Switching Over To R/o Safely ?

[Nikki65]

Hi ,

I have just added 7 Neons on Saturday to my tank .(which I was reluctant to do because of the high PH)

and have finally decided to make the switch to R/O water.


My tank is 36 gallon and the PH is about 7.9 . Ammonia is 0 , Nitrite is 0 and Nitrate is about 20 .


Petsmart assured me Neons would do fine with the pH ,but today I already noticed one Neon mostly swimming around the surface and not äcting" normal.


I tested the purified water I bought in the store and like they said it is around 6.4- 6.5.



MY question, how do I go about changing the water slowly ?


I normally change about 36 l once a week, but I figure that adding 36 l of the RO water will be way to much for them to handle.

Does anyone know of a safe formula,please ?

The tank has 4 Cory cats,4 platies,7 Zebra Danios and now 7 Neons .


Thank You.

 

[Steve H.]

I am not sure of a formula, but you want to do it slowly. Maybe .2 every week. A stable pH is more important than how low it is. Is it just the one? How are the others?

If you switch completely to R/O it will be a sterile 7.0 pH, and be lacking in any mineral content the fish need. Even with R/O I have read you have to do a mix of filtered dechlorinated tap. I have seen anything from 20-50% tap to R/O. If you go straight R/O you will have to add a suppliment with vitamins and mineral doses.

For Neons you are only looking to bring it down .5 or so for the optimum pH. Might want to try wood or peat to lower it.

 

[Nikki65]

I am not sure of a formula, but you want to do it slowly. Maybe .2 every week. A stable pH is more important than how low it is. Is it just the one? How are the others?

If you switch completely to R/O it will be a sterile 7.0 pH, and be lacking in any mineral content the fish need. Even with R/O I have read you have to do a mix of filtered dechlorinated tap. I have seen anything from 20-50% tap to R/O. If you go straight R/O you will have to add a suppliment with vitamins and mineral doses.

For Neons you are only looking to bring it down .5 or so for the optimum pH. Might want to try wood or peat to lower it.

Thanks Steve,

I have tried a couple of bogwood (Malaysian wood I bought from the Petstore) >They don't seem to be doing all that much.

Re : the switch , I agree you have to do it slowly.

Now for the Neons, sorry, I did not understand the "bring it down .5 ".

My PH is around 7.8-7.9. .

Do you mean around 7.3-7.4 is ok.?

I thought, it was supposed to be much lower for Neons.

What also confused me is the PH of the R/O water I bought.

Always thought I would be around 7 (neutral) , but my store bought one is 6.5.

Would that not be perfeect for the Neons ?

Also have to agree with you, I have just read too, never to just use R/O water alone !

If anyone figured out a good formula please let me know.

Or how difficult is it to add the extra minerals to the R/O water (if not mixing with tap water ?

Thanks

 

[Whitey_144]

my PH is 8 from tap, I started with 50 tap 50 RO and have angelfish and cardinal tetras. now the PH stays around 6.8/7 which is perfect. if you do 100% iRO it wont be good.

in my case it was trial and error i got 4 jugs and did different mixes, 50/50 seemed best.

If you put 100 RO the water it will be really soft (low KH) and the PH will be unstable.

 

[OldMan47]

Start by determining the final hardness that you want in that tank, in terms of both KH and GH. Once you know that and measure your tap water you can calculate a good final mix. Use that mix in all water changes from now on and the tank water will gradually get to that number. By using your mix for water changes, you will not shock the tank water parameters as much as using straight RO. You need to know up front that pH is a very poor way to judge the hardness of your water. Get the hardness testing kit instead. I would try shooting for around 5 degrees of GH or a bit less as a final value for neons but move your platies somewhere else first. Platies do not do as well in low mineral content water.

 

[Nikki65]

my PH is 8 from tap, I started with 50 tap 50 RO and have angelfish and cardinal tetras. now the PH stays around 6.8/7 which is perfect. if you do 100% iRO it wont be good.

in my case it was trial and error i got 4 jugs and did different mixes, 50/50 seemed best.

If you put 100 RO the water it will be really soft (low KH) and the PH will be unstable.

Thanks, looks like mixing is the best solution

Start by determining the final hardness that you want in that tank, in terms of both KH and GH. Once you know that and measure your tap water you can calculate a good final mix. Use that mix in all water changes from now on and the tank water will gradually get to that number. By using your mix for water changes, you will not shock the tank water parameters as much as using straight RO. You need to know up front that pH is a very poor way to judge the hardness of your water. Get the hardness testing kit instead. I would try shooting for around 5 degrees of GH or a bit less as a final value for neons but move your platies somewhere else first. Platies do not do as well in low mineral content water.

Thanks ,

Had no idea that KH and GH would be so important as well.

I need to do more more reading ,I suppose.

Also, I would like to keep the Platies and Neons in one Tank .

Did you mean that would not be posssible ? or is there a happy medium number for both ?

I only have the one tank (so far) and this was supposed to be a "community tank"

Thanks