Haha yeah nitrates. Mistyped it. Well my nitrates are off the chart. I've been doing daily water changes of 50% and it'll go back down to around 80 but the next day it'll shoot off the charts again. I've cleaned out my filter and its still doing this. Also cut feedings back to once a day. Also I live in riverside where the water is second worse in the nation so this will save me money and time with lugging drinking water around. And after my lease is up with this place I'm still gonna stay within the city so I assume the nitrates are gonna be the same elsewhere iin the area
Looks good. Remember that you will need to replace the buffers and minerals. I like Seachems alkaline and acid buffers. They have a formula on the bottles that tells you how much per gallon to add for each to get a desired PH and KH. Just choose your target PH/KH and eventually through water changes it will level out at that.
If you don't add buffers your KH will drop too low eventually and you will have PH swings which is very dangerous. You could just mix tap water in with the RO but then it sorta defeats the purpose of having RO.
Several products are available to add the minerals and trace elements back to the water, Seachem has Equilibrium, there is a product called RO right and some people just use wondershells.
Good luck, you will love the way yur tank looks with RO and not having to struggle with water is a big plus too.
Looks good. Remember that you will need to replace the buffers and minerals. I like Seachems alkaline and acid buffers. They have a formula on the bottles that tells you how much per gallon to add for each to get a desired PH and KH. Just choose your target PH/KH and eventually through water changes it will level out at that.
If you don't add buffers your KH will drop too low eventually and you will have PH swings which is very dangerous. You could just mix tap water in with the RO but then it sorta defeats the purpose of having RO.
Several products are available to add the minerals and trace elements back to the water, Seachem has Equilibrium, there is a product called RO right and some people just use wondershells.
Good luck, you will love the way yur tank looks with RO and not having to struggle with water is a big plus too.
Yes, pH would swing rather quickly in RO DI water. The RO unit does not only remove nitrates but also everything else, giving only pure H2O. That means buffers are also removed. When you add into your tank, any change in the water parameter would cause the pH to swing, stressing the fish.
Like prober suggusted, you can use commercial buffers like Seachem's equlibrium or dilute it with tap water. 1 part of tap water to 1 part of RO water would bring nitrates down to 20ppm. 3 parts of RO would bring it down to 10ppm. I would prefer to do the latter (dilution). Commercial buffers can get pricey. Also when you add tap water, you do not really lose all of the buffer capacity. Just remember to add dechlorinator.
KH is the hardness of the water. One of the 5 important water parameters to keep in check.
Yes, pH would swing rather quickly in RO DI water. The RO unit does not only remove nitrates but also everything else, giving only pure H2O. That means buffers are also removed. When you add into your tank, any change in the water parameter would cause the pH to swing, stressing the fish.
Like prober suggusted, you can use commercial buffers like Seachem's equlibrium or dilute it with tap water. 1 part of tap water to 1 part of RO water would bring nitrates down to 20ppm. 3 parts of RO would bring it down to 10ppm.
So just adding equilibrium is good enough then? I'm not gonna mix 1 part tap and 1 part RO as that kinda defeats the purpose. Sucks though cause I thought I was saving money on water conditioner and now I have to buy another chemical
Oh and you also have to aerate the water with an air pump for like a day or so. Remember, oxygen is also removed from the water and you need to let oxygen dissolve back from the atmosphere.
Oh and you also have to aerate the water with an air pump for like a day or so. Remember, oxygen is also removed from the water and you need to let oxygen dissolve back from the atmosphere.
Yeah, that's what I do and I throw my spare heater in there as well so that it is exactly the same temp as my tanks.
I would just get some Equilibrium. It is not too pricey since you won't be using that much.
KH is carbonate hardness and GH is general hardness. They sell a kit that has both tests in it and it can be quite usefull. For instance I was able to test the water in the bags that my LFS sells their fish in and found that they use straight RO water with no additives. This probably explains why the fish from this store are not very hardy since the water can have rapid PH swings and acclimating fish to a normal tank takes much longer than usual. I now use the drip method and give the fish an extra long time to adjust to the water before adding them to the tank.
KH is the measure of how stable the water will hold a PH value but it has little to do with what that value is. Your PH could be at 6 or at 8 and with plenty of KH it will stay there and will return to that value slowly even after adjusting the PH with products like PH up or PH down. This is because of the buffers in the water. PH up adds no buffers, it just changes the PH. Those products can cause a rollercoaster effect of PH swings.
I hope that's a typo and you mean nitrAtes.