Recommendations on tap water parameters

Afternoon all, this is my first post.

I come from a marine background, having worked in the industry and kept everything with gills previously. My issue is, I've been out of the hobby for over a decade so I'm a bit rusty.

I did some testing on my tap water and found the following -

pH = 6.5
kH = 3
Ammonia = 1mg/l
Phosphate = 0
Iron = 0
Copper = 0.3mg/l

With those parameters, do you think I need to be using RO water for water changes? I figure a correctly cycled tank will take care of the Ammonia but the Copper is a bit of an issue given this is a community tank (90ish gallons, 100cmx60cmx60cm) and I'd like to have a few shrimp in there. There's copper absorbing filter media but I wanted to be super cautious and ask you fine people for your input.

If I do indeed need to use RO, I'm assuming Seachem Equilibrium should do the job mineralising the water given my pH and kH are already in tolerable range?

Thanking you all for your time in advance.

I see no reason to use R/O at all.

Thanks mate. Do you think I need to buffer my water slightly to raise the gH? I can take care of the copper and chloramine with some Prime-like products.

It's the kH that has the buffering properties, not the gH. With a kH of 3 you're fine as long as you do daily WC.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IBTROLLIN

Thanks mate. Do you think I need to buffer my water slightly to raise the gH? I can take care of the copper and chloramine with some Prime-like products.

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Per Liz, there's no need to buffer for discus. But soft water means that regular water changes are necessary to prevent pH crashes that could wipe out other species.