Which of my water TAP or RO?

[Ziuck]

For freshwater common

I do have a Kenmore water softener with yellow bag Morton salt.

Tap
PH 7.8 - 8.4 depends on day!
GH 3*
KH 15*
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrites 0
PPM 405

RO
PH 6.4
GH 0
KH 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrites 0
Ammonia 0
PPM 5

I have all the supplements for RO so I can buffer and raise PH without issue. Should I mix the two (tap and RO) stick with just one or the other? I haven't tested the water with the softener bypassed.

 

[rich311k]

Welcome to AA!!

You could use your tap water straight if you want. Many people here have hard water and raise all kinds of supposedly soft water fish in it.

I f you go with the RO water I would think a 50/50 mix with tap would work fine. Save you money on using all RO water andyou wouldn't have to add anything to the water.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Either or. Like Rich said, you can still use your tap if you wanted. It's a little high but fish should be able to adapt without a problem. I think mixing RO and Tap is a great idea as well, and probably better for the fish.

Welcome to AA

 

[Ziuck]

Thanks!

I just got a 46g bow front that I have to start filling tomorrow!

 

[mom2reds]

I have very very hard water and I mix RO and Tap 50/50 mix when doing water changesand my fish and my plants do better.

Tess

 

[Ziuck]

Well I filled the tank over the weekend and did about 60% RO/DI and 40% Tap. I treated it with Top Fin tap water treatment (I need to get some prime) enough for 45 gallons.

I tested my water last night and have the following:

PH 8.4
GH 0
KH 12*
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrites 0
PPM 310

Mixing did drop the GH and KH but left my PH at the TAP's high! I do have some Kent's RO Right, should I add that to get my GH up to 3-4*? Remove some water and add another 5-10gal of RO to get the PH a little lower? Just leave it alone?

I have not started cycling the tank yet but have the filters running and the temp up to 79*.

 

[rkilling1]

I would just use straight tap water. You have very soft water so there is no need to add RO/DI in with it. Your KH is high, but as long as it's stable, that isn't a problem. Having a high KH also means your pH will be very stable.

Having a GH of 0 is not a good thing. Fish do need Ca++ and Mg++ for biological processes.

 

[7Enigma]

Agree with rkilling1. Your tap water is fine, and you need to have some general hardness. You could definitely use 25% or 50% RO water, but honestly I don't think it will help at all. And as rkilling1 mentioned, you should have a rock-solid pH barring any catestrophic event (whoops dumped the bottle of drano into the tank!).

If you are fishless cycling (which I highly recommend) then aiming for a pH of ~7.5 is actually beneficial. So you might want to tweak your current water for that pH and then prior to adding fish just use straight tap water. The difference during cycling is probably very slight, but it can't hurt.

 

[Ziuck]

Day 3 (Added Plants)

PH 8.0
NO2 0
NH3 3.0
NO3 0


Day 6

PH 8.0
NO2 0.25
NH3 2.0
NO3 1.0

Day 7

PH 8.0
NO2 1.0
NH3 2.0
NO3 5.0
GH 5*
KH 13*

Should I wait for my NO3 to go higher or just do a PWC and then add some fish? Still don't know what to put in my 46 bow.

 

[rich311k]

You are a long way from cycled. You want 0, 0, some nitrates. Right now you have toxic levels of both ammonia and nitrites.

 

[Ziuck]

I thought something was off. Do I continue dosing small amounts of NH3 or stop and let it decline?

 

[rich311k]

Keep your ammonia level at ~2 ppm. You are progressing nicely but you are not there yet.

 

[7Enigma]

I would recommend keeping the lights off in the tank. Please read the fishless cycling article in the articles section. It has several tips and tricks at speeding up your cycle without triggering an algae outbreak.