Any fishkeepers using RO water?

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I kept simple community or betta tanks for many years, but once we moved to CA, I couldn't keep fish alive so gave it up.

Had a nice conversation with an aquarium shop owener who claims he uses 100% RODI water - without supplementing minerals and his fish are healthy. This shocked me because I've always read that fish die in 100% RO water.

Googled for info on this - and still find that RO must be remineralized.

I'm trying to find a good source of information on how to do this - including dealing with GH, KH and pH issues. Can any give me any recommendations?
 
My wife keeps bettas and neon tetras in RODI water. She does add stress coat to the water when she fills the tank, but otherwise she doesn't add minerals to the water.

How long did you have your tank in CA? In our tank at home, which doesn't have RODI water, we kept killing our fish for the first month or two of trying to keep fish. The pH and other levels were all wonky for the first few months also. The tank needs to start the nitrogen cycle, which can take from 6 weeks to two months.

There's a youtube guy called KG Tropicals (https://www.youtube.com/user/KGTropicals). He has a great series of videos on starting your first tank of fish and how to keep caring for your tank.
 
Thanks for the YT link- I'll see what he's got!

On the East coast I had multiple tanks from 2 to 30 gallons - with fish that lived up to 10 years. Now in SD county, we were lucky to keep a betta for one year. Our tap water was full of nitrites, nitrates and phosphates right and required Amquel at triple the dose.

For the nitrogen cycle I use bottled bacteria like BioSpira or Colony. Cycling is faster and easier but still have to test daily.

What concerns me about using RO water is the complete lack of minerals in the water - ones that are necessary for healthy osmoregulation. I hope KGTopicals has a vid on this!
 
Thanks for the YT link- I'll see what he's got!

On the East coast I had multiple tanks from 2 to 30 gallons - with fish that lived up to 10 years. Now in SD county, we were lucky to keep a betta for one year. Our tap water was full of nitrites, nitrates and phosphates right and required Amquel at triple the dose.

For the nitrogen cycle I use bottled bacteria like BioSpira or Colony. Cycling is faster and easier but still have to test daily.

What concerns me about using RO water is the complete lack of minerals in the water - ones that are necessary for healthy osmoregulation. I hope KGTopicals has a vid on this!

We have a marine aquarium (100 gal), but we use the phosphate and nitrate filter pads to help keep ours under control. I can tell when we need a new one, because I start seeing algae again.

Even BioSpira (have not tried Colony) will not substitute adequately for a full cycle when you change water source and parameters so drastically. All of the bacteria have to adjust to the new water, and that just takes time.

There are loads and loads of mineral products on Amazon. We use the ones intended for fresh water also to balance our tank and give the corals extra minerals for growth.
 
At one point I loved (and still do) keeping saltwater aquariums. I went all out and got myself an RODI unit. However, since it was a saltwater tank and I used live rock and real corals, there was never a need to add anything to the water to counter the pureness of the RODI water. I'm unfamiliar with freshwater tanks so I can't comment if there are needs for that.
 
You can use kio clay(bentonite) to remineralize water. You can add it to the filter or mix it with water and add directly to the tank. I just add it to the tank, I also add some to the gel food I make.
 
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