Razimith

Not sure if this was answered already somewhere but it did not come up when I searched it. I just bought a reverse osmosis system which I have not installed it yet but when I do once I start doing water changes with the purifed water.
Do I still need to use a water conditioner? I use stresscoat right now would it be a waste to keep using it or would people still recommend using a water conditioner or do I need to start using something else. My tanks are planted so I was going to use flourish trace to restore the minerals that the system is going to take out.

Wyphy

You need Equilibrium, not Trace.
You also need to get a GH test kit, and maybe a KH kit (though not as important).

Equilibrium adds minerals back to raise the GH and has some buffering capacity (KH).
Trace, as the name implies is only a few trace minerals intended for plants. It's basically a select group of minerals, that is already in Flourish, but the minerals in Trace are ones that are used quicker than others in Flourish, so you're adding them back with Trace.

What you should be doing is making your R/O water and adding Equilibrium to it before adding to the tank (only the new water dosing, not a whole tank dose), mixing it well, then using Flourish (or other fertilizer) and Trace as directed on the bottles.
You should use the Equilibrium as directed for whatever hardness of water you need, but it can be tougher as you need to convert from the 60G dose listed to the size you need (I usually make 5G at a time), which is why you need a GH kit so you can be sure that you always make the same water hardness for whatever your fish and plants like, or at least a general compromise for a community tank.

As for a water conditioner, you shouldn't need one since the carbon in the R/O system will remove the chlorine in the tap water.
You did make sure you have chlorine and not chloromine right? You need different filters for each. If you're on well water you should be fine.
That said, using something like Stresscoat+ or other product that adds slime coat, etc., shouldn't hurt anything, it just isn't needed for chlorine/chloromine removal, so wouldn't be required when doing water changes.
I would say that you would only want to use it when adding new fish, moving them, or other stress causing changes.
You should test some straight R/O water with Equilibrium added to see if the SC+ removes and GH from the water. I don't know what the results would be.

Razimith

I am taking your advice and am going to use Equilibrium.

I have one more question though I am going to use a 55gallon brute rubber maid garbage can to store my RO water. I am going to pump it out with a pump but I am concerned about the water temp. It is going to probably be 70degrees or so. My tanks are 78 I have one cold water tank which is a 30gallons and the rest are heated. Do you know of a heater that is safe for plastic and will not melt it? Do I even need to heat the water if I make small water changes? I am just wondering how everybody else does it.

Never mind I figured it all out I will post pictures of my system next week. It takes 3 days to fill a 55 gallon drum. I ended up a getting HDPE barrel from usa plastics it is coming next week as well. Right now I have the rubber maid brute garbage can but will be taking it back due to the fact that it is made from ldpe #4 plastic and from what I read will leach chemicals into the water. I went with a azoo 300w heater and little giant pump to pump the water to the tanks. I got a float switch from dr. foster and smith to shut off the water so I do not have to watch the level everyday LOL. I am currently building a control box to start and stop the pump with a indicator light so I will always know the pump is running. With a keyswitch so the kids do not turn it on when I am not home. LOL!!!! At any rate after a lot of research this is finally all coming together. I only wish my well water did not have such high nitrates for then I would not have to have a ro unit which adds a lot more work.