Reverse Osmoisis Unit

[Del]

Does using RO water bring down Ph levels?

Where do you buy units from?

Any other information would be much appreciated. :D

[Ben]

Hi Del,

this is your place to buy from!

http://www.psifilters.com.au/index.htm

give him a buzz (toll free number)
and all your questions will be answered!

With mine, when first using a new carbon cartridge it jumps the ph up for around 1000 litres then it comes down to around 7.2.

i think it goes up due to the omnipure carbon cartridge, something to do with the coconut carbon me thinks.

Del what is the Total disloved salt reading do you have with your water? GH.

cheers,

Ben

[Del]

Hey Ben

My GH is sitting at 8.

PH 7.5
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
Ammonia .5
KH 4
Iron .25
Temp 27

It is a 3ft planted tank that has been running for about 3 years - past 8 months with an Eheim 2213 and discus (which I killed 3 months ago). Currently in there are 11 cardinals, 2 rummynose, 4 flying foxes, 2 ottos, 1 cory and a dwarf gourami.

I put a coralife 9w sterilizer on about 3 weeks ago and am planning to pick up 4 discus this afternoon...

Hoping that using RO water might assist with not killing these...?

What do you think?

Thanks, DEL

[Ben]

Hi Del,
Is that 8 or 80 ppm GH?
I think it might be 80 PPM.

To be totally honest i dont think you will need to use R/O water for your tank, specially if you have only 1 tank, but in saying that you might want to set up a unit for the house hold.
At the moment i am using only %5-%10 R/O water with filtered water, just for breeders.

Having an R/O unit is not really neccasary with Australian water.

Maybe turn the temp up 1 more dregree to 28 .c
Having the coralife UV with make your tank crystal clear and keep the nasties under wraps.
(is that a coralife turbo twister? )

If possible buy a 200 litre food grade drum, age your water with an airstone in that for 24 hours, heat if neccasary and use that water.

Also maybe add a small piece of peat in your filter and this will lower the PH just a touch.

Let me know if i can be of any more help,
cheers,

Ben

[Del]

Sorry Ben - apparently when doing my test correctly :oops: it says that my GH is 143.20ppm (as every drop used x 17.9 = ppmGH). I just forgot to do the math for the end result. :?

Is this too high for Discus? Does RO water bring down the GH?

I'll add the peat to the filter and monitor the parameters over the next few days.

(Yes it is a coralife turbo twister 9w that I bought. I also do age my water with 2 airstones and a heater for 24 hours, using Aquatan conditioner at a double dose - sorry as I forgot to mention it.)

[Ben]

Hi Del,
143 ppm GH is fine, unless down the track you would like to breed discus you will get better success with a lower GH, but your discus and friends will be fine in that water.
Just a touch of peat in the cannister will lower the PH and GH slightly.
But remember the lower the GH the water will become unstable and the tank might get a PH crash, so just keep up the water changes.

Save yourself some money and dont double dose with aquatan, just use the recommended quantity as per the bottle.

With %100 R/O water it is void of all minerals and salts and if %100 r/o water was used for discus the would gradually die. as they too need small traces of minerals in the water. Thats why people with an R/O unit usually blend it with filtered tap water to get a balance.

If you do lots of water changes, add a touch of peat in the cannister your discus will be fine.


HTH,
Ben

[Del]

My other half will be pleased that I don't have to splurge on an RO Unit... !

Will add peat to the aging water today and monitor.

Thanks for all your help Ben. :D

[Ben]

No Problems Del.



A good peat to use is Sera Super Peat, it comes in 500 grams and cost just under $10.

You can do 2 things,

1/ Buy 2 packets of the above peat and fill up some stockings and place in the drum.

but a better way that will get better results is to set up a small drum above the water drum that will hold the peat, drill many holes in the bottom.
Using a water pump, pump the water up and onto the top drum so the water flows through the peat and into the large water drum.
This is basically called a "peat bomb"

Because the water flows through the peat, this method will work better than simply hanging peat in the drum.

Oh, if you have a spare cannister filter, you can fill it with peat and have it running in the water aging drum.

HTH

Ben