Remineralizing RO water

[CaptRed]

Recently my local water went bad for unknown reasons, crazy high ammonia and nitrates that won’t come out with ammonia removers, so I’m having to switch over to an RO/DI unit. Any recommendations on remineralizing it? I’ve seen people use Seachem equilibrium with acid buffer and alkaline buffer, but I was wondering if there was a simpler solution instead of mixing all 3 to try and get a consistent ph, gh, and kh. 

[Galabar]

My water (Seattle area) is < 30ppm TDS out of the tap.  I use 1/2 tsp SeaChem Equilibrium and 1/2 tsp SeaChem Alkaline Buffer to get around 3-4 GH and 3-4 KH.  I don't use the acid buffer.

[CaptRed]

On 12/1/2023 at 5:27 AM, Pepere said:

I honestly cant wrap my head around the whole acid buffer, alkaline buffer thing.

I use Equilibrium in my very soft water to raise GH, and I add Alkaline buffer to raise KH.  I just simply do not worry about PH.  My Tap water is 1 degree GH and 1 degree KH with aPH just over 7.  
 

I raise GH to about 4-6 degrees and KH to about the same and my PH will be about 7.5 and drops to 6.5 when the CO2 is on and reaches equilibrium.  I dont know why I might need to target a lower ph.  If I did, I think I would just reduce KH on my weekly water change rather than ditzing with acid buffer…

 

If you add acid buffer it is going to react with alkaline buffer and convert carbonates to co2.  Your KH will lower in the process..

I might be misunderstanding things, but my sneaky suspicion is that Seachem markets the whole acid buffer alkaline buffer as an extra profit center…  given that alkaline buffer is largely sodium bicarb based and a huge markup over baking soda…. And Seachem gives no information as to how Alkaline buffer differs from baking soda….

While I like some Seachem products and use them I dont have much trust of any of their marketing claims and do not trust any of them…

Thanks for the input. I had my suspicions about the acid and alkaline buffers needing to be used together also, I’ll continue to do some research and experimenting. 

Also I live in south Florida so my water is very hard from the tap around 175 -250 tds and it fluctuates a lot (I’ve seen as high as 450ppm). The ph from the tap a little over 8 and usually settles out to around 6.8-7.2 after a couple hours in a bucket.
 

They started to replace the water main pipes in the ground and my already fluctuating levels went through the roof. They also started adding something that comes up as ammonia on multiple tests but it won’t come out with ammonia remover/ dechlorinator even after multiple days and I’ve got no idea what it is. so in order to not kill my fish I’m going to be experimenting with this ro/di unit

[Mmiller2001]

I use CaSO4, MgSO4 for GH and K2CO3 for KH. Easy to calculate and less TDS than Equilibrium.