# Aquatic Soil - Which with RO water?



## justissaayman (2 Aug 2013)

Hello All

Doing all my research now whilst I have calm before the house move storm.

I got a RO unit as my tap water is 8.2ph and has 40 nitrate straight off the bat, hence me using RO to drop all my tanks to 7.2-7.4.

Im looking at setting up a soil, low energy tank but I want to keep the low ph (ideally 6.8).

What soil would be best but still give me the effect which soil tanks have i.e. release goodness into the water etc etc.?

Would I be better off with:
 Original & genuine AQUA SOIL formulated for your pond plants (20 Litres) | eBay
or
 20L 20 LITRE POND AQUATIC COMPOST SOIL PLANTING MARGINALS LILLIES PLANTS GARDEN | eBay

Thanks in advance


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## justissaayman (3 Aug 2013)

Add on to this question: If my local PH is 8.2ph, if I added John Innes would my PH go up even more?


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## ceg4048 (6 Aug 2013)

These are the worst possible reasons to use RO. None of this will be relevant to the health of the fish or the plants and you will make your life more complicated than it needs to be. Use whatever sediment you want, because again, it has no relevance.

Cheers,


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## justissaayman (6 Aug 2013)

ceg, My tap water stinks, I dont want hard water as I dont want limescale constantly if I dont need it and I dont want 40 nitrate from the tap. I moved to RO a few months ago and I could see the difference in my fish.

Now with the soil tank I would like to keep Killifish and they enjoy a nice low PH water and I got the RO unit installed in any case so Ill be using it


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## ceg4048 (6 Aug 2013)

40 Nitrate is not a problem for fish, and if you did have that value it would be great for plants. Killifish do not really care about pH. Not wanting limescale is a good reason to use RO though. Again, it doesn't matter which sediment you use, Killifish will not be able to tell the difference.

Cheers,


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## justissaayman (6 Aug 2013)

Im just going on what seriously fish is telling me. I would also love a big shoal of Pygmy Cories in there and I know they love lower PH. The John Innes just takes the PH WAY WAY up if I were to use too much.


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## ceg4048 (7 Aug 2013)

Well, seriously fish are seriously flawed. There are lots of things about water that have an effect on fish, but pH by itself is not one of them. pH is relevant only as it relates to other characteristics of the water. As you mentioned, your RO filter removes almost every single solute that is in the water. These solutes have an effect on the pH, so if you remove the solutes, it follows that you will have removed the effect they have on pH. So if your fish do better as a result of using RO, then the reason is because of solute removal, NOT because of lowering the pH. The resulting pH is simply a consequence of the solute removal.

People around the globe have all kinds of problems because they try to micromanage pH outside of the context of the parameters that actually matter. You would do well to avoid becoming enslaved by principles that you don't understand. So, for example, people add acid products to their tank in the foolish hope of keeping their pH within some boundary, never realizing that they are adding a toxic agent to the water that actually damages their fish. Would you ever consider adding battery acid to the tank? Well, products like "pH Down" are very similar to battery acid.

If you just wanted to lower pH without regard to anything then think carefully about what happens when we add CO2 to the water. The pH drops, sometimes drastically, but you can achieve whatever pH you want by adding enough CO2 - but is that wise? CO2 is highly toxic and you can easily annihilate the fish at the same time that you achieve your desired pH.

The numerical value of the pH in a tank depends on the characteristics of some of the solutes in the water, and at the same time, the chemical behavior of other solutes in the water depend on the numerical value of pH. It's very complicated, so you should never try to have any rigid target pH, or try to manipulate the pH of your tank to some target value because you will almost always cause more problems than you solve. The pH in the natural body of water that the fish are native to is a result of thousands of different components, each adding an effect over millions of years. There is no way you can simulate that, no matter how hard you try, so it's best to allow the pH to fall where it may and to address the issues in the tank that you do have control over, such as cleanliness, which has 1000X more of an effect on cories than pH does.

Cheers,


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## justissaayman (7 Aug 2013)

Thanks m8. Hence me cleaning the water with my RO from the hard cement coming from my tap, remineralising with quality salts and adjusting PH (if needed) through natural methods like crushed coral, almond bark etc etc


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## tim (7 Aug 2013)

justissaayman said:


> . I would also love a big shoal of Pygmy Cories in there and I know they love lower PH. .


I have 12 of these little guys in my 90cm high tech London tap haven't tested ph hardness etc etc but the lfs I got them from kept them in the hard water section of the store Tds of 400 odd my tank goes from 300 wc day to 350 end of the week and they are thriving even spawning the other day then eating all their own eggs, awesome little creatures


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## justissaayman (8 Aug 2013)

Tim, believe me I know they can be kept in it. Ive just seen the difference the softer water has made to my Tetra so long terms Id like to keep my cories in the water they come from and as stated keep limescale to a minimum in the new tank.


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## justissaayman (9 Aug 2013)

Can i just use this? John Innes Compost No.3 - 25L from Homebase.co.uk


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## Andy Thurston (9 Aug 2013)

You can but it will alter water chemistry
Heres the ingredients
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justissaayman said:


> Would I be better off with:
> Original & genuine AQUA SOIL formulated for your pond plants (20 Litres) | eBay



This in your earlier post is very similar but dosent contain the ground lime etc that john ines does and wont affect your water. 

Im about to flood the tank(the one in my signature)with ji3 substrate so will be able to give you an idea how much it messes with water in the next couple of weeks
Andy


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## justissaayman (9 Aug 2013)

Ola big, thanks for that. Spoke to Alistair and he used some John Innes with the Aqua Soil so the water would not rise in PH too much, hence I want to do the same but on a smaller scale.


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## Andy Thurston (9 Aug 2013)

I think alistair uses oak leaves etc to help lower ph too.


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## justissaayman (9 Aug 2013)

He added more peat to the existing peat in the aquatic soil.


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