RO water additives?

[troy]

Hi all

Soon i should have my Ro unit from Randel.
I have read that you need to use RO Right , dicsus esentials and vitamin supplement to make RO water suitable for the discus. I now hear that a Ph Stablilizers are needed also.
Is this what is needed to to do the job.

Troy

[Cosmo]

I've been running 100% RO in my tanks for close to a year now, so I do have some knowledge since my Discus suffered through many weeks of trial and error while I searched for the solution.

RO Right is great to add GH, does next to nothing for KH. I experienced crash after PH crash until I discovered Kent PH Stable, never a problem since. Neither contain phosphates or nitrates either so it helps keep algea growth to a minimum.

I also add Kent Discus Essentials to make sure all the trace elements are there.

To the best of my knowledge (which on this subject is somewhat limited), vitamins only work when injested so they should be used soaked into the food before feeding rathter than added to your RO water.

Would recommend RO Right in powder form over liquid - much easier to use and I've found it to be more consistent in results. Buy it in 1lb or larger and the cost is reasonable. The Kent PH Stable can be bought in 1/2lb jars and that lasts a long time since you only add about 1/2 tsp per every 35 gal of RO (at least I do - but- I use RO/DI so my water comes out fairly acidic while your may not). The Discus Essentials can be bought in the 64oz size and again is fairly reasonable.

If you buy these in the little jars at your LFS, they cost 2 to 4 times more than if you order them only. I've found Pet Solutions to have the best prices on these in the sizes above, if you want to go all out and get the giant sized - Custom Aquatics carriers RO Right in up to 25lb containers.

Used to mix in some Electro Right but din't see any difference without it so I've gotten lazy and stopped doing that very often - beside, can only find it in 16oz so it goes too fast.

I tried Seachem products first, but didnt' have near the success, and, found they contain phosphates so I thru them in the garbage (fast).

hth
Jim

Hi all,

I go a different route then Jim does.
I use 100 % R/O and use the formula described in this tread.
It worked well for me so far.
So you have already 2 choices :)

I would also recommend a TDS or Conductance reader,
makes your life allot easier.

Here is the link to the tread
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=15776;st art=0

hth Ronald

[troy]

Good info guys,
Just what i was wanting to Know.
I have another question , do you need calibration fluid for your conductivity meter.

Cheers all

Yep,
You do need calibration fluid for your conductivity meter.
Even though I calibrated mine a few times and had not to adjust it at all. Maybe I just got lucky.

Ronald

[Cosmo]

Hammerhead,

A couple things,
1 - My apologies - thatfishplace.com is the site to get the bulk Kent products from, not petsolutions.com
2 - Definately you need calibration solution. If you also have a digital PH meter, you also need both storage and cleaning solution as well as the 2 calibation fluids.

Hi Ronald,

Gonna have to check out the thread you noted when I get home.

Jim

[Cosmo]

Ronald, didn't realize I'd read your thread before. From the response you got it works great, but thinking I'm sticking with my current way for the time being.

In answer to a question posted on the other thread, TDS, or , ppm, is roughly half what the conductivity reading is. The coversion ratio is something like 1.9 to 1 according to Hanna Instruments (I have a Hanna DiSt that reads both ppm or conductivity so I called and checked since it seemed strange there was such a straightforward mathematical relationship).

Your reading of 300 on the conductivity meter is just under 150 ppm. I keep mine a little softer at 130 to 135 ppm. With PH Stable, I have brought it down as low as 45 (90 conductivity) with no problems with ph crashing.
Jim

[troy]

Yep,

I also get my supplies shipped over from thatfishplace.com.
They are very cheap compared to shops over here.
Anyone know if RO removes nitrites, i read somewhere that they do not remove them.

[Cosmo]

Hammerhead,

Not sure, but I think you're right that they don't. Guess I could test it though. Just got the city water supply and they peg the nitrate level at 10ppm. A lot else to do first though, but when I can I'll check it out.

Jim