Does RO purified water good for betta?

[Aniket]

RO water good or bad for bettas?
Some people say they using RO water for betta

 

[Colin_T]

You can use reverse osmosis (R/O) water for Bettas but they are more prone to bacterial infections in very soft water and the pH is more likely to drop. It also isn't the best for growing baby fish.

R/O water is basically pure water with no minerals. You need some minerals (calcium & magnesium) in the water to help stabilise pH and for baby fish to develop strong skeletons. They don't need a lot but they do need some.

Depending on how hard your tap water is, and whether the water is contaminated by pollutants, will determine if you should use R/O water. If you have very hard water (GH over 400ppm) that contains lots of minerals then using some R/O water and some tap water will provide better water for your fish. You would use 3 parts R/O and 1 part tap water and end up with a GH around 100ppm, which would be great for Bettas, gouramis, tetras, Corydoras, rasboras and loaches.

If your tap water is soft (GH under 150ppm) and doesn't contain many minerals, then using R/O water is a waste of time. However, if you have chemicals (besides chlorine) in the tap water, then a reverse osmosis unit will help to filter the chemicals out of the water and make it safer for people, animals and fish. Most chemicals in water can also be removed with carbon and that can be cheaper than making R/O water. If you use carbon, try to get Highly Activated carbon or Activated carbon. These work better than plain old normal carbon.

Reverse osmosis units waste a lot of water. The best units have a 1 : 1 ratio, which means they waste 1 litre of water to make 1 litre of clean pure water. Most units have a 2 : 1 ratio or 3 : 1 ratio, which means they waste 2 or 3 litres of water to make 1 litre of pure water. If water is not readily available (eg: you live in a desert), then using carbon is a better way to remove chemicals and having a reverse osmosis unit is probably not the best thing to use.

If you can test your water and find out how hard it is (GH), then that will tell you if you need to use R/O water.

 

[Aniket]

You can use reverse osmosis (R/O) water for Bettas but they are more prone to bacterial infections in very soft water and the pH is more likely to drop. It also isn't the best for growing baby fish.

R/O water is basically pure water with no minerals. You need some minerals (calcium & magnesium) in the water to help stabilise pH and for baby fish to develop strong skeletons. They don't need a lot but they do need some.

Depending on how hard your tap water is, and whether the water is contaminated by pollutants, will determine if you should use R/O water. If you have very hard water (GH over 400ppm) that contains lots of minerals then using some R/O water and some tap water will provide better water for your fish. You would use 3 parts R/O and 1 part tap water and end up with a GH around 100ppm, which would be great for Bettas, gouramis, tetras, Corydoras, rasboras and loaches.

If your tap water is soft (GH under 150ppm) and doesn't contain many minerals, then using R/O water is a waste of time. However, if you have chemicals (besides chlorine) in the tap water, then a reverse osmosis unit will help to filter the chemicals out of the water and make it safer for people, animals and fish. Most chemicals in water can also be removed with carbon and that can be cheaper than making R/O water. If you use carbon, try to get Highly Activated carbon or Activated carbon. These work better than plain old normal carbon.

Reverse osmosis units waste a lot of water. The best units have a 1 : 1 ratio, which means they waste 1 litre of water to make 1 litre of clean pure water. Most units have a 2 : 1 ratio or 3 : 1 ratio, which means they waste 2 or 3 litres of water to make 1 litre of pure water. If water is not readily available (eg: you live in a desert), then using carbon is a better way to remove chemicals and having a reverse osmosis unit is probably not the best thing to use.

If you can test your water and find out how hard it is (GH), then that will tell you if you need to use R/O water.

So then is it beneficial to add indian almond leaves in ro water?

 

[Colin_T]

Indian almond leaves will release tannins that make the water yellow or brown. Tannins will not increase hardness and have no minerals in them. Tannins are simply chemicals released by plants that stain water, like when you have a cup of tea. The hot water causes tannins to leech out of the tea bag and you drink the stained water.

If you have R/O water, you should add some mineral salts to increase the GH a bit, depending on the fish you keep. Rift Lake water conditioner is the best thing to use to increase the GH.