# Transition from TAP to RO water...



## Antipofish (13 Mar 2012)

I am giving serious thought to using RO water for my aquarium.  I just feel it would be better for the fish and the plants.  Please correct me if I am wrong though.

Water from my tap comes out at a flat 7pH with kH at around 4 and gH at 8.  Once its in my tank the kH drops by one (in so far as the Sera test kit requires one less drop to turn the same colour. This is consistent so I assume it reflects at least a difference of some sort !). Due to the florabase I have under my Samoa sand/gravel, my tank pH is pretty much on 6.4 most of the time.

I read on someones journal that they swap out about 20% of their water every day (it may even have been 30% come to think of it, half in the morning and half in the evening).  This is automated as they have a large tank and is done with RO water.

My question is, if I start doing water changes with RO water, do I need to add anything to the RO water ?

Cheers.


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## Ady34 (13 Mar 2012)

Hi Chris,
i would think your water as it is is fine, probably an ideal balance of everything really. Most folk tend to shun test kits as inaccurate but as you suggested they can show trends and changes.
Id be inclined to stick with what youve got, especially as most fish are pretty adaptable and the plants really dont care.
With reference to remineralising RO, it would kind of defeat the purpose in your case as im sure youd be adding the RO to reduce gh, kh and maybe even ph, therefore balancing the amount of RO added to your tap would lower these accordingly and then if you remineralised this would counteract the process.
Id save your money and stick with tap water.
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## Radik (14 Mar 2012)

Your water is fine. I wish I had such water straight from tap. I do 50/50 RO/tap to achieve it.


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## Matt Warner (14 Mar 2012)

Hi, I agree with Ady. Why bother wasting your money and time with RO water which you will have to add stuff to get it back to where you need it anyway! Tap water contains many things beneficial to plants which RO has taken away. In my opinion the only use for RO water is for reef tanks!


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## Antipofish (14 Mar 2012)

Ady34 said:
			
		

> Hi Chris,
> i would think your water as it is is fine, probably an ideal balance of everything really. Most folk tend to shun test kits as inaccurate but as you suggested they can show trends and changes.
> Id be inclined to stick with what youve got, especially as most fish are pretty adaptable and the plants really dont care.
> With reference to remineralising RO, it would kind of defeat the purpose in your case as im sure youd be adding the RO to reduce gh, kh and maybe even ph, therefore balancing the amount of RO added to your tap would lower these accordingly and then if you remineralised this would counteract the process.
> ...




Hi mate, thanks.  the reason behind this stems from my filter, the G6, which as you know has a conductivity meter.  My tap water shows conductivity at 540/550.  And it rises to 580/590 by the time I do my twice weekly water change.  The conductivity has been "linked" to also showing TDS and I felt that this might be too high.  George's water for example is a couple of hundred lower.  However, if this is not necessary I certainly dont want to be doing RO if I do not have to.


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## Ady34 (14 Mar 2012)

Antipofish said:
			
		

> Hi mate, thanks.  the reason behind this stems from my filter, the G6, which as you know has a conductivity meter.  My tap water shows conductivity at 540/550.  And it rises to 580/590 by the time I do my twice weekly water change.  The conductivity has been "linked" to also showing TDS and I felt that this might be too high.  George's water for example is a couple of hundred lower.  However, if this is not necessary I certainly dont want to be doing RO if I do not have to.



Hi Chris.
I have a very similar conductivity reading which rises slightly through the week when adding fertiliser. Like yourself i also ideally wanted a lower reading, but decided as all the softwater fish i had were happy, to leave it as it was. I infact use sera mineral salts in my tapwater to ensure my soft tap water has enough Mg and Ca which actually increases the conductivity reading. Im unsure exactly as to how/what the G6 reads to get its results, but i tend to try my best to follow changes it shows rather than get caught up on the reading, as this is a good way of seeing a potential 'disaster' regarding stability.
Some sensitive wild caught fish such as Altum angels require low mineral content water and RO is advisable in these cases, however for most fish bought, providing general acidic/alkaine/hard/soft water is fine.
If your keeping fish with more specific requirements, by all means try it and see, but try adding maybe a 70/30 ratio of tap to ro and see what you get. Dont go all ro otherwise you will need to remineralise and thats money you dont need to spend. Basically use the ro to lower to the required perameters without needing to remineralise..... but maybe read this thread if you havnt already, to see the limitations of test kits: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=20009
Cheerio,
Ady.


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## Antipofish (14 Mar 2012)

Hi Ady, thanks for that.  Yeah I have read the test kit thread and like you, I use them to indicate a change in trend rather than giving me a specific.


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## Radik (14 Mar 2012)

if you have some seiru stones or other landscape rocks they may add 200 to TDS in one week. I am adding RO only to my nano with ebi gold + seiru and it gets buffered to TDS 200 in 3 days 

Also if your tank is not primarily for shrimp then just ignore it


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