reloading water

[SRS61*]

im new here and im trying to get a few things together. i now have a 100g reef tank, but i want to change it to a discus/amazon tank. i use a ro/di unit and i plan to use it w/ fw. from the tap i have 7.8ph and my tds is aprox. 300. im sure there are good things in that tds, but i want to limit the phosphates and nitrates that come from the tap. so from my ro unit i have a ph of 6 and a kh of about 1. im going to stop using the di because i think it's overkill. i'll just rework the plumbing to have 3 sediment filters--i have 2 now. what have people done to get there alkalinity up to 6-8gh? again, i dont want to use tap. most of those tds from the tap are typically phosphates and nitrates. YUK! i want to use something like this:

http://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-881-now-foods-calcium-carbonate-powder-12-oz

and epsom salt. tell me what you all think.

[Jhhnn]

First, find out if your water provider has a web presence- many do. They may have a complete analysis of their water posted. If not, contact them by phone, ask them to send an analysis. Some people's water does have relatively high nitrates and phosphates, but you want to really know what's there before taking any action to change it...

Most people's tap water is fine for rearing and keeping discus, if not for breeding. You can blend RO and tap water to get something closer to what you think is right w/o resorting to chemistry if you really need to...

I'm personally not proficient in this area, simply because Denver water is good stuff right out of the spigot...