Do I need additives when using R/O water?

by **Zambize4899** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:28 am

I started using R/O water from my lfs to lower my pH. They didn't say anything about needing any additives to replace minerals or set the pH. I've been seeing this in some articles on various sites. No one seems to agree though. What do I need to add to my R/O water?

Zambize

by **Tmercier834747** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 5:24 pm

I think the purpose of the R/O is to eliminate the buildup of such ''additives'' created by evaporation. In my new open top tank I seem to see a need for it as the water can drop 1" per week, so even after a water change a lot of leftover stuff is concentrated in the remaining water, and adding more tap water I guess just intensifies this with each water change. That's my theory anyway, built from tidbits of info here and there..

I think a mix of tap and R/O alternating might be best for your fishies in the long run, don't ask me quantities or times or any crap like that. I'm just guessing here. =P

by **Snowboss4492** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:27 pm

RO is just pure filtered water..........it really brings no benifiet to the tank in and of itself..............BUT.......... it also doesn't bring chlorines, well minerals, silicas and other such nusances that regular tap water has aong with bactierias and the like...........I use straight RO only in my salt system and have had no problems but PH and othe parameters are handled with sand and live rock and filtration basically naturally........i don't add anything chem wise ever and so far its worked for me

Serial32 has fresh water and uses straight RO as well with no addatives either

if your chaseing PH - -i would suggest drift wood ..............chaseing PH in a fresh water tank with chems is basically a grenade...........as soon as you stop the chem ....................boom ...............right back where it was..........again Serial32 dropped his with driftwood .....and it looks really nice too i might add, lol

Boss

by **Zambize4899** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:19 am

Boss -

I like the idea of driftwood, and I've put some in a couple of small Betta tanks just to see what it looks like. However, I'm not sure how much driftwood I would need for a 37 gallon tank, and I know the pieces would be too darned big to soak or boil in anything I have. I've been boiling the other small pieces and that's worked out fine. What do people do in this situation? I need to lower the pH like NOW.

BTW, so if R/O doesn't lower the pH, it's just used because it is cleaner?

Zambize

by **Snowboss4492** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:43 am

pretty much.....lol .........in my case {salt water} i have very high silica in my well water and silica is like crack to algae ,lol, so i use it because it doesn't promote any negatives in the system

I can'r say how much drift wood to use .......serial32 has a 29 gallon and i'd say theres a 20 lb chunk in his ................the ting i didn't care for was at first it turned his water brown like tea as the wood "bled" but a few water changes later and it's cleaned up nicely......................he didn't boil it at all....jyst dealt with the tea water for a few weeks and it's beautiful now

wish i could be more help..........Boss

by **zambize** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:06 am

Boss, that is a big help actually. I'll contact Serial for more details. I've had about 6 fish die in the last 7-10 days, and that's about half my stock. When I do a fish count, I just carry my net with me now. I think my high pH is killing fish, so any help is big.

Zambize

by **Tmercier834747** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 12:39 am

I'm so ignored...sheesh. =P At last it takes boss with grenade illustrations to get you to buy a woodfish! Psh!

by **Zambize4899** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:20 am

Oh but T -- it is the *accumulation* of driftwood advice that has shown me the light. LOL

Zambize

Do I need additives when using R/O water?

8 posts