Should I go tap or RODI water?

[WillMcK]

First time poster here...I did try to search for an answer but couldn't find it. Great forum with tons of knowledge being shared though!

I'm about to get a new 40 gallon breeder going and am going to be planting it using eco complete, root tabs, and easy green. I saw one of Cory's videos suggesting stocking it with some bolivian rams, black phantom tetras, and julii corydoras and I really like that idea.

I have an under the sink RODI unit that I use for my smaller shrimp tank. Should I go RODI water for the 40 gallon or my tap water?

I just tested my tap water and here's what I got:

pH = 6.8

No ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates.

GH = 0-.5

KH = 2

TDS = 80ppm

Thanks!

[ange]

I would honestly skip out on the RO, your water is very soft as it is and RO in freshwater overcomplicates things without good reason in for the most part.

As long as the fish are eating well and behaving normally you don't need to be chasing parameters like hardness. If your water is too soft I'd suggest maybe trying wonder shells (for GH) or crushed coral (for KH). Where I live in Texas the water is liquid rock even after the water softener removes a good chunk of ions and it has yet to cause an issue, even though the majority of my fish prefer soft water (angelfish, Bolivian rams, bettas, etc).

[Ken Dyer]

looks like your tap is almost RODI to begin with, I would definitely just go tap to tank 🙂 

[tolstoy21]

There would be no benefit to RO for your 40 gallon setup. You’d just be incurring the expense and work of remineralizing and buffering the water you just stripped down. 

[WillMcK]

Awesome, this is what I was hoping to hear. 
 

Thanks for all the replies. 

[FrozenFins]

1 hour ago, WillMcK said:

First time poster here...I did try to search for an answer but couldn't find it. Great forum with tons of knowledge being shared though!

I'm about to get a new 40 gallon breeder going and am going to be planting it using eco complete, root tabs, and easy green. I saw one of Cory's videos suggesting stocking it with some bolivian rams, black phantom tetras, and julii corydoras and I really like that idea.

I have an under the sink RODI unit that I use for my smaller shrimp tank. Should I go RODI water for the 40 gallon or my tap water?

I just tested my tap water and here's what I got:

pH = 6.8

No ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates.

GH = 0-.5

KH = 2

TDS = 80ppm

Thanks!

I would try it. Because that way you don't need to use a water conditioner if you used ro/di. 

[ange]

26 minutes ago, James Black said:

I would try it. Because that way you don't need to use a water conditioner if you used ro/di. 

You may not need to use conditioner, but you would definitely need to use a remineralizer like Equilibrium of GH/KH+ so I'm not sure if there is any benefit.

[Ken Burke]

@WillMcK Highly recommend against chasing some ideal water parameter. Maintaining stability is far more important than hitting some target, and trying to change parameters like PH is really tricky.   

[Maggie]

Hi Will, your tap water sounds alot like mine! One problem you might have with your soft water is the pH consistently drops as it ages. I use tap water, conditioned to remove chlorine, etc., and add wonder shells to the tank to help keep the pH from falling too much. Mine is a 45 gal and right now the pH is holding at about 6.6 (it had previously dropped to 6.4 without shells), with 2x week 10% water change, which I do partly to help keep the pH steady, but mostly because I keep my water stored in gallon buckets due to a back problem and it's easier to do it more often with less lifting. If you do add wonder shells, you might see them fizz for a few minutes when dropped in, because your water is immediately taking up the minerals. Good luck!

[WillMcK]

I think I’ll go with tap (and prime) and add some crushed coral to my filter to bring up the pH and hardness a little bit.