I have a friend who has offered me RO water as & when i want it, which is nice!
Was wondering whether when using it for waterchanges do i need to add anthing to it? &/or what percentage of RO Water-to-Treated Tapwater sould i use?
(I have 2 SAP's, no other fish, in a 45ltr tank - they're only 1inch atm, considering gettin the largest Bi-Orb when they've grown a bit)
No nothing needs to be added as it's just pure water. Treated tap water doesn't need to be added (unless you don't have enough I guess). And unless i'm mistaken the largest bi-orb is only 60 litres? Thats not really enough for 2 SAPs. Plus they're not great tanks anyway as i'm sure other members will say.
Its pretty safe to use pure RO to top up loss that occurs throught evaporation.
However RO water is "dead" water. It contains nothing, no minerals that fish and plants need and has no buffering capability to stabalise PH. The salt used for marine setups deals with this, but putting pure RO into a freshwater setup is probably not a good idea. I use half and half tap water RO mix (to dilute the nitrates in our rubbish london tap water) and then treat the whole mix with water conditioner.
Yeah sorry I don't think about what people have written before I go and comment (earlier I had to delete a post cause I had asked questions which had already been answered). If you are talking about water changes (which you are) then yes RO water does not have any minerals. Here is a page which sort of explains it:http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/purewatr.htm
But like chubber said, RO water is best for topping up water lost from evaporation because none of the minerals (or salt or whatever else you happen to have in there) have actually left the aquarium. All that has evaporated is pure water, therefore topping up with RO is just replacing exactly what was lost.
Just one more thing. RO water will lower the hardness of your tank water. Most plants appreciate this and I think your SAPs will to (although you'll want to check in the PufferPedia as i'm no expert on SAPs).
However my real point is that the parameters of your water will be changed from what any of your fish are used to. Therefore make any changes gradual. The ratio of RO to tap water in your water changes should reflect this.
Therefore make any changes gradual. The ratio of RO to tap water in your water changes should reflect this.
Will deffinatly bare that in mind. Hardness is a problem with our tap water, but deffinaly don't wonna cause additional stress to the lil fellas by changin conditions too quickly!
Thank you both, & will check out the link tomo Riggers
SAPs, while predominantly freshwater and, unlike F8's do seem to thrive that way in captivity, wander into brackish from time to time and probably prefer harder water, IMO.
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