R/O water question

[mlowry]

I'm considering using exclusive R/O water in my tank, because my tap has a high PH (8) and free ammonia in it. How could I go about reconstituting the water without mixing in my "toxic tap"?

 

[themadblimper]

Try one of these products, depending on what you want:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/NavResults.cfm?N=2004+113777

 

[daveedka]

Anything but fish in the tank?

You'll need at least some form of carbonate to achieve about 2-3 dKH. Depending on fish you may "want" calcium, magnesium, and traces of other minerals. If you have plants or invertebrates you will "need" to add decent levels of Many things.
I personally would use your tap water. It is far from toxic unless there is something drastic that you didn't list in your post. At the maximum I'd mix some RO to some tap to bring it down slightly. When you adjust your Kh in RO water you'll find the pH ends up aboput 7.4-7.6 with minimum KH. The ammonia should be easy to deal with via Prime or Amquel plus and a good biofilter. Or you could set up an aging barrel with a bio-filter and use a simple dechlorinator.
Dave

 

[mlowry]

Ammonia in my tap is at about 4ppm. So even if I mixed 50% tap and 50% R/O, I'd have 2ppm. I'm still in mid cycle on my tank, and I'm worried if I use Amquel or the like, I'll stunt my bacteria growth. Is this accurate?

 

[daveedka]

Amquel or prime will not hurt the cycle. Ammonia removing resins, pillows or media will. The amquel and prime will bind the ammonia into ammonium, which doesn't harm fish, but can and will still be eaten by the bio-filter.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64301

dave

 

[Watcher74]

My tap water is 8.5 ph level. I use it in all my tanks 100%. Had them set up here for a year with no problems.