REAL PLANTS AND GRAVEL?

32 posts • Page 3 of 4

Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Yeah, spring water is a good choice if you don't feel like mixing waters. I personally wouldn't use r/o water because then you have to go to the pain of adding the stuff back in that fish/plants need. To some people, though, they might not mind. If I were to use r/o water, I would mix it with tap water. Using it to top off between water changes shouldn't hurt anything. My tap water is just fine, but I know others have crappy water so it all depends on your needs. I really don't care that r/o water is lacking nitrites as my bacteria take care of that anyway and I don't have to worry about phosphates from my tap. You just need to weigh what your tap water parameters and then see if this is drastically different than the requirements of your fish. If not then I wouldn't worry about it. Fish are remarkable at adapting and when you start messing with parameters, you usually end up in worse shape. Just my opinion though. If you have crappy tap water and like putting stuff back into your water, r/o is just fine.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Oh, and of course it matters about what fish you have. As Brandon said - Discus would do much better in r/o water than say African cichlids or something like that. You really just need to look at your setup and research the preferences of your fish.


Peterkarig3210
 
Posts: 1980
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:04 am

by Peterkarig3210

My gars do best in semi-brackish water, so I add a little salt. My lilly-pad plant didn't make it. I used to use it to judge how much salt to add and when the pads stopped ascending there was a little too much salt. I don't know whether it was the salt or the tilapias munching on it that did it in, but I wonder if sea salt in low doses would be a good way to add trace elements to r/o water?


Poetic_Irony2267
 
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

by Poetic_Irony2267

miami, thanks for the information i find it quite helpful, as to the density question lol not sure it was just something i was curious about, like salt water has a gravity, because of the disolved salt particles, one would think that regular fresh water would have a certain gravity with the disolved trace elements, as to where r/o water would and should have absolutely zero gravity, or rather would be less dense as the trace particles have been removed. as for myself i think that adding maybe a 10-15 gpd r/o filter would be beneficial to my tank as it is heavily planted and it gets harder to clean between the plants as debris and dead plant material congregates near the bases of the plants, by using an r/o filter in conjuction with my canister i should be able to keep the water at such a level to avoid an unforseen ph spike, also my tap water is super hard with super high ph, testing the water right from the tap shows that the ph is somewhere around 7.8 and often higher depending on the time of month it is, and if we've had a lot of rain or not, the way they treat the public water here is decent but the addition of chloramine, and flouride, do play havic with aquariums, so if i were to use an r/o system i could essentially cut my water changes down by a bit but i would have to monitor the water quality of my tank for awhile in order to judge how much water i would have to mix as you said i would have to add buffers and what not, not sure i want to go through the extra expense, i would just have to find the right r/o tap mixture for my tank.

pk, am not sure if sea salt would add the needed trace elements... that one's over my head.


Peterkarig3210
 
Posts: 1980
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:04 am

by Peterkarig3210

Brandon! Your tank has gown up! It looks awsome.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Brandon, well since you have naturally hard water, there is only one thing to do - start an African cichlid tank ASAP :). I'm just kidding, I just love them so much so shouldn't everyone. Glad I could be of some help. Your idea for the r/o filter sounds great to me. Let us know how it turns out. And yes, your tank is looking great. Thanks for updating the pic so we could see its progression. That reminds me that I need to update mine since all my cichlids are no longer tiny.

Peter, I believe the reason SW people love r/o water so much and do not have to worry about things such as its kH, gH, and trace elements problems is because of the trace elements in the salt they add. Now, I am not sure if these are inherent in the salt itself or if they are added to the salt mixtures that they buy from the store.


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Ah, and Brandon - I just read that you have already dabbled in African cichlids on your profile. I don't know how you went away from them once you started. Discus are awesome as well though and lord knows your planted tank is looking awesome.


Peterkarig3210
 
Posts: 1980
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2007 3:04 am

by Peterkarig3210

It would make sense that natural sea salt would have all the trace elements in it in good ratios I would think.

I'm gona ask around about this. I have a bucket of sea salt in my storage locker.


Poetic_Irony2267
 
Posts: 297
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2007 8:42 pm

by Poetic_Irony2267

Thanks for the compliments guys, it's a lot of work but well worth it, i actually didn't just dabble in african cichlids, i had many for several years, am just at a point in my life where i wanted something a bit more peaceful and i love having plants in my home, so i figured i would just combine the two and make a planted aquarium, i just didn't have the money or the floor space for another tank at the time i wanted to switch over, so mom graciously bought a 110 gal and i transferred my cichlids to her house, she fell in love with them all when visiting so i figured i would set her up and make it easy on her. her tank btw is freakin great, she has tremendous tallent when it comes to aqua scaping, if i think of it i will snap a few photos next time i am over at her place. all of the fish now have names and even nicknames. her love of her tank is right along with the love of mine although now she wants another tank setup and wants to do live plants, i told her save her pennies cause she aint gettin mine!!!!!!!!!! lol


miami754
 
Posts: 373
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:18 am

by miami754

Sorry, man. I just meant that I saw you had kept them before. Dabble was the wrong word. That's a pretty neat story. What species does she keep.? I would definitely love to see her tank - it sounds great. Let me know when you post it so I can look for it.

REAL PLANTS AND GRAVEL?

32 posts • Page 3 of 4

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