My R/O water

[alexandruv]

Hello there!
We recently installed in our home a R/O Unit with a re-mineralization filter so we can actually use tis water for drinking/cooking.

And I would like to use it for my planted aquarium (45Liters - sorry I'm european no gallons in here :))

I did some water tests of PH-KH-GH of this water and they look like this:
PH: 9 KH: 4 GH: 3

My questions are:
1. What can i use efficiently to drop my PH to a little under 7
2. Do i NEED to supply minerals or those GH/KH values are OK?

My tank has Neons, Rasbora's, Amano shrimps and 1 ancistrus and I use Excel and the Nutrafin Co2 system which gives me ~ 1buble / sec.

At the moment i do the weekly waterchanges using my Tap water combined with distiled water and the radings in my tank are:
PH: 7 KH: 8 GH: 9

What do you reccomend?
Thanks!
Alex

[Tech Support AN]

Congrats on your RO unit! Since you have a planted aquarium, I would recommend using our Acid and Alkaline Buffers, which are carbonate based buffers that can help you target a desired pH and KH by using the ratios that are listed on the side of the bottles. This will be perfect for you since you are planning on using RO water, which is what the ratios are based from. For the type of fish that you are keeping, I would recommend a pH anywhere from 6.8-7.0, with a KH of about 3-4. Since RO water tends to be stripped of important minerals, I would recommend using our Equilibrium, which is ideal for use in a planted aquarium. It replaces important minerals needed for the health and growth of your plants. I would use the Equilibrium anytime you do a water change and each dose will raise your GH by about 3. If you would like to read more about the products mentioned please follow the links below:

http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/Equilibrium.html
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AcidBuffer.html
http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AlkalineBuffer.html

I hope this information helps and please let us know if you have any additional questions!