R/O Right .. What now?

[remikz]

I bought some R/O right to treat my water with..

I will also need a PH buffer.. i think i'll use Bicarbonate of soda for now...

How much bicarb should I use?? and

How slowly overall should I go from my current water chemistry to R/O Right treated water?


At the mo.. my tank is very soft... 0-50 ppm and 20uS.


PLease help..


--Ian

Hi again Ian

If you use R/O right you might not need any additional buffer.
The minerals that you add with R/O right already buffer the water.
Best way is to have some kind of Bin where you pre treat your tap water. Make a test with a small amount of R/O right (1/4 teaspoon) to find out how much the conductivity rises.
What is your W/C schedule ?
If it is per day you might be just fine with the buffer you get from the R/O right.
If there is a need for more buffer you also could add a small amount of crushed coral (at you LFS sold for salt water tank) placed in a Panty Hose in your filter. Rinse it well. That gives some buffer minerals slowly and does not have a large impact on the conductivity/Tds overall.

Sodium Bicarbonate will lose its capacity after 24hrs or so. If you use that, keep it in mind if you pre treat the water. Most ppl. pretreat the water over a 24 hrs. period and then add it to the Tank.

A KH hardness of 50 ppm/2.8 dKH is low but not too low. By adding R/O right you increase that parameter also and you could be just fine. The 20uS need to be higher. Set at around 250.

Start changing with the pre treated water. I would suggest about 30 % per day would do.

hth Ronald

[remikz]

Are the condutivity readings... 'uS' and '°dGH' Directly related?


I don't understand how I can raise my conductivity (uS) readings without raising the dGH and kH.


If 'uS' = 200 then does that automatically mean that dGH and kH will be a certain amount? Are they related directly? Or can the conductivity (uS) be high while the other one is low?


Aahhh i'm so confused...



--Ian

[remikz]

OK OK, here's a little formular... Is this correct..?


8 or 9 GH = 300uS = 200ppm


??

So if I know ANY of them, then I can work out what the others are? roughly...?


Say I knew my GH was 9 then I would also know that my Conductivity was around 300uS and that my TDS was around 200ppm...

I'm sorry for being a pain.. I'm really greatful for your help! I'm just confused and worried for my fish


--Ian

Hi Ian,

It is my understanding that you can not assume if you have a certain dKH or dGH you have a fixed Cond./Tds.
Tds is a measurement for all dissolved solids in the water. Conductivity is the measurement of the conductance which occurs between the minerals.
GH and KH include only a few minerals from the total. As example: If you add only calcium carbonate you will change some factors and others not. Same goes with other things one could add to the Water. In any case the Cond/Tds will be changed .
If you would add Muriatic Acid you would impact the KH down wards and cond. upwards. So you see there are lots of ways to fiddle around.

Your goal is to fiddle as little if at all. The more you adjust the water the higher the risk of instability.

By adding R/O right only you should be fine.
I can e-mail you a article referring to GH, KH, TDS and Conductivity if you want and if I find it.

Hth Ronald

Good advise Ronald. I agree!!

Tony
Ps....conductivity is the measure of ANYTHING disolved in the water that is capable of conducting electricity, not just minerals. Disolved organics would also register.

Thanks for the correction Tony

Ronald

Are you using the liquid or dry mix RO Right? The liquid doesnt have any buffer in it, but the dry does.

I mix pure ro with the RO right in a tub that heats and airates. One thing is i use a tds meter for checking how much to use, the dropper test kits for checking hardness dont seem to like Ro right, readings all over the place. i usually add until my tds is 125-150ppm, according to kent that should give me about 3-3.5 dKH. at 125ppm i get about 0.1-0.2 ph swing over 24 hours.

K now this next part, feel free to correct me...

100ppm tds = 200ms/us conductivity. RandalB knows this one like the back of his hand...look up some of his posts about the conversions. i think conductivity is twice ppm.

Tony, He also mentioned most cheap TDS meters are simply conductivity meters programmed to show half the value to give ppm readings. Randal, feel free to correct me on this i dont remmeber your post that well

as far as i know (read), your GH and KH can vary but will roughly add up to your TDS/conductivity/whatever.

hth

Hey Josh

No need to correct you....you pretty much nailed it.

As for the TDS meters...yup..they're just conductivity meters with a conversion factor programed into em. And your right about GH and KH roughly adding up to the measured conductivity/TDS. It CAN get thrown off though...best example I can think of is salt (sodium chloride) Next time you have salt in your tank...take a reading with your TDS/Cond. meter. It'll be through the roof ...yet the sodium chloride has zero to do with GH/KH.

Tony

Hi Tony

yeah i made sure to mix salt in the buckets as im moving water from the aging tanks, no salt at all in the tub so it doesnt throw off my readings. 2 tablespoons and my tds goes up into the thousands, and i need to take everything out and give it a good rinsing to get any accuracy with the tds again.

take it easy

[remikz]

Hello everyone...

I've added my R/O right and taken a test of my water with the TDS meter

The result?

The meter read 38 which converts into about 11°Hardness


The formula the meter uses to work this out is...

38 (reading) x 10 = 380 divide by 33 (uS) = 11.5dg Hardness..

Is the 14.5 GH?




ps) Here is the WEB link for the TDS meter I am using..

It is the 'TDS 3'

http://www.jbrasil.com.br/transinstrumento/tds.htm

--Ian

I for one would be very careful about using any formula to converting TDS?Cond…. readings into GH or KH values.
As example:
You add calcium sulfate and your GH will raise, as well your TDS/Con.., but not your KH.

Now you could use a formula based on TDS and then try to convert into KH, and already you have miscalculated.

Or you add sodium bicarbonate and your KH will raise, as well as your TDS/Con.., but not your GH.

Now you could use a formula based on TDS and then try to convert into GH, and already you have miscalculated.

Calcium carbonate will increase both KH and GH in equal parts.

Besides (not having seen that formula) it appears to me that that is not right.

Hth Ronald

[ReeferKimberly]

wow i thought i would be able to help, as i know and measure all these things. sorry, just a bit too confusing and over my head. I'm done with math in HS. no calculous for me!
kimberly :-*

Ronald...

I use my TDS readings as a reference point to match water in my aging tanks for wc's. According to Kent, and thats the one thing id like to check more closely, is about 40% of my tds is KH. 230ppm tds = 100ppm KH.

Dropper test kits dont give good readings off it so ive just been going off what the box says and watching my ph levels. Once my tds has been set with the RO right, then i start mixing soda bicard or salt into my wc buckets. if i mix it in the main aging tank then my tds is screwed and i cant get accurate readings. Sends it through the roof :

When i said tds will roughly match KH+GH, that was just a general guess, salt and soda bicarb or anything else you add to your water will change it, like you said ;D

Hi BlkWolfe,

I don’t have enough knowledge to say if a TDS reader is able to determine what solids in % are measured. :-\

My point of being skeptical is that from city to city the components of tap water varies. As we all know some use Water which they call Liquid Rock others have prob. to stabilize theirs.
There could be the case that 2 cities have similar water readings in TDS but are different in GH and KH.

If one uses pure R/O and then adds Kent R/O right he/she would know the % of the minerals added according to the product description. Same goes with personal recipes.
So if Kent says that 40% is equal to .... that would be right.

In case of mixing R/O with Tap that would not be correct unless one knows the components of the Tap.

Kim,
It only seems confusing

Ronald