playing with the idea of RO water

[Fuzz]

Like the title says... just a few questions that id like to ask the pros. Ive read that a lot of the "harder to grow" plants do better in softer water. That being said, i dont know a whole ton about how to use it. Ive read something about doing half tap and half RO water, but ive also read that RO water has a ph of 5-6. Obviously the co2 injection would drop it more, but thats another story.

Could i get away with using 100% RO water without having to use something to bring the hardness/ph up? Will my fish/plants be ok? It seems like a pain without an RO unit at home. I know of a few places nearby that sell or give away the stuff, but id have to find some easily carried and sealed containers for it.

I havent looked into this too far yet but Ive been playing with the idea for a while. Anyone with useful links or information?

[snyderguy]

What fish are you having that makes you want to use RO? Or are you just thinking plants? In my experience, never use 100% RO. 50/50 is a pretty good range to play with.

[emc7]

Look at the seachem site. They make Equilibrium and Replenish to add to 100% RO water and it kind of gives you an idea of the minimum stuff you need to add back so the water won't be deadly. A control freak who want to know exactly whats in the water will use RO (pay to remove stuff from water) and a supplement (pay to put stuff back in water). Blending RO with tap is cheaper, but takes some effort. Blending and testing.

The first thing to figure out is where you want your water parameters. I would never bother adjusting water for green stuff, but its your tank. Just try not to kill your fish. I would suggest pH & TDS pen meters for "quick and dirty" spot checks.

[Fuzz]

Just for my plants, mainly. My water is extremely hard(in the 12's the last time I checked) and want to soften it up for better plant growth. I'm thinking my fish will be happier, too...idk. just kind of playing with the idea. sounds like 50/50 would be the way to go. it would be pretty easy to do that way. I could always try 50/50 in a bucket and test the water parameters. Obviously I wouldn't just change my whole tank to 50/50 all at once and shock the hell out of my fish/plants...

Anyways, just wanted some input on the idea. I do eventually want to have a planted Discuss tank, but that's farther down the road

[Fuzz]

I read into this a little further recently and found a few articles from people that either had no luck with any plants or moved from a soft water to a super hard water. Super hard water is apparently bad news for most plants and some fish. This might explain why my Dwarf Rainbowfish had trouble acclimating, why my Cabomba Green looks exactly like my Cabomba Purple, why I've had trouble growing those "high light" plants, etc. I mean, those plants DO grow, but they just don't grow the way they should and don't look very good.

I have good success with Amazon Sword, Banana Plant, Anubias...Dwarf Sag seems to be doing pretty good, too. I recently added Jungle Val to my peacock tank, but it's still too early to say if it is doing well or not. A lot of the plants that I've been having trouble with aren't hard to grow plants that require high lights/co2(some plants were, but they're pretty much gone now). I have both high lighting and Co2, so there shouldn't be any issues...but there is. The only other variable that it could possibly be is my water.

I've been dosing EI method for quite a while now, I've got plenty of circulation, an in-line Co2 reactor, a dual T5HO fixture that's pumping out super high PAR....but still having issues. I'm going to get to the LFS this weekend and fill up a few 5 gallon jugs of R/O and try it out for a few weeks and see if anything changes...it's free, so why not give it a shot before buying a R/O unit? I'll post some results on here in a few weeks or so

[Fuzz]

: UPDATE :

After a few water changes with 100% Reverse Osmosis water, I noticed a huge difference! My water is in the medium hardness range as of now and is going to be slowly dropping farther to the soft side because I'm going to continue with the R/O water.

I haven't changed my lights. My Co2 actually got turned down a tad because the softer water makes my drop checker turn yellowish a lot easier. I've also kept the same fertilizer dosing. With the same exact setup and same plants, I haven't had pearling on Crypts before. I had pearling before when I was pumping a HUGE amount of light into the tank, but it made my Crypts lay flat on the substrate(because the lights were too bright?).

Anyways, with a few quick clicks I found that most of the fish in this tank do better in soft water anyways. I'm totally glad that I made this switch. Maybe now I can grow that damned R. Wallichii! I had to make a plant order for a different tank recently, so I threw it onto my order. What's a couple bucks, right?

I might be over-exaggerating here, but it has definitely made a difference with my tank. It was the only other variable in my tank aside from messing with other water parameters(pH, temp, etc.)

I'm super excited to see what the next few weeks bring!

[lohachata]

this is information that i got from one of the largest RO filter manufacturers in the country......

100% RO water will not support aquatic life............it must be mixed with regular water ; be it tap or well due to the animals needs for many of the trace elements filtered out...