All,

I am currently intrested in purchasing a reverse osmosis system so
that I can crate "soft" water for my plants and rainforest fish. I
don't know if this is wise or not as I live in a one bedroom
apartment. Does anyone have any advice about this subject?

Thanks,

Keith

yeah, actually, I do have some advice...

There's a guy over in the marine newsgroups, Marc Levenson who sells the
stuff, I mean, he sells the 'system' and stuff... pretty cheap, simple and
he's a GREAT fella... always willing to help...

Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

Browse the sites a bit, and you'll find a link to the RO/DI section, and
it's cost...

good luck...

---

Red
"Keith" wrote in message
om...
All,

I am currently intrested in purchasing a reverse osmosis system so
that I can crate "soft" water for my plants and rainforest fish. I
don't know if this is wise or not as I live in a one bedroom
apartment. Does anyone have any advice about this subject?

Thanks,

Keith

Keith wrote:

All,

I am currently intrested in purchasing a reverse osmosis system so
that I can crate "soft" water for my plants and rainforest fish. I
don't know if this is wise or not as I live in a one bedroom
apartment. Does anyone have any advice about this subject?

I breed sof****er fish in my plant tank, so I use reconstituted RO. But
it's a pain in the rear. If you must use it for your fish, great, that's
why I do it. If it's for your plants, forget it, 99.99999% of plants do
better in hard water.

an alternate source is ebay, look for aquasafe, my unit arived this
afternoon, cost me $81US for the 6 stage reef setup, damned thing is 90%
assembled too.

Dave Millman wrote in
:

Keith wrote:

All,

I am currently intrested in purchasing a reverse osmosis system so
that I can crate "soft" water for my plants and rainforest fish. I
don't know if this is wise or not as I live in a one bedroom
apartment. Does anyone have any advice about this subject?

I breed sof****er fish in my plant tank, so I use reconstituted RO. But
it's a pain in the rear. If you must use it for your fish, great, that's
why I do it. If it's for your plants, forget it, 99.99999% of plants do
better in hard water.

Dave Millman wrote in message ...
Keith wrote:

All,

I am currently intrested in purchasing a reverse osmosis system so
that I can crate "soft" water for my plants and rainforest fish. I
don't know if this is wise or not as I live in a one bedroom
apartment. Does anyone have any advice about this subject?

I breed sof****er fish in my plant tank, so I use reconstituted RO. But
it's a pain in the rear. If you must use it for your fish, great, that's
why I do it. If it's for your plants, forget it, 99.99999% of plants do
better in hard water.

Actually, I wanted to get one for my fish as well. I prefer to keep
small rainforest fish, characins, cyprinids and lampeyes mostly. I
started to aquire some plants that seem to only do well in soft water.

Keith

Dave Millman wrote in message ...
Keith wrote:

Actually, I wanted to get one for my fish as well. I prefer to keep
small rainforest fish, characins, cyprinids and lampeyes mostly. I
started to aquire some plants that seem to only do well in soft water.

That list is really short (less than 2% of all the plant species commonly kept in aquaria is my
understanding). The list of plants that will do POORLY in soft water is, to the chagrin of us sof****er
fans, much longer.

The choice for an RO is never for the plants, this is a fish decision.

There are no sof****er only plants. Not a one.
You may find them in soft water, but that means they are getting their
nutrients from the soil rather than the water column. Soft water is
not required for good plant growth, to say so is myth and can easily
be disproven, I've grown well over 200 species in very hard water, so
have many others.

If they do well in hard water how can one say this about "soft water
plants"?

RO taste good which is the main benefit for me.

Regards,
Tom Barr

RO taste good which is the main benefit for me.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Yes but,...... : ) its bad for your teeth!!!!
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

"Happy'Cam'per" wrote in message ...
RO taste good which is the main benefit for me.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Yes but,...... : ) its bad for your teeth!!!!

No, not really.
You get Ca and CO3 from other sources and brushing will help more than
the water.
The notion that pure water will remove the CaCO3 from your teeth is
pretty weak.

You eat acidic foods that can dissolve the enamel, eg soda pop/vingar
etc are worse that RO water. The bacterial biofilm produces lots of
acids which cause the caries so brush morning and at night.

Water with a little Ca, CO3, SO4 taste better than pure water but you
can blend the RO with a little tap. They oftren call this "Spring
water".
All things being equal, the spring water is better, but that is not
going to cause any differences in teeth rot. Your general diet and
personal hygine plays a much larger role.

If taste is the main thing, use a Carbon block filter.


Regards,
Tom Barr

Sheesh Tom,

I was just having a gas, here in South Africa they add large amounts of
flouride to the water!!! It is a fact that Flouride also acts as a mild
sedative so we are always having a paranoid laugh about how they add all
these chemicals to our water supply and yet we are still renowned for being
one of the most violent countries in the world!!! Go figure. Hey, but at
least we all have good teeth
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

"Happy'Cam'per" wrote in message ...
Sheesh Tom,

I was just having a gas, here in South Africa they add large amounts of
flouride to the water!!! It is a fact that Flouride also acts as a mild
sedative so we are always having a paranoid laugh about how they add all
these chemicals to our water supply and yet we are still renowned for being
one of the most violent countries in the world!!! Go figure. Hey, but at
least we all have good teeth

Good teeth are a rarity in many parts of USA, imagine trying to prune
Anubias without the chompers when there are no scissors handy?

Regards,
Tom Barr

imagine trying to prune
Anubias without the chompers when there are no scissors handy?


As I said b4, we all have brilliant, strong, healthy, shiny, sparkly teeth
here in SA.....Scissors? who needs em?
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

Keith wrote:

Actually, I wanted to get one for my fish as well. I prefer to keep
small rainforest fish, characins, cyprinids and lampeyes mostly. I
started to aquire some plants that seem to only do well in soft water.

That list is really short (less than 2% of all the plant species commonly kept in aquaria is my
understanding). The list of plants that will do POORLY in soft water is, to the chagrin of us sof****er
fans, much longer.

Dave Millman wrote in message ...
Keith wrote:

Actually, I wanted to get one for my fish as well. I prefer to keep
small rainforest fish, characins, cyprinids and lampeyes mostly. I
started to aquire some plants that seem to only do well in soft water.

That list is really short (less than 2% of all the plant species commonly kept in aquaria is my
understanding). The list of plants that will do POORLY in soft water is, to the chagrin of us sof****er
fans, much longer.

The choice for an RO is never for the plants, this is a fish decision.

There are no sof****er only plants. Not a one.
You may find them in soft water, but that means they are getting their
nutrients from the soil rather than the water column. Soft water is
not required for good plant growth, to say so is myth and can easily
be disproven, I've grown well over 200 species in very hard water, so
have many others.

If they do well in hard water how can one say this about "soft water
plants"?

RO taste good which is the main benefit for me.

Regards,
Tom Barr