# How many of you guys use R/O water and is it needed with Toronto's tap?



## FlyingHellFish (Mar 7, 2011)

Do you guys use R/O water for planted tanks? I'm talking about just plants, not so much shrimps.


----------



## supershrimp (Dec 29, 2011)

Nobody has "just" plants. Boring! 

But in case you are wondering my shrimp tanks all have ro. 

Glad I could help out. Any other questions jut ask.


----------



## FlyingHellFish (Mar 7, 2011)

I could never keep any shrimp other than cherries, rillies and amano. What ratio do you mix r/o with tap? What a good r/o unit for 20 gallons?


----------



## supershrimp (Dec 29, 2011)

I use no tap. I'm on a well with crap water. 
Tds-460
Gh-16
Kh-15
Ph-7.5
Nitrates-40-60ppm

I use a spectrapure unit it's amazing.i got it from goreef or their other store forget the name. Same people though. 

I get tds-8or9
Gh and kh -0
Ph under 7
Nitrates under 5ppm

I keep Taiwan bees and crystals with no problems. I have 2 20gal longs and a 48" x 24" x 16" tank. All shrimp and plants , no fish.


----------



## Mlevi (Jan 28, 2012)

FlyingHellFish said:


> Do you guys use R/O water for planted tanks? I'm talking about just plants, not so much shrimps.


Nope...

I've never had a problem with plants or fish being kept in dechlorinated Toronto tap water.

I see the different optimum ph ranges sometimes, when i look up a plant, but never tried to match those. Are you trying to cultivate a plant that has a different range? My tanks usually range from 6.8 to 7.4 without any extra tampering.

Al.


----------



## FlyingHellFish (Mar 7, 2011)

Some plants do great, some plants refuse to grow. I was wondering if low TDS, KH and GH water would help the more picky plants. 

I'm not sure if I'm getting "over fertilization" with metal and salt toxicity or under fertilizing. One group of plants will have a great response while another will twist and turn. 

Here my water,

KH: 6
GH: 9 - 10
PH: 6.6 - 6.8


Doing Seachem's Aqua Vitro line with dry fertilizers. I also have an ungodly level of organics that I can't get rid of.


----------



## supershrimp (Dec 29, 2011)

Looks good to me. Gh is a little high ,but ok for plant.


----------



## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

FlyingHellFish said:


> Some plants do great, some plants refuse to grow. I was wondering if low TDS, KH and GH water would help the more picky plants.


I have had the same experience. I have had some plants that just take of like mad,e specially if I inject some DIY CO2 (ludwigias growing 6 inches in a week), some plants that won't grow (Vals, strangly), and other that have just melted away. I bought a pile of glosso, spent an ungodly amount of time carefully planting it all, getting a good amount of coverage across the bottom on my 35 gallon. I don't think I have any left at all. And Glosso is not a hard plant usually.

So I think water chemistry does matter, a lot. RO water, as I understand it, has a lack of some minerals which may be important for some plants, but then again, is probably better for some other plants. Hard to know exactly what will make a plant thrive or fail in a given tank, given all the possible variables involved and how they may interact.


----------



## FlyingHellFish (Mar 7, 2011)

Did you buy glosso from Big Al? Mine melted away in AquaSoil with Co2, I been told to go RO/DI because they prefer softer water. 

Is the more expensive RO system with DI needed? I can afford an RO system but those DI range into $300 range.


----------



## supershrimp (Dec 29, 2011)

You don't need di for freshwater.


----------



## FlyingHellFish (Mar 7, 2011)

You don't need DI? So RO will get my TDS down and have KH 0? Shrimp keepers use RO right? What a good RO unit, I just saw this new Aquatic Life for 120, looks kind of good. 

AquaFX or Aquatic Life?


----------



## supershrimp (Dec 29, 2011)

Gh and kh will be zero. Tds will depend how high it starts. Like mine starts at about 460ppm and goes to 8ppm. So with TO water I would bet very close to zero under 5 ppm I would think. 

Research spectrapure, you can get them in Canada. A lot of the reef guy swear by this brand and they need the best water for their reef tanks.


----------



## colio (Dec 8, 2012)

FlyingHellFish said:


> Did you buy glosso from Big Al? Mine melted away in AquaSoil with Co2, I been told to go RO/DI because they prefer softer water.
> 
> Is the more expensive RO system with DI needed? I can afford an RO system but those DI range into $300 range.


Naaaw, I got mine off a member. I couldn't to sad because it was cheap ($5 for a huge bunch), but it took a lot of work to plant it node by node, only to see it melt away!


----------



## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

I've never used anything but good 'ol Mississauga tap water.. which is not greatly different from Toronto tap juice. Plants grow well in it for the most part, and I never try to keep fish or shrimp that require soft, acidic water, so the issue never comes up for me.

There are some plants that have similar requirements for soft, acidic water, and if that's what you want to grow, you might have to use RO or distilled to get them to do their best, but I know Sameer is growing some that are supposed to be soft/acidic in tap and doing ok with them, based on what's he's said on the topic.

In the end it's easier not to argue with your water, but it all depends just what you want to keep and grow.


----------

