RO Water Question

[Archman66]

By putting acid and alkaline buffers in RO water to buffer it to the correct pH, are you putting the trace elements in it that fish need, or do you have to use a product like Kent's RO Right or Seachem's Fresh Trace?

How does RO Right and other products affect pH? Or does it even affect pH?

I ask because a LFS told me all I needed was the buffers; but, I'm suspicious that isn't the entire answer.

I can't use tap water because there's too much ammonia in it, and I get an nitrite spike after water changes. The tank is newly cycled, so it's still a little fragile. A water change is like stocking too quickly, it overwhelms the bacterial colonies before they have a chance to grow to handle the added nitrogen.

[rangur1]

its the first i ever heard of ammonia coming from tap. you could set up a water holding tank to hold your change out water prior to adding it to display tank , then you can test it at your leasure to make sure water is buffered the way you need it to be. add filter and heater and water stays ready to go when you need it. as for the chemicals add them as directed and see how well they perform. good luck

[Zilla]

The problem with acid and alkaline buffers is they contain phosphates which causes other problems such as algae.

I have been using R/O water due to issues with my own tap water which also has ammonia. I do have a tank to treat water and it has become more of a pain in the butt than anything else. The water is pretty much useless until it's cycled like a tank that be cycled for fish. Meh!

So, I added small amounts of crushed coral to my HOB filter over the course of a week. The crushed coral is in a bag, so I added about 1/4 of cup per day until the pH stabilized. I'd add some, check the pH 24 hours later, then add more and did this until I finally got a pH of 6.8 and it held.

If you really want to use buffers, go ahead but crushed coral will work just well and won't introduce things to your water parameters that you don't need and or want. If you don't do anything, the pH will continue to sink like the Titanic.

I did this with my 55 that has fish in it. It was easier to increase the pH slowly then stress them out with pH shock. None of them were bothered by the gradual increase and the fish are fine. The only problem I found was rinsing the coral enough as it seems like it's impossible to get all the dust out of it. The dust clears within a matter of hours, but it's still annoying to see a poof of looks like a white cloud go through the tank.