Do I need to add anything to RO?

[shrimpshrampshrump]

For a freshwater tank, do I need to add anything (water conditioner? Aquarium salts?) to RO water?

Thanks.

 

[Fishfur]

For a freshwater tank, do I need to add anything (water conditioner? Aquarium salts?) to RO water?

Thanks.

You do for most fish, excepting those that like dead soft water with mildly acidic pH.

For fish that want very acidic pH and no GH an acid would be needed to get the pH to drop low enough. Could be tannic acids from leaves & wood or something like citric acid.

No conditioner is necessary for RO - it contains no chloramine or chlorine.

If the fish require a GH higher than zero, which most do, then a GH booster would be needed and probably an alkaline booster also - which will increase pH & KH, since KH & pH are linked in a way that makes altering either one individually impossible.

Because RO has zero GH & KH, lowering its pH with some form of acid is possible but to raise it either an Alkaline buffer or potassium bicarbonate is needed (sodium bicarbonate works too but potassium is beneficial to plants & fish, but sodium, not so much) then it’ll have some level of KH as well as higher pH.

 

[tinylostwine]

Depends on the fishes you keep; i never bother to add anything more than a few leaves but all of my fishes are sa (with the exception of some cherry chocolate gourami and those also like soft water).

Btw i never use acid to lower the ph of my water and it seems to settle around 4.8 to 5.5 in most of my aquariums. I do use leaves and have some peat in a filter bag to help keep things stable. This is one of my aquariums which show you what i mean (I posted it the other day in what i am doing thread). It has cory hastatus and green neon tetra.



btw the right species of plants grow fantastic in soft water.

 

[shrimpshrampshrump]

I plan on keeping shrimp -- currently all I have is a bladder snail.

 

[ruud]

Use GH/KH salts to remineralize water for neocaridina, assuming this is what you mean with shrimp. Bladder snails benefit too from the these salts. Alternatively, work with a few limestones.

Target about 200 TDS for neocaridina.