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Which water to dissolve salts with?

Markmark

Markmark

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27 Mar 2011
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Cilgerran
Morning all,

Hopefully my ei starter kit should arrive today from one of the forums sponsers :D . I was just wondering if plain old tap water is ok to make up the mix or wether I need to use RO or distilled.

I will be following their mixing and dosing ratio's but if anyone has a better suggestion for 180lts then please let us know.

Many thanks
Mark
 
its suggested to use cooled boiled water by some of the sponsors. I have heard of using distilled before, maybe contact the sponsor and ask the question just to be sure.
Cheerio,
Ady.
 
Hi all,
Ideally it should be RO, but in practice it makes very little difference for the macro mix. If you use tap you will usually be adding slightly more carbonates (HCO3-), calcium(Ca++), phosphate (PO4-) and nitrate (NO3-), than if you used RO, but by the time you have diluted your EI mix in the tank water this will be irrelevant.

If you used boiled tap, you will have removed the "temporary" (carbonate) hardness. You need to pour the water out of the kettle into a Pyrex jug etc immediately after it has boiled, because as it cools down it will pick up HCO3- ions from the lime scale (calcium carbonate) in the kettle.

It would be a bit more mucking about, but boiled water or RO would be worth it if you find that some compounds are precipitating out in the bottle over time.

The micro-mix is slightly different and I would use RO for this, as iron will form insoluble compounds with the phosphates and carbonates.

The other option is to ensure that the mix pH is below pH7, using (E300) ascorbic or (E330) citric acid.

cheers Darrel
 
As Darrel mentions, it makes no difference whatsoever to the plants. Unless you are uber-paranoid about TDS for fish it's not worth the trouble of using distilled or RO water. The truest of all Barr axioms is that the more complicated something is, the less incentives there are for continuing to do it, and the less margin there is for errors.

Simplify your dosing by using whatever water is easiest and most convenient. If that happens to be RO water then fine, but it is a complete waste of time and energy to go through the trouble of boiling water just to make your nutrient mix. Complicated procedures should only be employed if there are real benefits in doing so. If it makes no difference then it is wasted energy, and this definitely makes no difference.

The origin of using distilled/RO water is explained in the thread EI Mix with Tap Water

Cheers,
 
Hi

I use distilled water for both micro & macro mix. Then add Easycarbo to remove potential mold buildup.
However I have an automated dosing for both, and funnily my Macro solution gets moldy not the micro...

I havent tried citric or ascorbic or any acid to get away with this issue though since I have a pump sitting inside the 2 jars. Dont want it to rust by the acid. So these days I make only a fortnight solution...
 
I just use water straight out of the tap for my mixes without a problem. I have never had a problem with Precipitates in the micro mix, as I only make up 3 weeks worth at a time.
 
Thankyou all for your indepth help as usual. Tap water it is for me then as easy always wins for me. Its whats in my aquarium after all.
 
mvasingh said:
How does Easycarbo prevent mould?
Click to expand...
Because all liquid carbon products are made by the dilution of a powerful chemical toxicant known as Gluteraldehyde, which is a sterilant, an embalming agent, as well as a broad spectrum biocide. The chemical toxicity is due in part to it's attack and disruption of proteins and of proteins' building blocks, amino acids, similar to that discussed in Anitimicrobial Activity, Uses and Mechanism of Action of Gluteraldehyde
That is why it kills some types of algae, some types of plants and why it should be used with care.

Cheers,
 
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