Oh....so now you do agreed with re-mineralisation! Do you dechlorinate the tap water that you add in? If so how.
Are rays better off in high ph/tds waters
- Thread starter skynoch
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Oh....so now you do agreed with re-mineralisation! Do you dechlorinate the tap water that you add in? If so how.
I will throw in my $.02. I have been keeping my FLOWER and Leo in a RO Drip 24/7 tank buffered by large amounts of Coral Calcium and Aragonite in the sump. I monitor the PH with two electric monitors which hang around 6.75 to 7.20. The TDS are at about 81 to 86. My Nitrate are at about 5 to 10. I use a 3 stage RO unit with filters from the filter guys using their Chloramine cartridges. http://www.thefilterguys.biz/index.htm I'm in Indianapolis. We have the 2nd worst water in the country. (Phoenix is #1.) I asked my local water utility company for a report and it is not good. Stuff like very low levels of Arsenic! I know what it does to my skin/dishes/etc. This water may be great for fish that thrive in hard water but I'm not sure it would be so beneficial for rays. Not saying you can't do it, I just want to give mine the best opportunity. My water bill has gone up about $30 per month.
Am i lucky here in Norway having TDS 100 straight from the tap? What gets me confused is this, TDS,uS,mS , what is what, and what do you want for your fish(amazone).. What is most important of those factors.. I belive with wildcaught discus, you have to go veeery low on one of them to even get them to play, and for the eggs to hatch..
I have bin thinking of getting an RO unit myselfe, for my discus(and maybe rays). But im not sure if i need any when i already have TDS 100..
I have bin thinking of getting an RO unit myselfe, for my discus(and maybe rays). But im not sure if i need any when i already have TDS 100..
Revo, I have no problem with RO, it is people saying they drip pure RO but do nothing about re-mineralisation which you are doing. In an ideal world you need to make sure all of the trace elements go back in and that is why I would use a remineralisation designed for fish. As said before, we need to be careful as you can get an uneducated fish keeper simply flowing raw RO in to the tank and doing nothing else. You still need to aerate heavily as motoro magic is doing.
You also need to understand that it is not the rays that need remineralisation but it is the water that does...some people seem to be struggling with this.
You also need to understand that it is not the rays that need remineralisation but it is the water that does...some people seem to be struggling with this.
Yes, I agree. I forgot to mention I have 3 air pumps going. 2 bubble wands and a 8.5" bubble disk. I may even increase the pumps on those. I had been using Seachem Replenish. http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Replenish.html This is, in my opinion, a good product however a lot of sodium and kind of expensive. You also have to add it almost daily. The aragonite and coral calcium give these elements (the Calcium, the Magnesium, and Potassium , strontium, carbonate) and dissolve slowly over time. I use the Caribsea A.R.M. Aragonite Reactor Media "coarse" media which dissolves slower than the sand. http://www.caribsea.com/itempage_refugereactor_arm.htm
KISS method and stability are key.
One interesting thing to me as a side note, is that by using the Aragonite and Crushed coral I have introduced phosphates into my tank. Small amounts but enough that I think this has cause some brown algae to form on my tank. I could not figure out why I would be seeing this if I was dripping RO, but this (may) be why.
KISS method and stability are key.
One interesting thing to me as a side note, is that by using the Aragonite and Crushed coral I have introduced phosphates into my tank. Small amounts but enough that I think this has cause some brown algae to form on my tank. I could not figure out why I would be seeing this if I was dripping RO, but this (may) be why.
I like this thread its been very educational on the uses of RO and remineralisation. Think we could do with more sensible members posting their thoughts/ experiences of RO use on here.
Actually I think this is a great thread even if there is a few disagreements nothing is out of hand and I can see where people are getting frustrated as alot of things can be missed when writing down things and not actually being able to communicate face to face. I have also read somewhere that rays get there water from the food they eat, I'll try and find a link later. When I started this thread I didn't realize where it would go or what other questions it may bring up. The one thing I'm wondering and am lacking experience in is that what is going to be the differences when dripping through different filters. I know most drip system contain a 1st stage sediment filter then a 2nd stage carbon filter, now some people use a 3rd stage carbon filter or hma (never used a hma so not sure if this is the correct stages for them). So with both of these systems our ph will stay the same but we will be removing different minerals. Even with these systems are we removing the minerals that rays need to be healthy? I know with my sediment/carbon/carbon my tds drops from like 500 to 490 so not much of a difference but I still am having no problems with keeping sensitive rays. So maybe high tds is not so much as a concern as certain minerals in the water. I have three different systems 2 with drip systems on them so I will try my regular sediment/carbon/carbon on one a sediment/carbon/hma on another and just straight on another and get some readings. All I have is a tds meter and a Hagen master test kit so can't get alot of readings, I'll also grab maybe a conductivity meter if they work better than tds. I could also fire up my merlin r/o unit and get some numbers.
Toby I have 2 drip systems and 2 ros. The drip systems I use are when I refer to tap ro mix. I use just a plain Jane 3 stage drip 5 micron sediment and 2 1 micron carbon blocks.
I use the exact same thing inside my ro before the membranes .
Also with skynoch on the hma filters, but are they even much better than a 1 micron carbon block or even better .5 micron block ? But I still have not yet ordered any .5 yet but soon,next order
