RO water and a Tank with Plants and Discus

[freshwater100]

My First post..

I have few plants in my Tank and few Discus I am moving to RO water now. 125G Tank.
How RO water will affect my Plant growth since it has no minerals.
I dont use CO2 but my substrate is Eco Substrate and dose with plant growth liquids.

Do I need to add some Buffer like Discus Buffer in the RO water, currently my water is Well water
my PH is ~8.0.
How my discus will react to RO water and a lower PH...

[CrazyAngels]

Why do you want to go to RO water? many of us grow discus in tap water with no issues at all. The only time I go to a blend of RO and Tap is for breeding purpose only!!!
So unless they are wild discus, if you already have them in Tap water, why not leave them there.

[freshwater100]

My Tap water is very Hard water from Well.. Seen high percentage of Chlorine and Chloromines and when tested shows Ammonia of 1.5 ppm (not sure how that possible).
My Fishes dont like my water Changes from this Well water. So I was thinking to use RO water and add some buffer or Tap to give some minerals ..

[Discus Origins]

Two suggestions - add dechlorinator products that neutralizes chlorine and chloramines to your well water that should take care of the problem. If having softer water is your goal then I would suggest a 50/50 RO/tap mix (you will have to play around with the percentages to get to your desired ppm), do not use Discus Buffer. With the plant substrate and liquid growth additives you don't have to worry about the plants getting enough minerals.

[freshwater100]

I am thinking of 100% RO and add this "Seachem Equilibrium RO Water Conditioner for Freshwater Planted Aquariums" plus plants essential..
This should give me enough good Minerals...

[DiscusDrew]

I would also look into aging potentially rather than RO necessarily, I realize you have hard water but if they arent liking water changes then Im thinking its Ph or a different potential perameter that is not staying consistent. IMO consistency is key in most cases moreso than the actual perameters themselves. I have extremely hard water as well, I choose to age my water but do not mix with RO, and the discus are happy and healthy.

[sayitfast]

I use RO with Seachem Replenish... I don't have any plants but this works well for me. I use RO for a few reasons but hardness was absolutely one of them. I recently filled a new large tank with tap water to check for leaks... brand new tank. There are now calcium deposits in a couple spots that did not get completely rinsed with RO when I drained the tank. Really hard water is a major pain in the arse and if you don't have it you're very lucky. My discus are doing very well in the RO water and ph is right around 6.8 - 7.0 always.

[jimg]

My Tap water is very Hard water from Well.. Seen high percentage of Chlorine and Chloromines and when tested shows Ammonia of 1.5 ppm (not sure how that possible).
My Fishes dont like my water Changes from this Well water. So I was thinking to use RO water and add some buffer or Tap to give some minerals .. are you sure you have well water? no chlorine/chloromines in private well water

[West Ham Utd]

agree with jimg.If you are pulling water from your own well,then there should be 0 chlorine unless you have a water treatment unit system that doses chlorine/chloromines into your household supply

[freshwater100]

My Well water comes from City. I check with them and they do have Chlorine and Chloromines according to the water report and I even talk to them.
They told me they do not add Chloromines but it do made into the lines when it reaches homes.

I used RO water for 10 years in my SW and Reef tanks worked wonder..

[rbarn]

1. Start using Co2 with a good PH controller. PH will be bouncing all over the place if not.

2. Run RO but not RO/DI. plain RO should leave enough trace minerals. If not put some of the RO waste water back in.

I can not stress running a good Co2 injection controller on a planted tank to control PH levels. Use a drop checker to get concentration right and then hold that PH with the controller. The tank will be much more stable and trouble free.

[peglegderek]

i have a planted 90 gallon with 100% RO water i use liquid plant food and a plant light bulb both plants and fish are doing exceptionaly well!

[freshwater100]

What normally is the PH of RO Water, is it low or High..

[rbarn]

What normally is the PH of RO Water, is it low or High..

It depends on dissolved Co2 levels. Normally it will be as high as 8.0 after letting it set.
(dissolved Co2 levels can fluctuate a LOT in planted tank as the lights go on and off)

Do you understand the KH-Co2-PH charts and how they work ?
http://www.gpodio.com/co2_chart.asp

Most people do not understand the photosynthesis process. When the lights are on plants use Co2, when the lights go off they release Co2. this causes up and down swings in the PH, which kills fish.

A KH of 2.5-3.0 with a PH of 6.6-6.8 is what I will be shooting for and should keep the Discus and everyone else happy.

More than anything you are shooting for consistency though.

[freshwater100]

Got my NEW RO unit and the TDS is ~12 and the PH out of the Tank is ~8.2.
I really like the PH to be between 6.8-7.2.
I am storing water in a big plastic Tub then use that to do a 30% water change ~ 35Gallon .

[rbarn]

Right, with low TDS, PH will be very high after letting it set and de-gas
Get a co2 controller and set it to 6.8 PH. This will give you about 10ppm Co2 concentration.

It's best to run a 2nd controller on the storage tank too so water changes are as stable as possible.

This is why planted tanks are such a pain to make work right.

[deepflyball]

I have as good a discus as anyone ,and never used RO water except for spawning. My tap is also 8.2 and like liquid rock. I just posted some pictures on Kennys site Jerry

[CrazyAngels]

My Tap water is very Hard water from Well.. Seen high percentage of Chlorine and Chloromines and when tested shows Ammonia of 1.5 ppm (not sure how that possible).
My Fishes dont like my water Changes from this Well water. So I was thinking to use RO water and add some buffer or Tap to give some minerals ..

The ammonia comes from Chloramines!! If you use Prime or Safe as your Dechlorinators, the ammonia will be converted into a safe ammonia byproduct (which still shows when tested for ammonia) but it will be safely consumed out of the water by your bio-filtration.

[crazycracker]

I started out ONLY using RO water & my plants did not do very well (I did dose w/ different chemicals trying 2 get it going). Discus seemed to be fine. I changed over to the 50/50 (RO/TAP) mix. It has worked very well my Amazon & Ruffle Swords took off. I've had to trim them to nothing - they were taking over. I do use most of the Seachem products for plants. I do not use any CO2 My PH is about 6.8 & hardness is about 3. But reading all the replies 2 ur trend - u will get a lot of different ideas & different stuff works for different people. Just trying to give u what worked for me, but someone said 2 see what mix works for you. Here is a link to my tank from start to present.

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?83576-120-Gallon-Getting-started

I hope this all helps.

[freshwater100]

Crazycracker you have a great Tank and plants looks good with all those Discus..
I will post my pics some time later ..

[crazycracker]

Crazycracker you have a great Tank and plants looks good with all those Discus..
I will post my pics some time later ..

Look forward 2 seeing