Hi Folks: I use RO water in a planted tank - but having difficulties keeping
the water "harder". Tank is 54 gallons, with co2 injection.

I'm using Seachem's Equillibrium but my GH/KH readings are very low.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using half tap water and half RO water to
maintain a more stable carbonate hardness. What do you guys do to maintain a
more stable hardness/PH?
cheers,
Bruce

Baking soda!

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 08:02:49 -0500, "BBC" wrote:

Hi Folks: I use RO water in a planted tank - but having difficulties keeping
the water "harder". Tank is 54 gallons, with co2 injection.

I'm using Seachem's Equillibrium but my GH/KH readings are very low.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using half tap water and half RO water to
maintain a more stable carbonate hardness. What do you guys do to maintain a
more stable hardness/PH?
cheers,
Bruce

If you want to increase the KH, you can use the PH stabilizer and KH
Booster from Hagen. I don't think that using RO water help you, you
only reduce your carbonate hardness already present in your tap water.


GB

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Bottom posted.

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"BBC" wrote in message
.. .
Hi Folks: I use RO water in a planted tank - but having
difficulties keeping
the water "harder". Tank is 54 gallons, with co2 injection.

I'm using Seachem's Equillibrium but my GH/KH readings are very
low.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using half tap water and half RO
water to
maintain a more stable carbonate hardness. What do you guys do to
maintain a
more stable hardness/PH?
cheers,
Bruce



You can use an aragonite based tank substrate like arag-alive by
either using it as a gravel substrate or put it in a cheap nylon
filter bag and keep it in an operating filter to keep the harness/ph
up permanently (never needs replacing). I used a carib-sea bermuda
pink substrate advertised as keeping hardness/ph up (meant for
cichlid/marine tanks) and it only keeps general (gh) hardness up to
the max (somewhere around 25-30 degrees general hardness) and doesn't
help carbonate hardness (kh) at all so my next purchase will be for a
different brand (like arag-alive) and substitute that for the
carib-sea junk in my filters. Carib-sea seems like junk to me. One
other thing you can do (use some caution just in case though, but
don't be paranoid about it either) is safely use arm and hammer
baking soda (pure) to raise carbonate harness and ph. Try 1/4
teaspoon for every 5 gallons I think (you all correct me if I'm wrong
here, but this should be a safe amount), I think daily, until you
reach the preferred KH then only replace the amount taking out with
water changes. Good luck and later!

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Hi all - thank you for your suggestions!

"BBC" wrote in message
.. .
Hi Folks: I use RO water in a planted tank - but having difficulties
keeping the water "harder". Tank is 54 gallons, with co2 injection.

I'm using Seachem's Equillibrium but my GH/KH readings are very low.

Any suggestions? I'm thinking of using half tap water and half RO water to
maintain a more stable carbonate hardness. What do you guys do to maintain
a more stable hardness/PH?
cheers,
Bruce

I'll mix in tap water, as you suggest, if needed to
keep hardness and pH at a desirable level. You
can also add some crushed coral which IIRC
slowly dissolves and helps keep hardness and pH up.

Gail