I use RO water with equilibrium in my tank. I suffered through this whole PH issue on my own. I personally believe that measuring PH in low alkalinity water/zero alkalinity water to be futile. Without buffering, the PH of the water can swing wildly from low to high with the blowing of the wind. I could swirl my PH probe around in pure RO water and the values will keep changing. It could take several minutes of swirling it around until it settled on values near 7 (Hanna PH checker). At first I was using aquasoil with my low alkalinity tap water and was seeing a ph in the low 5's. It was frustrating.
Now I use the same amount of Equilibrium and Alkalinity in my water change bucket with each water change. I just try to be consistent and change about 50% a week. I mix everything up, use an airstone and a heater in each bucket before adding it to the aquarium. My Apex probes still show changes in PH from day to night, as I am not adding very much alkalinity. I am keeping live plants. The fish aren't talking, but they don't seem to mind as long as they are fed
. I haven't lost any fish even though I know that doesn't totally paint a picture of perfect conditions.
It really stinks when you have bad tap water. The PH at my house can be as high as 9 with almost no alkalinity. How that happens, I am not sure.
Additionally, I found my pretreated tap water seemed to have pipe corrosion inhibiters in it, (at least that was what was suggested by my local water authority). It formed a milky white skim on the water. So even if the water supplier can guarantee that their samples are good, there could be issues between where it leaves the water treatment plant and gets to your place. Unlikely I would guess, but possible. Our water is pumped up to a tower, and that feeds the neighborhood.
From the Culligan website fwiw:
What is Not Removed by Reverse Osmosis?
Because there are some contaminants that are molecularly smaller than water, Reverse Osmosis isn’t always the silver bullet many people expect when it comes to providing water that’s completely free of impurities. For example, some common contaminants that can slip through the average RO filter are:
- Pesticides
- Herbicides
- Many other agricultural treatment products like fungicides
- Some dissolved gasses, like hydrogen sulfide
- Certain organic compounds
- Chlorine — RO can remove various quantities of chlorine, but there is a possibility that the average home RO filter may not have the capacity to capture all the chlorine present in water, though this will largely depend on the chemical’s concentrations in the water supply.