boboboy i will not be getting any clown fishes, i am not a cruel person.
@ seedyrom RO water is great for all fish but from what i have read its a must have for marine fish and to be honest its like i will use 3 gallons a week so if waiste 15 lol i will just have to say i am sorry to the world now
Good news on the Clowns!!!!!!!
in truth, in the UK, there is no rhyme or reason to use RO, for fresh water fish. even down south, discus keepers are using normal tap water!!
attitudes change over time, two years ago people would never have thought that RO was anything but vital in keeping sensitive, "read" soft/blackwater, fish. now things have changed. people are now starting to advise against its use!
common excuses for using it were:
excess nitrates
excess Ammonia
very hard water all of which can be treated in other, less wasteful and costly ways.
Ammonia is the easiest one to deal with. The first stage bacteria in your filter eat Ammonia. so after your cycle, the ammonia in the water will have been eaten by these bugs. as the standard water change is around 25%, even after a water change the Ammonia level will not rise too high. and the filter will develop a larger colony to deal with the added food. so in effect, the problem solves itself. in effect, its not, actually, a problem at all!
Nitrates are a bit of a sod. in really high areas. a Nitrate converter can be used. once up and running, these things keep the Nitrate Levels at 0. there are two kinds of converter, both cost, roughly, the same as a small RO unit £50-100.
one uses sulphur to convert the Nitrates to Sulphuric acid, then an Alkaliser (often oyster shells) to convert the acid to clean water.
the second type uses bacteria in a sealed container, these eat the nitrates and give out nitrate clear water.
hard water is simple to soften, but a sod to keep where you want it. but using peat as part of your filtration is very good. tannins given off by bog wood, almond or oak leafs will all help.
As for RO, using pure un cut RO in your fresh water tank will do great damage to your fish. so it needs cut with tap water and also the minerals the filter took out will need replaced. its costly, both to set up and to run. unbelievably wasteful. something to remember when considering a RO unit is the small print. all makers state that the water filtered through their units, must be safe for use, prior to filtering. RO units are bad with organic and biological water content. on occasion bacteria make it through the membrane. in these cases the water the filter gives out is extremely dangerous. a solution of H2O and bactria.
