R/o Water

[Labyrinth]

Hi All

This is probably a stupid question, but I’m going to ask it anyway!
How Long does R/O water need to be cycled for, when starting up a new tank?

Could you tell me the times for fish-less cycling and cycling with fish, if you can?

Thanks
Lab

 

[Paul_MTS]

i'm not quite saw what your question is?

using RO water in a set up will not affect the cycling times.

if you want to use RO water it's best to aerate it and re-minerialise it in a bucket over a couple of days.

cycling the tank fishless and with fish I'm not sure about without but with it can take anything up to 6 weeks depending how you do it.

hope this helps.

 

[Labyrinth]

i'm not quite saw what your question is?

Thanks Paul

What it is, is that I am setting up my main tank again. (I’m changing it to sand and adding in live plant) I was wondering if I should use some of the old tank water, or start from scratch with R/O water.
So I was trying to find out what would be faster and give me better water quality.

Lab

 

[yvez9]

why do you want to use R/O water?

 

[Labyrinth]

I just thought that it might be better to have nice clean (Filtered) water to start of the tank with, rather than tap water.

(But I want the tank to be set up quickly, what I was wondering was is R/O water faster/easier to cycle.)

 

[yvez9]

nope, it won't cycle faster.

You'll also have to buffer your R/O water with minerals to make it safe for fish. Pure water won't do much for the fish. Unless your tap/well water is way out of norms, which shouldn't be the case, then don't worry about it

 

[Labyrinth]

Thanks yvez9, i wont bother with it then.
I will just mix some of the old tank water with some clean water!

Lab

BTW will i still have to wait the 3 weeks or, because I am using cycled water, will it take less time

 

[yvez9]

the only way to accelerate cycling is by adding bacteria directly in the filter.

tank water doesn't contain bacteria but filter media does. So say you have a tank that's cycled, you could take part of the media and put it in the new filter. This would "clone" your tank and it would be ready to add fish to a certain extent!

 

[Labyrinth]

Thanks for the info!!

Lab