New to RO Water..

[Otto72]

Nearly bought everything to start up a three tank shrimp setup, I'm thinking about using RO Water, probably a silly question to ask, but would appreciate some help.
RO Water is water that has been stripped of all the bad stuff that tap water has in it right? This would mean when using RO (and during water changes) I wouldn't need to treat the water with anything other than a remineralizer right?

 

[ian_m]

You should really add dechlorinator to your RO water as there is no guarantee that it will remove chlorine & or ammonia (from chloramine) from your water, especially if the input filter is used to any degree. Or use a test kit to verify chlorine and ammonia free. I was really surprised about this, when I saw my local fish shop testing their RO water containers.

The ammonia comes from chloramine being broken down by pre-filter to chlorine and ammonia but not being absorbed due to used filter or too higher flow.

 

[Otto72]

So using Seachem Prime would be a good move, I'm wondering though if it is shrimp safe? I read somewhere that it contains copper.

 

[ian_m]

Wouldn't of thought it contains copper as is used by shrimp keepers and contains chemicals to bind to heavy metals, like copper as well.

 

[Manuel Arias]

use a test kit to verify chlorine and ammonia free

Simplest method is to test, if you are not sure.

Dechlorinator is essentially a solution of sodium thiosulphate. The problem with shrimps is not the copper in Prime, but thyosulphates, which can be toxic over a given level. However, the usual concentrations to remove chlorine, as recommended by makers, are under the toxicity level for freshwater crustaceans, reason why it is not a problem.

 

[ian_m]

There is a thread someone on another forum where someone lost about £400 of expensive fish where his RO pre-filter was either faulty or exhausted. The water board put emergency chloramine in the water after a burst water main and he killed his fish with excess ammonia. So either test or make 100% sure your RO pre-filter top notch as well as any post RO DI resins are OK.

If you are obviously cutting your RO with tap water, you will be using dechlorinator, so you might never be aware of your "impure" RO.

 

[Otto72]

For my start up I will be buying RO Water from my LFS until I get round to purchasing my own RO system. I guess even more reason to test/use a declorinator like prime. I noticed with Prime that it's concentrated and makes it quite difficult to measure for smaller tanks (currently using on a 30ltr cube) What other alternatives to Prime are there and are they concentrated too?

 

[ian_m]

Use either a 1ml syringe (99p from Ebay) for dilute 10ml (using syringe) with 90ml of distilled water and dose at x10.

Personally if needing to dose only 1ml I would use a syringe.

 

[alto]

Check what sort of system your LFS is using (my experience with commercial water treatment systems is "ultrapure" water & definitely no chlorine/chloramines remaining BUT this very much depends on the how the system is maintained & the cartridges used) ... if your LFS doesn't have an inline monitor for water "purity" then do the checks yourself or ask them to check before you buy

You can also use a dropper with Prime, it should run 15-20 drops/ml depending on viscosity (& steadiness of your hand I suppose), a quick email to Seachem would clarify the drop # & if they recommend this type of measure as delivering consistent product ... you do need to ensure product is mixed before dispensing (not a vigorous shaking that might encourage foaming but just Invert bottle, 1/4 turn, invert bottle, 1/4 turn ... do this 4-6 times ... there's actual peer reviewed, published scientific journal papers on "mixing" )

If you do dilute Prime, check with Seachem on stability of the diluted product rather than making assumptions.