RO water confusion!?!?!

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Ewest

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Jan 16, 2015
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So i am not getting discus as i cant right now nor do i have the experience needed. However i have been reading around about them just for the sake of learning. However there seems to be a lot of confusion when it comes to using RO water. Lets suppose your well water is completely un-usable for discus. Mine is a good example 8+Ph easy and a KH of 18+. So you have to use RO water, what all do you need to add to it? Kent RO right says it adds back the trace minerals needed but than says you must stabilize the PH. How exactly to you do this the same every time and keep things sable?! :irked:
 

Star_Rider

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Dec 21, 2005
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i use it on my Altum and keep straight RO in the tank....it really depends on what you are planning to keep...
keep in mind that many Discus and Angels are domestic and have been acclimated to a variety of pH.
wild caught fish are a different subject... and are treated much different than many domestic strains.. tho even the wilds can slowly be acclimated to stock pH..
I'd avoid liquid rock with those sensitive specie

that said if you determine you need to use RO you will need to get in the habit of using storage tanks .. the water in the tanks is set up with the correct temp and pH with the correct minerals and is used for the water changes...the water is set up with time to stabilize...

I do the same with my Altum and any wild Discus I get...
 

Star_Rider

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yes, my alum tank has no additives put back in.. Altum come from water that is very low pH read below 6 usually in the 5.5 or lower range.. their wateis high in tannins low in dissolved solids(blackwater)
they are born in low tds blackwater, transported in the same water.. often kept in conditioned water until sold.. they often come in already suffering.. so it is usual to put them back in low pH low tds water that has had peat filtration added pH is below 6 .. now with this in mind bacteria that consume ammonia is nearly non existant(however, there is some reseach looking into bacteria that live in these waters that actually handle the nitrification issues) but that said.. ammonia NH3 is easily converted to NH4 in the acidic water soit isn't a problem, bacteria that affect our normal fish are also less prolific in the low pH acidic water so there are fewer bacteria issues as a result.. the fish can then be conditioned slowly to our std tap.. close eye must be kept tho as you will need to adjust for nitrification as well as other pH related issues.. my Altum have never been fully acclimated to tap so I continue to use
RO have done so for 4-5 years now..

BTW Altum are the giants of the freshwater Angel world I have some that with fins are easily 11-12" tall
 

Star_Rider

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that will largely depend on your source water.. I rarely use RO for my domestic dicus but my pH is 6.8 kh 3-4 gh 6-7..basically low tds and acidic
 

jpappy789

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I believe the post is saying that you can use peat directly with tap, rather than RO. While that can work, the thing with RO/DI is that you're pretty much guaranteed to be starting from scratch assuming everything is properly maintained. With peat, you may end up with different results depending on the source water and the type or quality of peat. This is all theoretical though, I don't mess with peat and aquarium water myself. Perhaps Agro can elaborate.
 

Star_Rider

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jpappy is correct.. using ro/di will bring the pH down.. the water would have no capacity to swing the RO water to a different pH..
One reason to use RO is to 'control' the water.. RO will have little to no kh/gh and thus has little to no buffering capacity.. it is important in marine tanks as well as Wild fish tanks...
in both cases you want full control of the water so you can buffer according to the needs of the fish.

In FW set up wild caught fish are not acclimated to TDS.. Altums are known to be notoriously difficult due to this factor.. the fish thrive in acidic water and are not exposed to bacteria as many bacteria cannot survive in the extremely low pH.

you can slowly acclimate Altum to higher pH but still they thrive in low pH low tds....

the same can be said of Discus tho many of the domestic strains are adapted to higher pH and TDS that the original discus came from.

keep in mind it isn't always the pH that can be the problem but may actually be TDS...
 
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