Ro Water Or Tap Water

[spud13]

i have always used RO water with no problems, i always understood that it was the best thing you could do for your fish,
but my lfs was saying the other day that i should do one water change RO then next water change treated tap water?
to keep the hardness up in my tank
my fish seem very happy in the RO and all my water stats are good
any opinions would be appreciated

 

[stang1]

A lot of it depends on what fish you keep as to what water hardness/softness you need.
We use RO water in all of our tanks as the water is quite hard where we live. The fish we keep generally prefer it that way, Plecos, Tetras, Cuchlids etc.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, test your tap water and check out the requirements of the fish you keep. this should tell you if you need to bother with RO or not.

 

[CFC]

Do you treat the R/O water with anything to replace the minerals and buffers that are removed in the filtering process?

Raw untreated R/O water is very dangerous for all living organisms, it is so pure that it will attempt to draw salts and minerals into itself from any substance it comes into contact with until it reaches an equilibrium with them, it is also highly unstable can swing rapidly in pH from organic acids in the water.

Reclaim chemistry products like R/O right and pH stable from KENT Marine replace the minerals and buffers needed to bring the TDS and KH up to safe stable levels while still maintaining soft acidic and clean water.

Another way is to cut the R/O water with some dechlorinated tapwater in a 75/25 mix so that the minerals and buffers in the tapwater are mixed with the R/O water, though personally i see this as pointless as you are just adding back a quarter of the crap youve paid money to remove already.

 

[stang1]

Do you treat the R/O water with anything to replace the minerals and buffers that are removed in the filtering process?

Raw untreated R/O water is very dangerous for all living organisms, it is so pure that it will attempt to draw salts and minerals into itself from any substance it comes into contact with until it reaches an equilibrium with them, it is also highly unstable can swing rapidly in pH from organic acids in the water.

Reclaim chemistry products like R/O right and pH stable from KENT Marine replace the minerals and buffers needed to bring the TDS and KH up to safe stable levels while still maintaining soft acidic and clean water.

Another way is to cut the R/O water with some dechlorinated tapwater in a 75/25 mix so that the minerals and buffers in the tapwater are mixed with the R/O water, though personally i see this as pointless as you are just adding back a quarter of the crap youve paid money to remove already.

All the water has the right minerals etc. My partner is fanatical about getting the water quality right, seems to be his life mission at the moment!

 

[spud13]

ive never added anything to the RO water, and never been aware you have to, but in the year ive ran the tank on RO ive never had one casualty or problems
i have in there
clown loaches
gouramis
plec
tetra
weather loach
apple snails
shrimp

 

[dwarfgourami]

I've actually made a conscious decision to only keep fish who can survive in my local water, as I am worrying about the waste/environmental impact of RO water. Not that I'd expect everybody to feel the same, but I'm actually getting quite a lot of pleasure from researching species who are happy with what I can offer.

 

[Don Trinko]

I mix the ro with tap water 1:1 to get what I want. (DH=3 or 4,) I have read that you should not use strait ro because it has no minerals and fish colleration and health may suffer. Don T.

 

[jimw13uk]

Do you treat the R/O water with anything to replace the minerals and buffers that are removed in the filtering process?

Raw untreated R/O water is very dangerous for all living organisms, it is so pure that it will attempt to draw salts and minerals into itself from any substance it comes into contact with until it reaches an equilibrium with them, it is also highly unstable can swing rapidly in pH from organic acids in the water.

Reclaim chemistry products like R/O right and pH stable from KENT Marine replace the minerals and buffers needed to bring the TDS and KH up to safe stable levels while still maintaining soft acidic and clean water.

Another way is to cut the R/O water with some dechlorinated tapwater in a 75/25 mix so that the minerals and buffers in the tapwater are mixed with the R/O water, though personally i see this as pointless as you are just adding back a quarter of the crap youve paid money to remove already.

I'm not questioning your statements above but I have always been under the impression that RO water is best for the fish as all the harmful stuff has been removed - I dont have an RO unit and have never bothered but know lots of people who do and they have never done what your suggesting above - In fact I just asked one of them and he said your comments are rather alarmist and over the top. Now i dont know but thats the understanding I had so I wondered if you could just clarify it - Should pure RO water (from an RO unit) not be put straight in a tank without being mixed with either chemicals or untreated water

 

[raptorrex]

I've actually made a conscious decision to only keep fish who can survive in my local water, as I am worrying about the waste/environmental impact of RO water. Not that I'd expect everybody to feel the same, but I'm actually getting quite a lot of pleasure from researching species who are happy with what I can offer.

I'm with you on this one too!!!!! whilst i can see the need for RO in saltwater tanks, there is no reason to use it in tropical fish keeping! (with very few exceptions). imo it is wasteful, only about 5 to 1 return, whatever you feel for your hobby, that sort of wast , i feel should be stopped!

Do you treat the R/O water with anything to replace the minerals and buffers that are removed in the filtering process?

