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RO water

And my luck with inverts is as bad, I'm into £70 territory of inverts that are getting bumped of by Stoke regions water.
 
Nooo, both me and Dan live in roughly the same area and both of us can't keep inverts in our tap water, something in it kills them.

Nothing to do with toilets.
 
A few weeks ago I made the switch to 100% RO water and have been delighted with the results. My fish are extremely healthy, plants growing well and all shrimp are doing great. I'm even lucky (or unlucky depending upon your point of view) in that something in my tanks, almost certainly the black sand, is raising both GH and KH so I start the week with readings of 4 and 3 and finish it with 7 and 6 so I simply use 100% RO as my change water and it brings it back down.
Personally I wouldn't use tap water at all for any kind of fish simply because the parameters considered acceptable by the water companies are outside of what I would accept as safe for fish in many cases. Also, water companies can change the make up of your water overnight and have do not have to tell you. You wouldn't buy fish, take them home and dump them straight into your tank without acclimatising first and, with the large water changes many of us do, using tap water could be akin to doing just that.
Finally, when doing a recent project in school with my students on water quality we came across statements like "96% of all water supplied is within proven safety parameters". Sounds great at first but I read this as "4% of households receiving poisonous water". As far as I'm concerned our tap water could be poisonous and I won't subject my fish to it - even my Malawi tank gets 100% RO now although it's going to cost me a fortune in salts.
 
phillarrow said:
.... it's going to cost me a fortune in salts...

Yes, unfortunately that's the most convincing reason of all to use tap water, not to mention the time and energy required to produce the water. :( Some prefer to spend their fortune on more plants/gadgets etc. I read an article of a test result which some time ago that indicated London tap water is healthier to drink than any of the bottled spring waters, especially the "designer" waters. Scored quite low on the taste survey though. :p Anyone who thinks England's tap water is poisonous should try living in The Ukraine. :rolleyes:

Cheers,
 
Well I'm using 100% RO water for my crsytal red shrimp tank now and I've managed to keep my SS grade CRS and CBS alive for over 2 weeks! Previously all the shrimp will die within 5 days. I don't remineralised with over the shelf product, instead I'm using fert to remineralise the water. Calcium sulphate and magnesium sulphate + trace mix. Seemed to be doing the trick and my fish and invert seemed to be healthy and grazing away. Even the plant looks better. Too bad I've got to move in 3 months time and I need to look for a place where I can get access to the brass pipe :twisted: So far all the luxury apartment I've seen tend to have the pipe work install behind covers. It'll be pretty obvious is I make a hole in the wall to get my RO water. lol
 
You can use 100% RO water and save yourself a fortune in salt for your Malawis in two ways:
First, make sure you have some aragonite in your tank which will dissolve once the pH drops to below 8 and will buffer GH, KH and pH.
Second, get a container to put your RO water in with a stocking or filter media bag full of aragonite in it and leave it filled between water changes to gradually harden the water for you! Then, for the price of some aragonite and a water container, you can have all the hard, very pure water you need! Perfect for rifts.

I use 100% RO at home and would never switch back, even if I do set up another Tanganyikan tank.
 
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