Paul70
Fish Fanatic
RO water is short for reverse osmosis. osmosis is a natural process which in short, filters out all the nasties. osmosis is used in the human body in the kidneys and every cell but that isnt relevant to us aquarists.
Basically tap water is passed through several filters (dependent on how many stages you use)which removed sediment, chlorine and chloramine. it is then forced under pressure through a reverse osmosis membrane which has molecule sized holes in it. The only molecules that are small enough to pass through the membrane are the pure water molecules and this is the water that you collect and use in your tank. it is pure h2o with ALL minerals taken out. the machine also discards the waste through another outlet and this is discarded or used for watering plants or lawns etc.
As the water is in its purest form it has no minerals which the fish need so if you use pure RO water in your tank your fish will die in the same way that we would die if we received no iron, calcium, sodium in our diet etc. You must re-mineralise pure RO water with a remineralising compound if you intend to use pure RO water in your tank.
However you can mix the pure RO water with a percentage of tap water to give back some minerals. obviously this tapwater must be treated with a conditioner such as the one you are using.
my mix ratio initially was 70% ro and 30% tap. but my pH was too unstable on this so I now use pure 100% RO water mix a special discus re-mineralising compound and they are very happy on this mixture. my pH is also very steady at 6.4. I live in a hard water area and my tap water gave me a tank pH of 8.0 before I started using ro water.
another reason I use pure RO over an RO/TAP mixture is that my tap water contains 31ppm of nitrates before I start and the RO machine removes these prior to me adding it to the tank. Consequently my nitrate levels have fallen from40-80ppm in my tank to aroun 5ppm!!
My fish are very healthy and are displaying beautiful colours and normal schooling and interaction behaviour.
You can get RO machines from lots of places and ebay is a good place. Me, I won mine in a competition but if i had needed to pay for it I would have done.
Good luck mate. do some research on the web about RO machines and water and then make your decision. The re-mineralising compound actually works out cheaper than buying the tap water conditioner and you use less of it so there is a saving to be made here ( in the uk at least).
thanks again
paul
Basically tap water is passed through several filters (dependent on how many stages you use)which removed sediment, chlorine and chloramine. it is then forced under pressure through a reverse osmosis membrane which has molecule sized holes in it. The only molecules that are small enough to pass through the membrane are the pure water molecules and this is the water that you collect and use in your tank. it is pure h2o with ALL minerals taken out. the machine also discards the waste through another outlet and this is discarded or used for watering plants or lawns etc.
As the water is in its purest form it has no minerals which the fish need so if you use pure RO water in your tank your fish will die in the same way that we would die if we received no iron, calcium, sodium in our diet etc. You must re-mineralise pure RO water with a remineralising compound if you intend to use pure RO water in your tank.
However you can mix the pure RO water with a percentage of tap water to give back some minerals. obviously this tapwater must be treated with a conditioner such as the one you are using.
my mix ratio initially was 70% ro and 30% tap. but my pH was too unstable on this so I now use pure 100% RO water mix a special discus re-mineralising compound and they are very happy on this mixture. my pH is also very steady at 6.4. I live in a hard water area and my tap water gave me a tank pH of 8.0 before I started using ro water.
another reason I use pure RO over an RO/TAP mixture is that my tap water contains 31ppm of nitrates before I start and the RO machine removes these prior to me adding it to the tank. Consequently my nitrate levels have fallen from40-80ppm in my tank to aroun 5ppm!!
My fish are very healthy and are displaying beautiful colours and normal schooling and interaction behaviour.
You can get RO machines from lots of places and ebay is a good place. Me, I won mine in a competition but if i had needed to pay for it I would have done.
Good luck mate. do some research on the web about RO machines and water and then make your decision. The re-mineralising compound actually works out cheaper than buying the tap water conditioner and you use less of it so there is a saving to be made here ( in the uk at least).
thanks again
paul
