How to Dr. RO for a planted tank.

Yeah, you need to reconstitute. All you need to do is raise the GH and KH up. My tap water has almost no hardness and 7.4 pH out of the tap. The pH is lowered do to CO2, and I rasie the hardness to GH=6 deg and KH=4 deg using Barr's GH Booster(from aquariumfertilizer.com) and baking soda for KH.

http://www.rexgrigg.com/waterchem.htm


That can tell you how to use these products to increase your hardness.


Alternatively you can use Seachem products and their dosing guidelines.
 
Thanks everyone. I've been finding a lot of good information from some of the product sites. I have a good idea what I'll need to do now.

I do have a bypass on the softener, but it run to taps with RO (kitchen upstairs, wet bar downstairs). I've got some ideas on how I can get both normal tap and RO to my fish room, but I'm going to have to check on costs. Hopefully it's something I can do soon.

I'm sure as I get going I'll have more specifc questions, but right know, I feel confident enough to get started. All the tanks will be going up and getting plants long before I get fish, so I'll have time to play around with the water a bit.
 
I use RO/DI water in my tanks, my tap water is very very hard and has a high ph, I keep mainly discus, angels and apisto's and my tanks are planted. I started out with tap water and tried making it softer and everything was sporadic, I threw all the chemicals/ water treatment pillows out and put a RO system in. I found that if I mix 10 gallons of RO water with 5 gallons of tap water, I have a stable mix consistently. I do add DYI co2 and use flourish, flurish excel, iron. My plants and fish do quite well doing this, you may have to play with quanties to mix to get the water prims that you want. This may not work for everyone but it has worked for me.
 
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