How should I go about buffering RO water? I get how to add the minerals and such back, but the buffering part is confusing me. I'd like to stick with seachem products. I think I would be using their neutral regulator, acid buffer, and alkaline buffer. All that I can tell from reading about them online is that you're supposed to add acid and alkaline buffer in order to get the desired pH, and neutral regulator to buffer that (up the KH) and keep it from shifting around. I am assuming that more specific instructions are on the product labels themselves. Am I right on this? As of now, I am only keeping lots of plants and breeding some platies, so I'm looking for a pH of 7-7.5 and a Kh of say 4-5 (sound right?) Would I just add some alkaline buffer to get to a pH of 7.5, or nothing for a pH of 7. And then add a certain amount of neutral regulator to get me to my KH of 4-5? Please put in what you know and thanks for any advice!
Buffering RO water
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librarygirl
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First I'd figure out why you're trying to use RO water; it can get complicated, as you're noticing, and adding chemicals to mineralize and buffer etc can be expensive, time-consuming, not great for the fish if things shift too much, and often not necessary. What's your tap's PH/GH/KH out of the tap and then after leaving a glass of water out for 24 hours? Platys are pretty prolific breeders, I wouldn't worry about getting PH, etc exactly right for now. Maybe try it in your normal water and see how they do?
Is there a reason for wanting to lower your ph? What is the ph of your tank and your tap water? Honestly if you start using RO the easiest way is to slowly lower your tank with small daily WC's, removing "x" amount of tank water and replacing it with pure RO (no additives). I don't know the size of your tank so I can't tell you a number but it has to be done very slowly or you can ph shock your fish. In my 220g I removed 10g a day tank and replaced it with pure RO. It took about 6 weeks to lower my tank to the ph I wanted. I did it nice and slow so there was no issues. Then once at the proper ph I just figured out how much RO water to how much Tap water I needed during WC's to keep the ph at the desired number. No chemicals involved!
But truthfully if the platies are doing fine in your current water and it's current ph there really is no need to mess with trying to adjust it. A stable ph is the most important thing, not what the ph is (unless it is an extreme high or low number or you have fish that need a specific ph/kh/gh).
But truthfully if the platies are doing fine in your current water and it's current ph there really is no need to mess with trying to adjust it. A stable ph is the most important thing, not what the ph is (unless it is an extreme high or low number or you have fish that need a specific ph/kh/gh).
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The LFS around here recommended that I use RO water too lower my kh they thought that was what was causing my losses in my tank. They gave me some Seachem Equilibrium to add back to the tank since my gh is 0. Not sure if that helps. Make sure you are watching all of your pH/kh/gh closely.
I agree with the above. Platy's are pretty hardy and would probably do fine with a stable pH.
I agree with the above. Platy's are pretty hardy and would probably do fine with a stable pH.
Well I'm using RO because our house has a water softener (that uses sodium), and from a little research and help from the forum, I've learned that the sodium ions are bad for the plants and fish long term. It also seems to get really complicated figuring out the gh and all. So far, the platies have been ok in it for a year, except for all of the fry have been female (IDK if that has anything to do with the softener). A few panda cories didn't fare too well in it though. The plants seem to grow significantly slower, even with CO2, decent lighting, and a good substrate with ferts. I also get a lot of algae, but my tanks seem really balanced (I could be wrong). In the next couple of months, I want to start trying out new species too, fish like angels, tetras, rams, etc.
It's been years since I used straight RO for my reef tanks but I am almost positive that I only used Seachems Replenish to add essential minerals back into the tank. It has both calcium and magnesium which is what you need. It's much easier using one product.
Seachem. Replenish
Seachem. Replenish
I think that replenish and equilibrium are basically the same thing, but equilibrium is focused around the planted aquarium, while replenish is for just fish in general. Or at least that's what I have heard. I don't think that replenish has very many buffering qualities either. Seachem makes the other products for that, but I don't know how to go about using them.
It's been too many years since I have used them!
I found better description on how to use this stuff. But I still am a little confused. It said to use one dose of acid buffer and 2 doses of alkaline buffer to get a pH of 7 and buffer it there. So would I need to use neutral regulator at all?
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