What do you re-constitute your RO/DI water with and why?

bsmith

bsmith

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May 29, 2007
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Im going to be setting up my RO/DI filter tomorrow and would like to know what everyone does to make there water un-sterile.

I like the cheapness of just using tap but it seems kind of hard to do accurately. I also have never done this before so Seachem and other companies additives are all unfamiliar to me and I just want to do this correct.
 
Not really that hard if you know the GH/KH of your tap. Determine your tap levels, and your desired hardness level, and then determine what ratio of tap to RO/DI will give you what you want.

So for example...my tap has a hardness up to 320 ppm / 18 dH (it does vary a bit depending on weather patterns). If I want to lower it to approximately 80 ppm/~5 dH, I'd use one gallon of tap water to every three gallons of RO/DI.

Edit: As to why...I actually only cut my tap in half, and I have a small tanks so everything is done by the bucket anyway. It's easy enough to put in 2.5 gallons of one, and 2.5 gallons of another. I started doing so after every SA dwarf I bought would slowly waste away while everything else did fine...no mysterious deaths since. Plus, I no longer have to scrape limescale off the tank every week or two.
 
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Aphotic Phoenix said:
Not really that hard if you know the GH/KH of your tap. Determine your tap levels, and your desired hardness level, and then determine what ratio of tap to RO/DI will give you what you want.

So for example...my tap has a hardness up to 320 ppm / 18 dH (it does vary a bit depending on weather patterns). If I want to lower it to approximately 80 ppm/~5 dH, I'd use one gallon of tap water to every three gallons of RO/DI.

Edit: As to why...I actually only cut my tap in half, and I have a small tanks so everything is done by the bucket anyway. It's easy enough to put in 2.5 gallons of one, and 2.5 gallons of another. I started doing so after every SA dwarf I bought would slowly waste away while everything else did fine...no mysterious deaths since. Plus, I no longer have to scrape limescale off the tank every week or two.
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I was thinking about doing the same thing but I just like the consistency of adding an additive.
 
bsmith said:
I was thinking about doing the same thing but I just like the consistency of adding an additive.
Click to expand...

If you mix the exact same amount of additive every time yes it is more consistent to use a powder, but there is still margin for difference. Another factor is how much water you change at once as well. I usually don't change more than 50% a week so any shift in the hardness from local reserves gets averaged out reasonably well.
 
Aphotic Phoenix said:
If you mix the exact same amount of additive every time yes it is more consistent to use a powder, but there is still margin for difference. Another factor is how much water you change at once as well. I usually don't change more than 50% a week so any shift in the hardness from local reserves gets averaged out reasonably well.
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I just don't think I want any of the stuff from my tap water back in the tanks. Now I just need to settle between GH booster and Equilibrium.
 
By the looks of your avatar, are you keeping Discus? If so I find a small amount of tap (5 gallons to each 50 gallons) plus I use seachem's neutral regulator. If you dont add tap, your going to need to use something to put some trace elements back into the water.
 
I do have discus but im not trying to breed them.
 
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