Re: [Killietalk] What's in my water

[Ken Simolo <Simolo at chem_chem.rochester.edu>]

Having done both, it is much easier and MUCH less costly to remove 
hardness from hard water using an RO system than to increase hardness 
to soft water by adding Equilibrium, etc.  If you only have a tank or 
two, it does not matter much but if you have a lot of tanks, 
Equilibrium becomes expensive.

For all the reasons that Barry mentions, I use tap water to 
recondition my RO water.  However, I do not think you need to do all 
of the testing Barry mentions.  If you know what is in your tap water 
already (amount of hardness, alkalinity, etc.), then you can 
calculate how much you want to dilute it with RO water.  As a general 
rule, for breeding fish, only hardness is important.  For keeping the 
tank from crashing, you do want some alkalinity (buffering capacity).

ken


>  People say it is easier to add hardness to soft water than to 
>remove it from hard water. It IS easier, but I'm not sure it's as 
>effective.
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