Ph Buffer With Ro Unit

[Creature Seeker]

Hello,

I moved house recently and found that my tap water had high nitrate levels so my aquarium nitrate levels started to rise with each water change I did. They got to a point where I needed to do something as my nerw fish have started to look worse for wear so today I had a friend pick me up some RO filtered water from our lfs. I thought I could mix this pure water with tap water during a water change to reduce my nitrates but the lfs owner told my friend not to mix it with tap water and solh her a ph buffer which he said to add to the pure water and everything would be hunky dory.

I don't trust this lfs very much so thought I'd ask on here what I need to do. Can I just add the pure water to the tap water to dilute the nitrates or is that wrong? Do these ph buffers work? I don't trust any item that states it can alter your aquarium environment as I tried a Nitrate remover a few months back and it messed up everything.

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[k.o.d]

The pH buffer adds carbonates back to the water go it is more stable, the trouble with RO water is that it has no buffering capabilities and can cause pH crahes due to this.
The reason they sell you the pH buffer is that it adds no nitrates, phosphates heavy metals etc back into the water.
OK on a small tank but I change approx 250 litres a day of water in the big tanks so the remineralisation starts to become pretty expensive

I add RO to tap water in varying amounts dependent on the requirements of the fish in the tanks and it does no harm, and it does as you says, dilutes the nitrates.

The LFS has not given you dodgy advice, but dependant on your water change volumes it may be impractical and expensive advice.

 

[Creature Seeker]

The pH buffer adds carbonates back to the water go it is more stable, the trouble with RO water is that it has no buffering capabilities and can cause pH crahes due to this.
The reason they sell you the pH buffer is that it adds no nitrates, phosphates heavy metals etc back into the water.
OK on a small tank but I change approx 250 litres a day of water in the big tanks so the remineralisation starts to become pretty expensive

I add RO to tap water in varying amounts dependent on the requirements of the fish in the tanks and it does no harm, and it does as you says, dilutes the nitrates.

The LFS has not given you dodgy advice, but dependant on your water change volumes it may be impractical and expensive advice.

Thanks for the help.

It's only a 100 litre tank, so it shouldn't be costly.

So should I add the PH buffer once I've mixed the RO water and tap water or just leave the PH buffer out?

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[k.o.d]

To be honest on a 100 litre tank, he gave you the right advice, use the RO water and a proprietary buffer

 

[blue acara]

my RO water is very acid and very soft. i use biocarbonate of soda(get in tesco) to raise the ph and epsom salts(get in boots)(both very cheap) to raise the kh then add aquarium salt to raise the gh then i add cichlid trace by seachem to add the other elements fish need buffer recipe just add the amount of the stuff to the water to get the water your fish need

 

[andywg]

True RO water is very soft, but is actually neutral. It is so pure that pH and other test kits have nothing to react with and give out dodgy results. At worst the water will be a little acidic as a result of absorbing CO2.

To measure RO water you need a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) meter. Good RO should get less than 5ppm on a TDS meter.