Fertilizer VS R/O water

[dean9922]

I have to get into a Reverse Osmosis, so i can give my discus better water conditions. My question is, if you add Fertilizers to the water after you have mixed your r/o water and regular water to get the TDS level down to a more acceptable level, does adding the ferts change anything. Just wondering if anyone is doing r/o and ferts, hopefully this is not a dumb question, just want to know the facts before hand....thank you in advance for anyone who answers back.

[Chad Hughes]

Fertilizers are typically salts and will influence (incresase) your TDS. It's really not necessary to use RO water in planted tanks unless you know that your water is contaminated or has high levels of specific elements and requires higher level filtration.

If your water is suitable for drinking, I would just use tap water. RO water is typically only employed for breeding discus and in that case you shouldn;t have a need for fertilizers. Your breeding tank should be bare.

Hope that helps!

[dean9922]

Thanks Chad and good point....I guess the question I was asking was if it did change the TDS in the water period by using ferts, which you did answer. I am going to get a R/O unit fairly soon, so that if any of my discus do pair up the conditions would be right for them once they go into a breeding tank (with no plants for sure.) My discus are getting to be 4-5 inches now and hoping they will soon show signs of pairing up.

Anyway, thanks for responding.

[Chad Hughes]

You bet!

You can use the waste from the RO filter for water changes in your grow out/community tanks. That's what I do! :)

Best wishes!