How to Dr. RO for a planted tank.

J

jaylin

Don't ask if you don't want to know
Aug 14, 2005
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Denver-ish Colorado.
Hey all, I'll be moving into my new house soon and I'm sort of excited because I'll have access to RO water. But, I've never had RO when I've had planted tanks so I know I'll be needing to add back some trace elements and things to the water. I'll probably be using florite (or maybe eco-complete if I can find it locally), I'll have some bog wood and I'll be getting something to buffer the tank at a lower, blackwater type, pH level. But I am worried about what else the plants will need since I'll be starting with RO.

So is there anyone else who runs a south american planted type tank starting fresh from RO who could help me out?

TIA.
 
Just use regular tap. Its much easier and there is absolutely no reason to use RO water for a planted tank unless you need super soft water for breeding.
 
Actually, there are a lot of reasons. All the water going into the house is on a water softner, which is softened using salt. I plan to have corys and quite a few other south american types that wouldn't appreciate that at all. Plants don't really like it too well either. The water in Colorado is pretty hard and the pH is pretty high so even if I got the water from outside where it's just plain munciple tap, it will be too hard for most the fish I want to keep. And then there's the question of how to get that much water from outside to inside (can't use a regular garden hose to fill a fish tank.) So, I'm left reconstituting RO.

And I do plan to breed some angles and corys. Well, angles for sure becase that's pretty easy. Breeding corys will be new to me but I'm going to give it a go. So, um, yea ... I need advice from someone who actually reconstitutes their RO for planted tanks.
 
Good luck then, I can tell you that you are going to have to look pretty hard to find somebody who reconstitutes RO water for a planted tank.

Think about this too. The lfs you get your fish from.......in all likelihood uses municipal tap water. I have heard of a lot of breeding both cories AND angels in not so soft water.

Another thing is, 95% of the plants you are going to be able to get are not particular about water hardness...very few require soft water. Erios come to mind.

Go to Home Depot and get the length of clear hose you need in the plumbing dept and get whatever fittings you may need.

If you are hard lined in using RO water, use Seachem Equlibrium and expensive test kits.

If you want an easier way to soft water, cut your pre softened tap water with RO water, say 50/50 or until its the desired softness.
 
247Plants said:
Good luck then, I can tell you that you are going to have to look pretty hard to find somebody who reconstitutes RO water for a planted tank.
Click to expand...

I find that hard to believe since a lot of discus owners/breeders start with RO and plant their tanks.

Guess I'll try to find a discus forum ....
 
jaylin -

I use a RO/DI system.

Seachem has two products to be used in tandem; they are called acid buffer and alkaline buffer. If I remember correctly, you use the alkaline buffer to get the required hardness and then the acid buffer to get the desired pH.
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/AcidBuffer.html
http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/AlkalineBuffer.html

I used these products on a 90g freshwater planted tank that was dedicated to sword plants, tetras, cory's and angels.

BTW, the (reputable) lfs shops around my area are using RO/DI.

Chris
New Orleans
 
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pure RO/DI will not have any buffering in it at all. if doing large daily water changes no big deal.
or you can simply buffered it using replacement minerals.

you may also try mixing ro/di with existing water. does the softener system in the house use a bypass?
you do have to consider the source for the fish and the Gh of the water may determine how you acclimate the fish to your tanks.
 
I'd search GH Booster (I think Rex Grigg does this on the cheap) and Blackwater additives.

Relligious and judicious use of one or both of these should have you swimming in softwater fry in no time.
 
Ihave discus in a 125 gal planted tank...
My tap water Ph is about 8.9+
my water is so hard you could walk on it.

I have a 100GPD R/O set up in my basement.

I mix the R/o water and tap water in my tank to get a ph closer to 7.5
it brings my GH from 15 down to about 7. and removes alot of the iron
(I have a softener too, I use a deionizer to remove ions from th softener)

I use plantex CSM+B (1/2 tsp per day!) to dose trace elements,
I test for Iron, Phosphates, Nitrate, and sometimes Phospherus.
I run pressurized co2. I do 30gal water changes daily.
So far I have had no problems.

AS 247 said, the fis you buy might be bred locally and be acclimated to the water in the area you are moving to. I would inquire at the store where youplan on making the purchase. Ask what their params are.
What else would you like to know?
 
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