70/30 ro and tap water mix?

[Maridia]

I just recently installed an ro water system in my house. Just wanted opinions for my methods. First off, I already know that 100% ro water for freshwater fish is bad, since they need the minerals etc. I have 1 South American cichlid (convict), 1 red tailed shark, 1 bristle nose albino pleco, 1 ghost catfish, 1 pictus catfish, 2 danios, and 3 tetras. This is all in a 29 gallon tank. Running strong for about 3 months now. All water params, perfect. I started by doing 50/50 ro and fresh water to reduce ph levels. My house tap is super hard and ph of 8.5. Seeing that tropical fish do better in a 7.5 ph system I started mixing water. I have been doing roughly a 70/30 mix for about 1 month, and all looks very well. Just wanted some thoughts. I'm always open to good ideas. Thanks for your time.

 

[Maridia]

Oops, here's a more updated pic. I recently added rock

 

[T1KARMANN]

To tell the truth if you are just adding tap water you will still need tap water conditioner for the tap water so a bit of a waste of money

It's not just the ph you need to watch but also the gh and kh as if they are to low in the tank the ph may just crash

I know everyone says the dip stick test strips are rubbish but they give you a idea of gh kh ph amonia and nitrate which takes less than 1 min who cares if they are the odd point out

The way around not using tap water conditioner is on your RO unit put a bye pass tap after the pre filters but before the RO membrane this will give you pure RO with the tap open then conditioned tap water with the flow tap close

You should be able to work out what I mean

 

[Rivercats]

I just recently installed an ro water system in my house. Just wanted opinions for my methods. First off, I already know that 100% ro water for freshwater fish is bad, since they need the minerals etc. I have 1 South American cichlid (convict), 1 red tailed shark, 1 bristle nose albino pleco, 1 ghost catfish, 1 pictus catfish, 2 danios, and 3 tetras. This is all in a 29 gallon tank. Running strong for about 3 months now. All water params, perfect. I started by doing 50/50 ro and fresh water to reduce ph levels. My house tap is super hard and ph of 8.5. Seeing that tropical fish do better in a 7.5 ph system I started mixing water. I have been doing roughly a 70/30 mix for about 1 month, and all looks very well. Just wanted some thoughts. I'm always open to good ideas. Thanks for your time.

I run 3 tanks very similar with the amount of RO to tap water mix. I do however have an API Gh and Kh test kit (both tests are in the box) and that is what I monitor. If you montor these two levels and keep them at 3 or 4 there is still enough calcium in the water to keep ph stable and enough magnesium for plants and fish (I realize you have a fish only tank). IMO these are the important numbers to monitor. My ph in those tanks usually run at about 6.8 with those Gh and Kh numbers. You only need a tiny bit of Prime for the tap water you use. I've used this method for years and it works quite well for me.

 

[Darkseid76]

I wanted to add that having hard water is not a bad thing. At least you have the comfort of knowing that your pH won't crash. My kH and GH average 2 and 6( I gets 5 occasionally ) respectively. My pH averages 7.2. I say average because I've had swings from 6.8 to 7.4. Luckily these changes aren't drastic and sudden. So I have to monitor my params weekly.

Fiddling too much with water chemistry can cause more harm than good. Just keep things stable and you'll be gold.

 

[Maridia]

I will keep that in mind, thanks for all the feedback