Originally Posted by
illumnae
Water in Singapore is starting to get bad for fish. Due to our lack of natural water, the country has taken to "recycling" water by recycling waste water from sewage. It's pretty gross, but the water that comes out is pure enough to drink. This water is called "Newater"
However, the downside to this is that more and more, fishkeepers are reporting fish health problems and/or deaths after some water changes. The correlation drawn is that such problems occur either during extremely hot periods, where the reservoirs dry out, or after thunderstorms, where the reservoirs have been churned up and the water contains loads of impurities. What this means is that the water plant adds in an extra large amount of Newater into our piped water. This Newater seems to affect our fish badly. With the recent weekly alternation of heavy rain and extremely hot weather, my fish are feeling it. I've lost over 10 Biotodoma wavrini in the last week due to this, and I'm fearing for the Heckels.
Due to the above, I've decided to invest in a De-Ionization unit. I know that people generally discourage DI units and advocate RO units instead. However, due to constraints I have, I will be using the DI unit (please don't give me advise on how to overcome these constraints, the DI unit is my only option). Basically, it's a 3 stage unit that contains 1 carbon block, and 2 different types of mixed-bed resins. The refills aren't too pricey so it suits me ok.
Due to space constraints, this water is coming straight from the tap into the unit and into the tank. No holding container whatsoever. I intend to have peat in my filter and indian almond leaves in the tank for tannins.
I'd just like to know, how should I reconstitute my water coming from the DI unit? Is Seachem Equilibrium sufficient? How much should I put per 100 gallons of water changed? Or should I get something like Seachem Discus Buffer + Discus Trace? Or is it ok to use the DI water "straight from the tap" (may be dangerous due to the tannic acid from peat?)?
Thanks in advance!