Reverse osmosis for rays

[rudy]

Long story short if the tank is on a steady drip is there any issues going 100 percent ro?

My rays are affected every year during run off and rather than trying to find a solution only to be disappointed with it I would like to find something permanent.

 

[Just Toby]

In my opinion you should NEVER use 100% ro if by that you mean not reminerlised. If you drip pure ro in to the tank the ph will crash and the filter is likely to cease to operate.

I cannot work out why you would want to do it?

I run a devotedly discus heavy metal axe (hma), it removes all of the nasties but you end up with good ol water and I drip in 30 gals per day over just one hour, this keep nitrates around 20 ppm and I then change 25% at the weekend manually.

 

[calgaryflames]

Drip a bit of tap water and more ro.our water has soo much minerals I'n it i would not worry.put some peat I'n your filter too.i know a guy who uses 100% ro water with his neon tetra tank.he adds peat to a filter and they thrive.neons are I'n no way comparable to rays by any means but i would imagine they are more fragile

 

[jcardona1]

Here's the thing...pure RO water is too pure for most fish because it has no mineral content whatsoever. This mineral content is used by fish in their osmotic regulation. It also has no buffering capacity and no hardness (magnesium and calcium). The moment you introduce non-RO water, you could send the fish into osmotic shock or cause a ph crash. That's why you need to re-mineralize it, either with a tap water mix or an off-the-shelf product.

I know a few guys that keep wild discus in pure RO water, but these fish also come from waters that have extremely low TDS, somewhere around 10-30ppm. Tapwater TDS can go from 100-600ppm. This is fine because: 1) these fish are from extremely soft waters and, 2) they use strictly RO water all the time, so there's no issues with osmotic shock or ph crashes since no other source of water is used.

 

[DB junkie]

You can use 100% RO. Just use resin to reformulate. IF I'm not mistaken I think ShawnL has used 100% RO on rays since I met him shortly after becoming a member of MFK. The DI resin changes color when it's spent and you replace.

I'd suggest contacting him for more info

I've often wondered if this isn't the better route for rays.... It's closer to nature which is always a good thing, and if it's better for delicate fresh WC then why wouldn't it be better longterm?

Wonder what happens if you give rays Discus quality water? Maybe someone else wondered the same thing?

 

[rudy]

You can use 100% RO. Just use resin to reformulate. IF I'm not mistaken I think ShawnL has used 100% RO on rays since I met him shortly after becoming a member of MFK. The DI resin changes color when it's spent and you replace.

I'd suggest contacting him for more info

I've often wondered if this isn't the better route for rays.... It's closer to nature which is always a good thing, and if it's better for delicate fresh WC then why wouldn't it be better longterm?

Wonder what happens if you give rays Discus quality water? Maybe someone else wondered the same thing?

Resin????

 

[jcardona1]

You can use 100% RO. Just use resin to reformulate. IF I'm not mistaken I think ShawnL has used 100% RO on rays since I met him shortly after becoming a member of MFK. The DI resin changes color when it's spent and you replace.

What do you mean, "resin to reforumulate"? Like the powders/liquids they sell to re-mineralize the RO water? If so, then it's not 100% RO really, since you're adding back minerals and increasing the TDS content. RO/DI water is 100% pure with nothing in it. Comes out at 0ppm.

 

[flamenco-t]

You can use 100% RO. Just use resin to reformulate. IF I'm not mistaken I think ShawnL has used 100% RO on rays since I met him shortly after becoming a member of MFK. The DI resin changes color when it's spent and you replace.

DI resin will further lower the TDS reading to almost 0. DI (deionzitaion) removes more mineral and trace element that remains after it pushes through the RO membrane.

RO membrane basically a very fine mechanical filtration and the DI removes the ions that bonds some of the chemical to where you'll have pure water.

I have a triple INLINE TDS meter, Tap is 160 ppm, after RO 20-30 PPM and after DI is 0-1 PPM

To answer the original post, if your tap is too hard (well water), you can do the RO mix with Tap.

I did this in my shop, I basically drip the RO, waste water and tap water all at the same time. My tap alone was 18 DKH, PH was A LOT higher than 10.0

stan

 

[calgaryflames]

me and rudy both live in the same city we experience hell a few times a year.i have thought my rays had problems or my old lady or kid poisoned the tanks?? "never no with my family" but anyways our water is super hard ,super high mineral content the ph in spring bouces from 8.2 down to 6.5 in a couple days.our water supply also naturally contains fluoride and our city waterworks adds .7mg/l. 1.5mg/pl is not reccomended for humans so you take what we get in the river naturally add it with .7 and we are probably near 1mg of fluoride that the rays absorb.another thing they add tons of chlorine in spring also some forms of a mixture of aluminum sulphate and aluminum hydrochloride.which is frowned apon by the health community for use in drinking water supplies,again the rays absorb that.

this is why he wants to use a ro and this is why i am going to use it also.low mineral content in water will not hurt the rays.the amazon river has very low mineral content! and they absorb minerals in the foods they eat.you can add peat if you are worried about mineral content.i am yet to hear of people actually killing a ray with pure water. i think the myth may have to do with stability.i have no idea how a filter can die off because of low minerals.some stuff i hear on this site is amazing!!

 

[calgaryflames]

our ph is usually high 7s after the ro it will still be 7 or higher.plus the ro will be dripped directly how would any type of shock occur from this if their constant water dripping.i do plan on mixing myself but i really want to know if anybody has done pure ro fine with good results cause their is a few times of year that i would lke to run pure