# deionized water-what do I do with it?



## robinsonchiro (Jan 22, 2008)

okay, so my plants kept turning brown and disintegrating when the got about eight inches tall. Pretty much my tank just looks crappy, so I took a water sample to Captain Nemo's (was big als) and they told me I had a Gh of 19 and that was way too hard and a pH that was 7.8. I could not really afford the RO unit, so I got the aquarium pham inc tap water conditioner unit. The box says it removes what I want it too. I also bought a water softener pillow and Seachem Ph 7.0. I did a 30% water change on my 30 gallon tank with the deionized water along with adding the the pH drops and electrolight drops that came with the deionizer. Is this okay and what should I do next. I checked my pH the next day (today) and it was still 7.6 or above. I have a DIY CO2 system and a 64W compact florescent light that is on for 12 hours a day. Also, how often do I need to add the deionized water? i.e. every water change, and should I use the water softener pillow. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. 
My goal is just to have my plants look healthy. thanks.


----------



## imeridian (Jan 17, 2007)

I would suspect it was much more a problem of nutrient deficiencies versus your water being too hard. Are you providing macros and micros? Is your DIY CO2 consistent, checked with a drop checker?

Remineralizing your DI water with a commercial product borders on silliness when you have a source of minerals on tap. Mixing 50/50 DI water and tap would be a better way to go about that.

However; that DI thing is, in my opinion, a waste of your money. It'll only filter about 50 gallons before the DI resin has been exhausted. Take it back, if you can, and save to get a real RO system if you really do want to soften your water. Absolutely take back that pH adjuster, those things have no place in a planted tank. The softener pillow is probably a waste of your money too.

The bottom line is that most fish and plants will adapt to whatever water they're in, trying to adjust your water to some ideal is, for the most part, a losing battle that only will drain your finances. Supplying nutrients for the plants is the far more important task.


----------



## robinsonchiro (Jan 22, 2008)

hey, thanks for the info. I should have mentioned that I have been adding Flourish Iron and the basic Flourish as directed on the bottles. I got the idea of the deionizer from a guy who lives in my neighborhood and said its what he uses and it works great, but maybe I'll see if the store will take it back.


----------



## Diana K (Dec 20, 2007)

If you do want softer water here is what I would do:

1) Go buy a bottle of RO water (grocery store, fish store... wherever they sell it)
2) Run the following tests:
a) Plain tap water: GH, KH, TDS,(well go _get_ a TDS meter) pH and pH after some water has sat out for 24 hours. 
b) Mixture of tap water and RO, same tests:
1) 25% RO + 75% tap
2) 50/50
3) 75% RO + 25% tap
3) Choose which you want to use for your tank. 
4) Buy a quality RO unit based on:
a) Initial purchase price
b) Productivity (gallons per day, liters per hour or whatever)
c) Costs to replace filters. With water that is very high in TDS the frequency of replacement will be rather high. You might also look into a pre-filter that removes a lot of stuff from the water. (I actually used this pre-filter water for my tanks until the whole filter system died) 
d) Cost of water wasted to run the RO unit. 
Distill all these costs into a final number that represents price per gallon of RO water you end up with.

(Don't forget that your family gets the benefit of RO water, too!)

Next step: Lets say you found 50/50 to your liking. At every water change mix a 50/50 mix, and add dechlor (if your tap water has chlorine or chloramine). No other additives. It will mix up right away. If your 24 hour pH test showed that the pH has no major changes then it is ready to use as soon as it has warmed up. (I use a large garbage can to mix my water change water in, and run some of the water from the hot water tap.) If you want to replicate a Rain Forest Biotope with black water then you can circulate this water for 24 hours with peat moss in a porous bag, such as a nylon stocking.

Any other short-cut measure such as adding something to the water will not give you the softened water that is preferred to breed certain fish. Soft water has _less_ stuff in it, not more.


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

High GH is not a problem for fish or plants, unless it gets sky high. High KH might be a problem, but I doubt even that. GH is the measure of ppm of calcium and magnesium in the water, and both are vital plant nutrients.

You are under fertilizing your tank. Flourish is a trace element mixture, and Flourish Iron is an iron supplement. Neither provides the primary nutrients needed by the plants, which are, in order: carbon, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous. You should be dosing KNO3 for nitrogen and potassium, and KH2PO4 for phosphorous. The DIY CO2 system will provide carbon, but you need to make sure you are supplying it at a consistent rate, which usually means using two or more bottles, with their start times staggered, so if one is running down the others will keep the supply relatively constant.

The plants were turning brown and disintegrating because they were starving. A good lesson to learn from this, other than the need to fertilize a planted tank, is that you can't get good information on this subject from a LFS. Plant store employees deal with fish only tanks, salt water tanks, and a very few planted tanks. The odds are very much against them having the necessary knowledge about planted tanks.


----------



## robinsonchiro (Jan 22, 2008)

thanks for the help everyone


----------

