Bob A wrote:

I have well-water and it is totally ruined with nitrates, nitrites, and
probably other chemicals due to living next door to a poultry farm, and also
land that has been treated with bad farming chemicals. I have been going
five miles to get water and carrying it inside.

I finally decided to purchase an RO system. It has not arrived. I have
read some about RO water not being the best thing for plants (and some
fish). What I'd like to know is, what is the best way/product of restoring
the good chemicals to the RO water? I know of Kent RO Right. Will it do
the trick nicely? Any suggestions or help will be very appreciated.

My plant tank flourishes on pure RO water. I reconstitute as follows, per weekly
20 gallon (30%) water change:

2 teaspoons Kent RO Right
1 teaspoon sodium bicarbonate (actually baking soda, restores KH)
2ml Prime (neither RO filter nor charcoal prefilter removes chloramines)

This keeps my tank at KH2, GH2, perfect for breeding soft water fish.

Recommendation: Pick your target GH, probably around 4, and reconstitute your
water with RO Right to meet that target according to the label directions. 4KH
is also a pretty good, as it gives you a good buffer for future CO2 usage. If
you have evaporation between water changes, refill with pure RO.

Here are two really good discussions of the relationship of KH, CO2 and pH from
Google Groups:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...rev=/&frame=on

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...rev=/&frame=on