R/o water

[SarahBravo]

Okay, this is probably a totally stupid question, but here goes!

Is r/o water ph neutral, or is it still the same ph as your tap water?

Cos my tap water is 8.5 - 9.0 and I'm having real problems with my neons and cardinals. I'm using PH down but it doesn't seem to be having much effect so I was thinking maybe getting an RO unit might help?

Sarah

 

[shrimpster97]

you could get some chlour out. you put some odd drops in with every gallon of water you put in. it works for me. but if you wanted to get an RO system, that would be cool.

 

[Bangin]

R/O water has a ph of approximately 6.5. I use 100% R/O water with the addition of Kent's R/O Right on my tetra tank. They love it, and I've never had any problems with that tank. Good luck.

 

[Ed4567]

Just to add that if you test the pH of newly produced RO water (before you have buffered it) I think you can get some odd results because of the lack of any hydrogen/ hydroxyle ions in the water.

 

[Bignose]

Just to add a little to what Ed said, RO water should have a pH of exactly 7, as the water itself dissassociates into equal parts + and - ions.

But, since RO water has nothing but water in it at all, even trace amounts of any contaminant or additive can cause a very significant change. Even depending on what the water was kept in, the tiny amount of dissolved container material can affect these measurements. And, since there is no hardness, using it even for a very short time, the nitrogen cycle will acidify the water. The benefit, of course, it you have a blank palette, so to speak, so you can customize the water however you please.

Just to go back to the original poster, have you tried keeping the tetras in just your basic tapwater? Without using any pH down or any additives besides your dechlorinator? If your pH has been fluctuating -- as it is wont to do with these additives -- that is far, far worse for your fish than a constant pH that may be outside of its ideal range. Even if your water is significantly different from your LFS's, taking your time and acclimating the fish usually is very successful.

Cardinals are mostly wild caught, so they may balk at the signifcant difference from their home waters, but neons are successfully bred in the fish farms in florida -- very hard, very alkaline water. So, in synopsis, if you keep the pH constant rather than trying to down it all the time, the fish will probably be much more happy.

 

[CFC]

Just to add when using R/O water most comercial pH testing kits will not give a accurate result, to get true measures of pH and hardness you need to invest in a electronic TDS meter (total disolved solids).

As said by Bignose unless you have highly sensative fish it is always a better option to keep them in your tapwater rather than messing about with chemicals and prepared water. Fluctuating pH levels kill far more fish due to stress than a high pH ever has or will do.

 

[SarahBravo]

Cool, thanks guys, I will just see if the buggers settle down. I didn't realise cardinals were wild caught or I wouldn't have bought them. I was naive enough to think that most 'common' fish in shops would be commercially bred. Will have to do more research!

In the mean time I will leave the water alone and hope they acclimatise. Thanks for everyone's input.

Sarah

 

[CFC]

I was naive enough to think that most 'common' fish in shops would be commercially bred

Unfortunately this is not the case, a huge ammount of fish are still taken from the wild as it not finacially viable to breed them in captivity. However all is not as bad as it seems, cardinal tetras are taken from managed sections of river and the numbers of fish taken is carefully monitered to prevent over fishing.

 

[Tropjunky]

I'm a user of RO myself and I would recomend it to anyone. The water is clean and pure but if ur water is meterd then don't bother. I'm not sure but i think 1L RO means 4L waste.

 

[CFC]

I'm not sure but i think 1L RO means 4L waste.

That all depends on the unit, some of the cheaper units can waste as much as 10 litres of water for each 1 litre of end product. Generally the more pre filters the unit has the more impurities will be removed before the water reaches the membrane leaving more water to go through.

 

[Bignose]

In several areas, the wild caught fish are going to have a much better life than left in the wild. Imagine a river overflowing b/c it is the rainy season. The local kids are paid a penny for every fish they catch live and bring in. Sure, it removes a lot of the population, but when the dry season comes, there are still literally thousands of fish that die b/c the water level is too low, and the food sources that they were thriving on are now gone. Those fish destined for aquarium life are the lucky one, comparatively

The most important thing is not necessarily wild caught vs. tank raised, but how the populations are controlled and preserved in the wild. Probably the worst case of this is the red tailed black shark -- can be tank bred, but is virtually extinct in the wild today. On the other hand possilby the best case is, as CFC said, the cardinal is wild caught, but great care is taken so that the native popultions remains every year.

if you poke around on www.fishbase.org there is a list of the endangered species, I cannot locate it now (maybe tonight after work).