Need some help with RO water info

[PlantMan216]

Hi all,

It does if you have <"hard, alkaline tap water">.

Unfortunately you can't, without <"adding pH buffers">. The following also applies to the sellers, or promoters, of pH buffers.......

At 4 dKH your pH will raise to ~pH8, and it isn't a problem. There is a discussion here <"Potassium Carbonate (K2CO3) vs pH ?">.

You don't need RO, they are both happy in hard water. The Galaxy Rasbora will eat some shrimplets.


Use the tap water. You need a dechlorinator that <"will deal with chloramine">.

It is almost certainly a mineral nutrient issue, have a look at <"What is the “Duckweed Index” all about?">.


It is a good video, but the Seachem product placing is really disappointing to be honest, he must have known that he was being "economical with the truth", but <"profligate with your money">. <"Plants don't know where ions came from">, or how much they cost.

cheers Darrel

Hey!

Thanks for the info! What you said makes a lot of sense and I am starting to have a good understanding of everything now given your and other information and connecting everything.

As far as ferts I think now I might just buy my own salts and make my own blends. The EI was an interesting read and makes sense however I have much to learn still before going right into it.

As far as water I think I’ll still stick with RO/DI simply for the fact that I’m curious to try it myself to see what difference I notice etc. Also the thought of knowing it’s pure and not unknown like tap seems nice to me. I still have to research more on GH KH PH and remineralization.

 

[palcente]

Yea I planned to test 20x more this time around to really see exactly what is happening. Since I’m doing a dark start and when the lights actually turn on with plants the water will have no ammonia etc would you still rec to lower light in the beginning? I was thinking just to start max light, high-ish co2 and then figure out fert levels just to minimize change in the tank. Mainly since the plants won’t be as stressed/melting due to high ammonia. No clue if that is wrong or has backend issues I’m not thinking of. I kind of just wondering and assuming from the info I’ve read so far.

I did what I posted above and my results are in the journal. You may need ask someone that started with max light what they did... (Try searching the forums for: " help algae", you will find quite a few people that went max light over there ) I think it's a foolish idea to go max light unless you know exactly what you are doing. Things will go from good to bad very fast if you blahblahblahblah up.

 

[bazz]

As far as water I think I’ll still stick with RO/DI simply for the fact that I’m curious to try it myself to see what difference I notice etc. Also the thought of knowing it’s pure and not unknown like tap seems nice to me. I still have to research more on GH KH PH and remineralization.

Hi,
Assuming your tank is 60l and you're changing 30l/week of water, you would add (preferably) to a premix container the quantities in the Dry Dosing Column. These are the ratios (but not targets) I use but you can use whatever you like or whatever is available to you.
If you then punch these values into the Core Settings of the Calculator it will automatically deduct the NPK amount required for your Fertz recipe.
With your dKH target I would not have thought the Seiru Stone would pose too much of a problem, but I cannot guarantee this as I'm not a chemist.
Hope this helps.

 

[bazz]

...and you really don't need the DI unit on your RO system.

 

[aquanoobie]

Hi
It doesn't have to be this complicated, you can keep it simple. The Seriyu stone with CO2 injection will regulate pH and Ca. You only need to add Mg.

And the other plant nutrients depend on your substrate.