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are you sure its NH4 killing your fish? do you use a drop checker to check your co2? it seems incredibly odd that youd have and NH4 problem that far in... maybe we need to look elsewhere for the cause

ahha! thats cool :) not stupid at all! Id quite like an inline filter unit as i filter all my tap water what with the 41ppm NO3 in it! Id not though filter water for the tank, as all that 'crap' just saves me having to add more crap in dosing. Its worth getting a water report from your...

obviously I cant comment on your desire for RO for drinking, but why RO for a planted tank? Theres little point in removing everything from tap water only to put it back in again (and more) with dosing. RO units are expensive to run and have a huge waste (about 70%). Unless you have a marine...

one of the biggest problems we have in this hobby is the quality of our test kits. This is the reason most of us use the Estimative Index dosing regime for out planted tanks. As Tom Barr developed the method, the need for test kits was reduced.. and as the schedule became more tested...

I dont use RO, i used to.. and now my plants grow better in the tap water. Plus, personally, I condiser it an unnecessary environmental strain with huge wastage. I understand the need to use it in certain tanks with certain breeds of fish, but for a normal planted tank, cant see the need for...

be careful on using RO units, they take out everything.. the amounts of toxins/excess nutrients in our tap water is extremely small, simply ignoring them is usually all that is needed. Plants are able to use most of what we have to cope with, and infact, find them benificial. Quite a few...

hehe no worries. and dont worry, were all neurotic over our tanks :shock: even when things are going fine! as a test, ive been dosing double EI, so thats 8ppm phosphates, everythings going wild, I might well leave it at those levels, ive never seen my tank respond so well. I think the trick...

dont trust your water report.. act as if its got nothing in it. you wont need to remove any, just add like you have been.

that was my assumption as well.. i shall carry on dosing it

pH- 7.3 Ammonium - 0.01 mg NH4/l Nitrite - 0.01 mg NO2/l Nitrate – 39 mg NO3/l <-------------------------- Im dubious as to this one Hardness - 265 mg CaCO3/l Free Chlorine – 0.25 mg Cl/l Total Chlorine – 0.28 mg Cl/l Magnesium – 1.9 mg Mg/l Fresh from the horses mouth, as...

theres no reason to use RO if you have hard tap water.. infact.. hard tap water is better for plants anyway.. this is a confirmed fact

not sure what your adding as trace, if in doubt and you can afford it, Tropica plant nutrition (previously called TMG) does a very handy job at providing all else you need beyond macro's. you can use the nutricalc in my signiture to work out all your dosing :) its very handy.

Hi Terry and welcome to the madhouse! :):) Firstly, you will need to address your fertilising schedule, have a read on the threads regarding the Estimative Index (EI). With no ferts your adding co2 is pretty much useless as the biomass cant grow, therefore the algae will take over as they need...

you can buy a 4dKH solution from aqua essentials, its expensive, but itll last an eternity! youll need that or to make one if you have digital scales and a steady hand by putting bicarb in distilled water.. tank water or tap water wont do you.. even tap water varies a long way from its water...

just to reiterate what Ed quite rightly said.. the ph in a tank can be altered by a large number of factors other than co2 content, this is why we started to use a drop checker in the first place, containing a lab tested KH solution, and not tank water. 4dKh was decided upon (by quite a few of...

absolutely Fred, RO units are all very well, but the environmental issues surrounding them tend to muddy the water a bit, no pun intended. I just use my tap water, and its fine, not all of us are able to do that I realise. Taking everything out of the water for a planted tank isnt a good idea...

Be careful if your on a water meter, the wastage from an RO unit is mindblowing.. and I mean, mindblowing