Water Changing With R/o Water

[spencer999]

Hello All!

I have a 125 litre tank and have been running now for about 8 weeks. Tank has cycled and is now stocked with 6 neons, 2 Silver S, 2 Dwarf Cinemon Gouramis and a Giant african amoured shrimp. Test results today where Amonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates - somwhere between 0 and 5 so very very low. Gh 17 and Kh 4. During the last 8 weeks ive been doing 15 - 20% water changes once or twice a week using normal tap water with stress coat. Resently i noticed my Ph had dropped from the 8 it started at to 6.4 over a two year period. I put this down to my low KH which was 1 and a massive peice of driftwood i have in my tank. I did a water change yesterday using R/O water to lower my GH from the 23 it was to the 17 it is now is and i also added bicarbinate of soda to the R/O to help raise my KH slighty and therefore in turn raise my PH slighly. In the end i have managed to get my KH up from 1 to 4 and my ph up from 6.4 to 7.0.

My question is that if i now want to keep using R/O water to maintain my PH, Kh and Gh at there current levels what should i add to the R/O each time i do a water change? I plan on adding 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb of soda per 25liters to raise the KH of the replacment water to 4 but what should i be adding to the water?

Spencer

 

[FISH KEEPER EXP]

Hello All!

I have a 125 litre tank and have been running now for about 8 weeks. Tank has cycled and is now stocked with 6 neons, 2 Silver S, 2 Dwarf Cinemon Gouramis and a Giant african amoured shrimp. Test results today where Amonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates - somwhere between 0 and 5 so very very low. Gh 17 and Kh 4. During the last 8 weeks ive been doing 15 - 20% water changes once or twice a week using normal tap water with stress coat. Resently i noticed my Ph had dropped from the 8 it started at to 6.4 over a two year period. I put this down to my low KH which was 1 and a massive peice of driftwood i have in my tank. I did a water change yesterday using R/O water to lower my GH from the 23 it was to the 17 it is now is and i also added bicarbinate of soda to the R/O to help raise my KH slighty and therefore in turn raise my PH slighly. In the end i have managed to get my KH up from 1 to 4 and my ph up from 6.4 to 7.0.

My question is that if i now want to keep using R/O water to maintain my PH, Kh and Gh at there current levels what should i add to the R/O each time i do a water change? I plan on adding 1/2 teaspoon of bicarb of soda per 25liters to raise the KH of the replacment water to 4 but what should i be adding to the water?

Spencer

I would, if you don't your only dilute the soda and your kh and pH will drop again. Just make sure you only use enough to treat the RO water, sounds stupid but ive seen it done too many times. Another acurate product ive used is by JBL called "aquadur plus" its not cheap but its so accurate when using it

hope this helps.

 

[tansdale]

I add a bucket of the brine for every 5 buckets of RO. The brine is the waste water from the RO unit and will have passed through the particle and carbon filters to remove heavy metals and chlorine etc, but will keep some of the salts in solution. You can check the hardness of the brine, then decide how much to dilute it by in order to give you the desired Kh / Gh.