard to very hard. If KH is 2 or below it will lower ph and ph will be unstable, about 4-5 is good where as if kh is 9 the ph can rise.
r/o water has kh/gh of 0 and the ph will drop drasticly in tank so it needs tapwater or minnerals added to bring it up to a safe and stable level. My tapwater is liquid concrete ph 8/ KH 11 so i wouldn't be able to keep discus without r/o
regards Angel

 

[codeajohnson]

Thanks for the reply! When I had my water tested last week they told me that it took 12 drops (which I would assume is a kh of 12?)...being that it said that the Rams would need soft water, would you be able to offer advice on how to lower this? Thanks for the input!

 

[angelmouse]

if you get Bolivian rams they are much hardier and will be fine, blue or gold rams will be ok as long as water quality is kept good with low nitrates and 0 nitrite, i think your water will ok, others keep them in harder water with no problems , mine use to be fine with hard water with occasional breeding but i have found that they thrive better and breed more in softer water.

regards Angel

 

[codeajohnson]

Awesome! Thanks for helping me out!