Iwagumi

[Aidanflower]

after looking around for hours i have found that krylon clear polyurethane is aquarium safe after it has cured. my plan is to seal the rocks with this stuff to prevent it from effecting my water. I'm going to test it on a small piece of rock and after it is done curing i will soak it in water for a week and test the gh and kh to see if it has been effected. any thoughts?

 

[Autumnsky]

Letting the water sit allows for the gas exchanges and to mellow to the real reading. Also just what I was told to do to obtain the most accurate measurement of the hardness and pH. Chemistry isn't one of my strong suits so a disclaimer if I am wrong about the details, lol.

 

[hjsvt]

has anyone heard of ion exchange resin to soften aquarium water or have any experience. all i see is people being skeptical and no one giving parameters of there water when they used it. what is everyones thoughts on the resin?

I use a Aquatic Life RO Buddy. This one. I really like it and the price was right. It's a little slow and it's rated for 50 gpd. I don't have the DI unit for it. My well water is very hard GH20 KH20-23 pH at 48 hours is 8.8-9. There are others out there using RO but they are pretty quiet. There are definitely way more people saying it's not necessary or to mix the well water with RO. I have a thread here that might have some more info for you. I have done a lot of testing over the last few weeks trying every combination of things. I did find that at lower KH the more likely substrate,rocks,etc. will effect the KH and pH. So when the water had a KH of 10 the Flora-Max substrate had no impact on KH or pH but when it was only 1 or 2, Flora-Max increased the KH and pH. I did these tests controlled at room temperature in jars.

Also another thought, do you have a copper test? I don't know how much copper your fertilizer contains and or how much you've been adding but from what I've been reading shrimp are very sensitive to it. I've been doing some reading on shrimp because I'd like to get some. Also some of what I've read says if the shrimp are wild caught they tend to have a higher mortality rate because of all the added stress.

Anyway, if you have more RO water questions. I can try to help. That's all I really know anything about at this point.

 

[Aidanflower]

I use a Aquatic Life RO Buddy. This one. I really like it and the price was right. It's a little slow and it's rated for 50 gpd. I don't have the DI unit for it. My well water is very hard GH20 KH20-23 pH at 48 hours is 8.8-9. There are others out there using RO but they are pretty quiet. There are definitely way more people saying it's not necessary or to mix the well water with RO. I have a thread here that might have some more info for you. I have done a lot of testing over the last few weeks trying every combination of things. I did find that at lower KH the more likely substrate,rocks,etc. will effect the KH and pH. So when the water had a KH of 10 the Flora-Max substrate had no impact on KH or pH but when it was only 1 or 2, Flora-Max increased the KH and pH. I did these tests controlled at room temperature in jars.

Also another thought, do you have a copper test? I don't know how much copper your fertilizer contains and or how much you've been adding but from what I've been reading shrimp are very sensitive to it. I've been doing some reading on shrimp because I'd like to get some. Also some of what I've read says if the shrimp are wild caught they tend to have a higher mortality rate because of all the added stress.

Anyway, if you have more RO water questions. I can try to help. That's all I really know anything about at this point.

thanks for the info. i have been thinking about purchasing and ro unit for a little while. my tap water is already pushing it for shrimp so that will be needed but my real problem is the rocks increasing the gh and kh are increasing significantly. so i need to prevent that from rising. i have a copper test and have tested my tank water and tao water. the tank has undetectable but my tap has minute traces which are in the safe area for shrimp. i have not checked to test my ferts, that is a good idea and i will be doing that to be safe, thanks.

with your ro buddie, can you put standard 10 inch filters or do you have to buy the special overpriced ro buddie refills?

 

[hjsvt]

with your ro buddie, can you put standard 10 inch filters or do you have to buy the special overpriced ro buddie refills?

That's a good question and I don't know the answer to it. I've only been using mine about a month so I haven't really looked at replacement cartridges yet.

Someone in another thread mentioned this site for ROs and replacement parts. I'll have to check it out and see what will work. Good question!

I do think I could hook any parts I wanted to though because everything is only connected by the tubing.

 

[Aidanflower]

That's a good question and I don't know the answer to it. I've only been using mine about a month so I haven't really looked at replacement cartridges yet.

Someone in another thread mentioned this site for ROs and replacement parts. I'll have to check it out and see what will work. Good question!

I do think I could hook any parts I wanted to though because everything is only connected by the tubing.

okay let me know when you figure that out. if you can use different filters than that will be my system. otherwise i will be getting different one.

 

[hjsvt]

okay let me know when you figure that out. if you can use different filters than that will be my system. otherwise i will be getting different one.

So after some searching I think I need to use the replacement Aquatic Life RO buddie carbon and sediment filters. They appear to be self contained and you can't open them and replace what is inside. They aren't very expensive though. In a google search, I found the cheapest was $5.40 for sediment and 7.69 for carbon. That was without shipping. The membrane on the other hand could be replaced with a standard 50 GPD membrane and the one available on PureWaterClub is $27. So about $35 to replace everything and that's all there really is to it anyway. That's doable for me.