RO water is not a chemical. It is water! Buying the water at Wal-Mart is fine.
Marinemom
Same question.. need good answers..
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RO water is not a chemical. It is water! Buying the water at Wal-Mart is fine.
Marinemom
Wal-mart has RO water?
RO water has had most of the minerals removed from the water.
the issue you would have with RO is that the water itself will be unable to regulate the PH as the buffers have been removed.if you mix it with existing tap
you will need to get a kh /gh test to see where you are with the buffers. the buffers are needed to stabilize the pH.
RO water has had most of the minerals removed from the water.
the issue you would have with RO is that the water itself will be unable to regulate the PH as the buffers have been removed.if you mix it with existing tap
you will need to get a kh /gh test to see where you are with the buffers. the buffers are needed to stabilize the pH.
Dumb quesiton here... would distilled water work to top off? how about water from a pure filter? I assume that won't do much with the hardness but it's gotta be better than treated tap water.... or not?
If you are only topping off, distilled water or RO is a great choice. When water evaporates from your aquarium, it leaves all the chemicals behind. You are basically running a very slow still that gets rid of pure water. Replacing it with pure water is a great idea. The cost can catch up with you because the fish are adding impurities all the time. Because of the impurities you must do partial water changes even if you use pure water fo makeup. The purified water is going to codt you and then you will drain some of it out to replace it when you do the mandatory water changes. It is almost a better idea to limit the amount of water between changes so that you only replace the contaminated water that a partial water change is intended to replace. The down side is how quickly the tank level can drop if you don't replace losses. I use RO water for the simple reason that it adds no chemicals but replaces the water with almost pure water. The end result is no build up but even home made RO water has a cost in terms of waste water and filter maintenance.
I use RO/DI water in top offs . if you don't add water back you are basically concentrating the pollutants.
ro/di adds water back with little to no buffers so you are not adding anymore buffers which can alter pH.
the pollutants are usually easier to remove via water changes.
the best solution is to do partial water changes during the week.
ro/di adds water back with little to no buffers so you are not adding anymore buffers which can alter pH.
the pollutants are usually easier to remove via water changes.
the best solution is to do partial water changes during the week.
