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Well its been along time since I had tanks and decided to jump back in to it. Did some test on my city water here and i have nearly .50ppm ammonia coming out of the tap as well as nitrate of 5.0ppm. I use to use pure r/o water before with r/o right adding discus or freshwater essentials. To replenish the minerals the r/o unit takes out. My question is this ok or can I go a different route. Picking up a gh and kh tester tomorrow. Also my ph is like 7.6-8 after a 24hr sit. Retesting tomorrow with water conditioner.

Thanks for any thoughts you guys might have.

Hi,
Welcome back to the hobby!
I've no idea how long you have been gone, so to refresh
you a bit, most water treatment facilities now use a
combination of chlorine, and a compound called chloramine
to eliminate bacteria from the water. Chloramine is a
compound that results from the combination of chlorine and
ammonia. When you add a dechlorinator to the water that is
designed to neutralize the chloramine, it simply changes
its formula, but still remains ammonia. The test kits
cannot distinguish between the ammonia caused by fish urine
and the ammonia that the water treatment plants add.
The test kits read the total ammonia present. That is what
could be happening.

Your test results could also be colored (pardon the pun)
by the type of kit you are using and the age of the kit.
Test strips, while the least expensive, are also the
worst when it comes to accuracy as well as being the most
susceptible to contamination by light, heat, moisture, and
age.

Depending upon where you live, a nitrate reading of 5 is
actually very possible. Especially if your water plant gets
its water from an area that is involved in farming. The
water run off from the fields that have been fertilized,
will be "rich" in nitrate.

You can reconstitute the water with other chemicals, but
that becomes expensive in the long run. "They" do make
products that will turn RO water into water "just right"
for discus, etc. But the expense of constantly purchasing
and mixing the chemicals can become a burden.

It might be easier to fill a container of known volume,
say 10 gallons, with either regular tap water or RO water
(more expensive this way) and then take out a gallon of
tap water and add a gallon of RO water, stir, and then
test. The goal is to eventually know that for every
so many gallons of tap water you need to add so many
gallons of RO water to achieve you goal. Then, when doing
future water changes you don't have to mess around. Simply
drain off, say 10 gallons, and replace it with x number of
gallons of tap water and mix in y number of gallons of
RO water.

If your tap water consistently tests out with a pH that
high, it would be way less expensive to keep only fish that
thrive in water with a pH that high, instead of trying to
alter the water down to something that is not "normal" for
that water source. Keep in mind, also, that water
treatment plants usually have more than one source of water
that they draw on and routinely change the source.
4-6 months from now your tests may produce different results.

Frank
Just some thoughts

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

So i tested my 24 hour old dechlorinated tap water for gh and kh and got a gh of 6, kh of 7 and ph 7.8. I did a mix of r/o and tap 50/50 and got a ph of 7.8, gh of 4 and a kh of 4. Any thoughts? What the chemical that makes the water just right for discus? I've used R/O right in the past. What level of kh do I need to keep the water buffered from wild ph swings. The cost of adding chemicals is doable if it means getting the best results i can. Bought brand new api test kits liquid kind no dirty test strips. Thanks so far for all your advice cheers

Hi,
You can use any product that will lower the pH of the water
such as "pH-Down."
All of them are acids, and if your KH is
too high, then the pH will drop and then rise again as the
KH od the water buffers the acid.
That Yo-Yo effect will harm the fish as they cannot change
their metabolism that fast to compensate for the changes.
It stress their systems.

It would appear that you would need to increase the ratio
of RO water to the tap water to get the KH down to 3 or
below. You may even have to use pure RO water and
reconstitute the water. There is a product available that
you can use for that.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Yeah I want to avoid the yo yo affect with my water. Just that 7.8 is not conducive to keeping some of south american species I'm looking at. I'll keep playing with the water some more. What's the product called that can reconstitute r/o water? Thanks so far it's been a lot of help

Another idea might be to run a small 10 or 20 gallon tank as a planted only tank. The plants would absorb the ammonia and nitrate then you could use that water for your water changes.


^_^

Leave it to babel to find a excuse to have another tank set up I would if I could but the landlord says no

Am I really that transparent

um? hide it ? Two of our tank stands are designed to have smaller tanks under them. Small tank under larger tank, toss some curtains up on the stand, landlord will never know.

Easier than feeding said landlord to the piranas.







^_^

Hi
I'm sorry to have taken so long to reply. I've been out
of state for a family wedding and on Tuesday night my wife
had a heart attack. Between all that and work, I think I
actually met myself coming back!

Reconstituting R/O water can be as easy as adding small
quantities of regular tap water to the R/O water. Or, there
is a compound you can purchase that you stir into the R/O
water, mix well, and aerate with an air stone, to keep
agitated until it is used.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6174901_reconstitute-ro-water-discus.html

http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=347&theme=Printer

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks so much for the reply. Sorry to hear about your wife is she doing alright? I wish her a speedy recovery.