Hippoherder Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 I know they RO filter the water and then add mineral content back, but I'm not sure whatthat means for PH, GH, and KH. Is it now just purified ph 7 water with a high KH and GH? Hard RO water? I suppose the values depend on the company remineralizing it. I was just wondering how the end values are different than regular RO. Is it just RO with a higher buffer or did we just reproduce Calgary tap water without the chlorine and chloramines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted August 17, 2016 Report Share Posted August 17, 2016 Once water goes through an RO filter, it should have 0 GH, 0 KH and typically has an acidic pH (due to CO2 dissolved in the water). Remineralizing RO water will change all of those parameters, but at least you know what they started from. You'd have to test each parameter to know what it's value would be after remineralizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippoherder Posted August 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 Thanks for the quick reply. I need to buy an RO unit. I was going to refill a few of my RO 5gallon bottles to mix in with water changes but all they had was remineralized. I'm not sure I see a useful purpose for remineralized RO in aquarium use....unless maybe you are using it for a nano and it will be 100% of the water for the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckmullin Posted August 18, 2016 Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 I bought an ro unit from these guys a couple years back, happy with the service and product. http://www.maxwaterflow.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippoherder Posted August 18, 2016 Author Report Share Posted August 18, 2016 I bought an ro unit from these guys a couple years back, happy with the service and product. http://www.maxwaterflow.com Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biodives Posted August 22, 2016 Report Share Posted August 22, 2016 I recently bought the RObuddy for my South American biotope aquarium. You may get better value for money by avoiding the mark-up that comes with being targeted to aquarists but it is a nice small system and if I recall it was under $100. So far it is working beautifully. I have the luxury to dedicate one shower stall to RO water production and just need to open one valve to start production, filling a 12 gallon bin in about 8 hours, so I run it overnight. The good thing is that if anything starts leaking or I forget to switch it off, it can't flood anything as it is in the shower and all goes in the drain. The RO water is about 5 ppm, which is about a third of a degree general hardness. The tank, which I initially filled with Edmonton tap water, is now at 50 ppm, down from 315 ppm. Tap water is measuring just over 200 ppm which is very close to the values reported by the Edmonton water provider. So far I have not done any remineralization prior to using the RO water as the tank is currently still having more dissolved ions than I'm aiming for. I have added a little bit of plant fertilizer on occasion as the RO water lacks those as well. Unfortunately, pH has been very slow to come down and has taken 4 weeks to drop from 7.8 to 7.3. I try to avoid using any chemicals and hope that with patience, further softening of the water, and addition of peat and leaves I will get to pH in the 6.0-6.5 range. Bart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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