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Is using RO water beneficial ?

VanEternal

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Joined
25 Oct 2020
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Londn
Hi,
I am restarting my planted tank and currently wondering whether I should use RO water instead of tap water. I have a reef tank, therefore I produce a lot of RO water anyways, but the amount of waste water it produces is quite frustrating.

I live in South London, where the water quality isn't the best.
TDS 380~
Nitrates at around 40 ppm
Total Hardness (CaCO3) 270 mg/l
PH 7.3

Before I had a go at setting up a low budget planted aquarium which went Ok without RO water, only tap, but had consistent problems with algae even with strict water changes schedule.

Therefore, from your experiences do you think using RO water and controlling its parameters by adding buffers etc to achieve the desired levels is worth the effort? Or same results can be achieved by using only tap water. Whats your views on this ?

This time around, I will be using co2 and more 'high tech equipment'.

Looking forward for your opinions.
 
I found my tank did very well with RO as it’s a more controlled environment, but I found RO an expensive hassle. If you’re producing RO anyway, then give it a go.
 
Granted I have limited experience, but I think RO was beneficial. I live in a hard water area too with a high ph and high nitrates.

I think it also helps having a lower KH when running CO2.
 
Depends on the size of tank, 50% waterchange weekly with RO on a 50L tank not a hassle or cost prohibitive but a 200L tank might be. Plants won’t really care that much what’s in the water as long as it contains nutrition sufficient for their needs, some plants that do better in softer waters might not like hard tapwater but can adapt to it given time. You just have to experiment to see what plants work best, you’ll not come across many that won’t thrive in London Tap.

If you like to experiment then with RO and targeted remineralisation you can replicate any freshwater environment you want to as long as you have the right minerals to add.

:)
 
Is it the waste water in principal that you dont like, or just the waste when you generate it? I've been using RO water from a Spotless Water station for one of my tanks, 100l for about 4 quid and it gives you a TDS reading on the screen before you start filling ( Although who knows how accurate that is)
 
Hi,
I am restarting my planted tank and currently wondering whether I should use RO water instead of tap water. I have a reef tank, therefore I produce a lot of RO water anyways, but the amount of waste water it produces is quite frustrating.
How much RO water would you need for your freshwater tank?

If you have a garden you can use some of the waste water. RO units with a pressure pump have waste water ratios of 1 : 1.5 to 1 : 2.0

I live in South London, where the water quality isn't the best.
TDS 380~
Nitrates at around 40 ppm
Total Hardness (CaCO3) 270 mg/l
PH 7.3

Before I had a go at setting up a low budget planted aquarium which went Ok without RO water, only tap, but had consistent problems with algae even with strict water changes schedule.
RO water will unfortunately not solve algae issues. These are most often caused by deficiency and/or imbalance of light, CO2, and nutrients. You can get the system in balance with or without RO water.

Therefore, from your experiences do you think using RO water and controlling its parameters by adding buffers etc to achieve the desired levels is worth the effort? Or same results can be achieved by using only tap water. Whats your views on this ?
It entirely depends on your target water parameters. With RO water you start with a blank slate. With tap water you are constrained. This does not mean that tap water is somehow inferior to RO water. You can always mix say 50% tap water with 50% RO water to dilute nitrates and other elements. With this approach, you might not need to add remineralizers to the RO water. The high nitrates in the tap water are also not necessarily an issue. With sufficient plant mass and floating plants those nitrate levels would not be problematic.
 
Hi all,
I'm a <"rain-water user"> and I would really <"recommend rain-water">. It has many of the advantages of RO water, but without the environmental foot-print. Many <"fish keeper and breeders"> use rain-water.
I live in a hard water area too with a high ph and high nitrates
All the water in this area is hard, but there may not be many nitrates (NO3-) in Bristol Water water. It is going to depend a little bit where you live. We get aquifer water (although it is actually drawn from Blagdon and Chew Valley Lake), if it comes from the Sharpness Canal it will have higher NO3 levels.

I just had a look and <"for work"> (BA2 9BN) and it was 6 ppm NO3.
BA29BN1.jpg

BA29BN2.jpg

cheers Darrel
 
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