My Mbu saved me now I need to save him..... PLEASE HELP!

[CoreyK]

So RO water is a must for you! It sounds like you're doing everything you can for the time being. Glad to hear he's doing better.

I thought you weren't supposed to use RO water in FW, as it lacks (pretty much all) minerals?

[manutius]

you can get remineralisation products for freshwater too, I think its in use in discuss tanks

[mikeosoft]

You're correct, pure RO water is not good to use. There are products out there to remineralise the water.

[xxSarahxx]

There are a few thigns about pure RO water.... one of which is as it has no buffering capacity whatsoever your pH will swing up and down which is very damaging to the fish and can kill them. As mentioned I re-mineralise the water which also buffers it.
It is very commonly used for discuss due to the softness and it does make it easy to control your water chemistry (KH, GH, pH mainly) so you can make the water fit the fish you keep.
Plus with nitrate full and very hard water in a lot of the UK RO water is really the only option!! I currently do not use de-ionised water for my FW tanks just RO but my marines are in DI and RO water but re-mineralised and using a salt specifically for such pure water.

[dumpythepuffer]

im glad your Mbu is ok now.
i had a similar scare with my GPS. he just wouldnt eat for a week!!! and it was horrable because i was doing finals in school around that time so id have to sit in front of his tank and make sure he would eat. the added on stress wasnt fun thats for sure. then out of knowhere he started eating again. all his ppm levels were fine too. i just added some more marine salt then normal and i think thats what made it better for him...they are picky

[manutius]

Sarah, I have to say that I have very hard water GH 16 KH 15 and have never bothered to adjust it,even if it is liquid concrete . I think as you say the water is less stable at the lower end of the spectrum and a small swing can kill all your fish if you are trying to balance it using chemicals. I can see with you though that having such High nitrates you really have no option, but I don't think its necessary in other instances. Of course some fish may need softer water but I would rather buy fish suited to my water than try to tailor my water to a specific type of fish. I don't envy you at all :s

[xxSarahxx]

I have to admit manutius I would love to be able to keep all my fish in tap water with some very good dechlorinators and so on but it just isn't practical for me. I used to use tap water and the difference in the health and colour and the length of time the fish survived once I switched over to RO was amazing. I think using the minerals to balance and buffer the water is actually great (although I have to admit that the less chemicals that go into a tank the better) but at the same time the mount of crap water companies are piling into our water these days I'm beginning to think that it won't be long and it will be very difficult to keep fish in tap water... at least keeping them for a very long time in it might eventually be damaging to them. I should also mention that I have several breeding projects on the go and I have found a HUGE difference in success rates between batches being kept in RO and batches being kept in tap water (even before my nitrates were so high coming out the tap!)
It is an interesting debate though I have to admit. At the end of the day all we can do is what we think is the best for the fish.

[manutius]

yep spot on, I know that for breeding it really does make a difference. The waste from RO does upset me though, maybe if the y become more efficient we'll all be doing it