Softening Alkaline water with distilled/RO

[NotSoRich]

So right now I'm at a crossroads; invest in an RO system, buy distilled or RO water from retailers, or just deal with my water conditions. My nitrates and nitrite are always at undetectable levels, my well water however keeps me stuck at about 8.4 PH with a GH and KH of 300+.

I'm probably not going to purchase a RO system until my economic situation is a bit less stressful, so I'm pretty much asking is using distilled or RO water from a retailer like safeway or walmart a good route? If so; is there any tips you could share for lowering PH via RO/Distilled water gradually?

I'm asking this because from experience my high PH has harmed the health of some tropical species and made acclimation difficult from source with neutral/soft PH.

Thanks,

 

[Dotrskeeper]

Tap water here is about 8.0. My grocery store's "RO" water is 7.8.

A lot of threads here say that most fish will adjust to the local pH. Maybe consider keeping species that aren't real sensitive to it. Buying distillers water all the tom


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[Dotrskeeper]

... time is expensive and time-consuming.


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[Caliban07]

So right now I'm at a crossroads; invest in an RO system, buy distilled or RO water from retailers, or just deal with my water conditions. My nitrates and nitrite are always at undetectable levels, my well water however keeps me stuck at about 8.4 PH with a GH and KH of 300+.

I'm probably not going to purchase a RO system until my economic situation is a bit less stressful, so I'm pretty much asking is using distilled or RO water from a retailer like safeway or walmart a good route? If so; is there any tips you could share for lowering PH via RO/Distilled water gradually?

I'm asking this because from experience my high PH has harmed the health of some tropical species and made acclimation difficult from source with neutral/soft PH.

Thanks,

I'm going to answer your question direct instead of interrogating you on your reasoning behind altering ph which is what will happen at some point.

Long term. Investing in an RO unit would be more economic. Just bare in mind they do have their maintenance costs such as replacement membranes and they also waste a ton of water. I'm not sure what ratios we are looking at but perhaps for every 10 litres used you may and up with 1 litre treated.

You will be looking to use half your source water with half RO water to see where your new levels reside as 100% RO water isn't healthy.

You will almost certainly require a TDS meter which will verify the performance of the RO unit or the viability of the purchased water if you choose to buy it. TDS meters need not be expensive. If you want to lower the TDS slowly start with 80/20 in favour of source water until you find a ratio with which you and your fish are happy.


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