Steffan Posted August 28, 2018 Report Share Posted August 28, 2018 Hi everyone, I'm considering a Reverse Osmosis unit to soften the water in my 55 gallon South American tank in order to encourage my dwarf cichlids to breed. I've never messed with my water chemistry before, so I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on maintaining a stable ph in a very soft system. Thanks, Steffan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biodives Posted August 29, 2018 Report Share Posted August 29, 2018 I've been doing this for two years and my advice is - don't worry. I use 100% pure RO water in all my tanks and nearly all have an inert pool filter sand substrate. None of the tanks have had pH issues. Actually, the difficulty is to get the pH to go down. If you don't use peat or other things to bring the pH down, then just RO will take it to 6.2-6.8 but I find it slowly creeps up if you just do water top-ups. But all but the trickiest apistos are breeding happily at those pH values and the soft water (20-60ppm). What species of dwarf cichlids are you keeping. Not all of them need (very) soft water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steffan Posted August 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 At this time it's a pair of Blue Rams, and then a breeding group of Geophageus red head tapajos. You don't add any minerals back into your RO? Just straight 100%? I've got my RO unit arriving today, and I did not add on the DI canister going that it'd leave some minerals behind, so if that works that will be far simpler than trying to find an RO/Tap water mix! I know the Rams want soft water, but what about the Geo's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vince0 Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 I bred Geos in regular tap water with great success so you probably shouldn't have to worry too much about using soft water on their tanks. I have used an RO unit over the years for various purpose, and unless I am dealing with specialized fish (e. blackwater cichlids/tetras) I found they bred just fine in Calgary tap water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steffan Posted September 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Awesome! That's great news for me! Less to worry about is good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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