Raw untreated R/O water is very dangerous for all living organisms, it is so pure that it will attempt to draw salts and minerals into itself from any substance it comes into contact with until it reaches an equilibrium with them, it is also highly unstable can swing rapidly in pH from organic acids in the water.

Reclaim chemistry products like R/O right and pH stable from KENT Marine replace the minerals and buffers needed to bring the TDS and KH up to safe stable levels while still maintaining soft acidic and clean water.

Another way is to cut the R/O water with some dechlorinated tapwater in a 75/25 mix so that the minerals and buffers in the tapwater are mixed with the R/O water, though personally i see this as pointless as you are just adding back a quarter of the crap youve paid money to remove already.

I'm not questioning your statements above but I have always been under the impression that RO water is best for the fish as all the harmful stuff has been removed - I dont have an RO unit and have never bothered but know lots of people who do and they have never done what your suggesting above - In fact I just asked one of them and he said your comments are rather alarmist and over the top. Now i dont know but thats the understanding I had so I wondered if you could just clarify it - Should pure RO water (from an RO unit) not be put straight in a tank without being mixed with either chemicals or untreated water

looks like another reason to steer clear of RO. dont you think its worth researching something before you start using it?
whatever you experience, or thoughts. even the people who invented it realised how dangerous it could be!

little experiment here. guess how long you would last if you only had pure H2O to drink!

as for your comment on RO not often being cut with more useful tap water, words fail me!!!!!! get a grip and look into your system, but you will be in for a horrible shock

CFC being a scare monger! lol. people with true knowledge, very often come across that way, especially when the person talked to has so little knowledge of their subject.

 

[jimw13uk]

see that why i was asking for it to be clarified - I dont know about RO units cos i've never used them so I have taken advice from other people.
Still its nice to know I cant ask for clarification without someone jumping in and having a go

I do have little knowledge of it and that why we ask questions otherwise we dont learn anything

Thanks again for having a go

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I would not say CFC's comments are alarmist or over the top at all, he's completely correct.

as for RO unit's being wasteful and bad for the environment, as with practically everything nowadays it's what you do with the by products that makes it wasteful not the unit in itself.

the waste from RO is high in nitrates and is absolutely fantastic to use on your garden or houseplants, obviously it depends on the size of your garden and the amount of RO you use weather it will all be used well or not.

they use no electricity so it's simply the 'waste' water you need to find a use for.

Not that I disagree with your sentiments and plan DG, far from it I think it's excellent and I always try and advise people to tailor theyre fish selection to theyre water not the other way around. But I just thought it was important to mention that it's not nescessarily the RO units that are wasteful but the people or situations that they are used in.

 

[stang1]

I agree Alice, we use our waste water on our garden, I don't like things going to waste.
We tend to use a couple of barrels a week in our tanks, rarely is it more than that.
I know most fish will acclimatise to certain water conditions but we decided to keep fish and therefore will do our best to give them what they need. Plecos prefer softer water, so we use RO water in our big tank. We also keep Cichlids, which again prefer softer water. We have not suffered any losses and our fish are all healthy.

 

[Biffer2]

<<- Raw untreated R/O water is very dangerous for all living organisms, it is so pure that it will attempt to draw salts and minerals into itself from any substance it comes into contact with until it reaches an equilibrium with them, it is also highly unstable can swing rapidly in pH from organic acids in the water. ->>


Very surprising comment. Yes water will transport across a semi permeable membrane from an area of low concentration to an area of higher concentration via the process known as osmosis. But this happens to all fish in one form or another. In a freshwater fish water passes through the skin into the fish as the salt content is higher inside the fish than in the surrounding environment. In a saltwater fish the reverse is true. Water passes from the fish into the surrounding environment as the water contents are higher than that within a fish. All healthy fish have a method of regulating the amount of water within their body … drinking/excreting. This is why freshwater fish drink minimal quantities from the environment but actually excrete large volumes of water while and marine fish will drink large quantities of water but excrete very little. This is a controlled process unless it is taken to extremes. It also explains why, except with a few exceptions, fish cannot move between fresh and salt water environments. In cases where this happens the fish has usually developed some means of combating the changes in salt level between the two environments. Topping up/water changes with RO water will not take things to the extreme and buffers are usually only used where a non neutral pH is required. As for ‘minerals’ etc. in tap water welll … hmmmmmm … that is what we are trying to strip out as most of those found in tap water are only detrimental to the live stock. Chlorine, chloroamines, nitrates, phosphates, copper, fluoride etc are not actually that beneficial (more like harmful) to water dwelling creatures.

 

[spud13]

we all started somewhere and took advice off friends/family which is why i started my tank on RO water because i was advised to, i was told like many of us that it takes all the harmfull stuff out the water!!
my fish have always done really well on it, so would it be advised that i start doing water changes to climatise them to normal water or keep my tank running on RO