# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Using Kent R/O Right



## Lois (Jul 28, 2003)

Hi.

I have tap water with a GH of >1 and bought a product called R/O Right (by Kent) for R/O water. The label states it is a mixture of dissolvable solids including major salts, magnesium calcium and potassium with all necessary minor and trace minerals. It doesn't have a normal ingredients list other then whats stated above. Their website doesn't offer this eiter. 

The directions tell you to add anywhere from 1/2 tsp for soft water to 2 tsp for hard water per 10 gal. of water & not to go to much beyond what they recommend you to add. It states you should measure GH with a meter rather than a liquid test kit because test kits only measure calcium & magnesium. 

I didn't have an electronic meter so I tried adding R/O Right to my tap water and found I had to add more than tripple the amount just to bring my water up to acceptable levels. 

Having said all that, my question is: Is it possible for there to be enough other ingredients in this product to bring the GH up w/o needing calcium & magnesium as the main ingredients? Does anyone know of a product which I could add to put necessary nutrients back into the water such as calcium & magnesium w/o raising the KH?

Thanks, 
Lois


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## Lois (Jul 28, 2003)

Hi.

I have tap water with a GH of >1 and bought a product called R/O Right (by Kent) for R/O water. The label states it is a mixture of dissolvable solids including major salts, magnesium calcium and potassium with all necessary minor and trace minerals. It doesn't have a normal ingredients list other then whats stated above. Their website doesn't offer this eiter. 

The directions tell you to add anywhere from 1/2 tsp for soft water to 2 tsp for hard water per 10 gal. of water & not to go to much beyond what they recommend you to add. It states you should measure GH with a meter rather than a liquid test kit because test kits only measure calcium & magnesium. 

I didn't have an electronic meter so I tried adding R/O Right to my tap water and found I had to add more than tripple the amount just to bring my water up to acceptable levels. 

Having said all that, my question is: Is it possible for there to be enough other ingredients in this product to bring the GH up w/o needing calcium & magnesium as the main ingredients? Does anyone know of a product which I could add to put necessary nutrients back into the water such as calcium & magnesium w/o raising the KH?

Thanks, 
Lois


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## nino (Oct 2, 2004)

Lois,
RO right is actually used to replenish RO water. RO water has 0 GH and KH so RO right will increase both hardness. 

I don't think you can increase GH without adding Ca and Mg since those 2 are the main factors in GH. Adding Mg and Ca will not increase KH. Some people use Epsom salt to increase Mg level.

If you're more familiar with Kent product, you can take a look at Kent GH+.


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## Lois (Jul 28, 2003)

ninob,



> quote:
> 
> I don't think you can increase GH without adding Ca and Mg since those 2 are the main factors in GH. Adding Mg and Ca will not increase KH. Some people use Epsom salt to increase Mg level.


But if thats the case, then why would the directions say to use an electronic meter to measure GH instead of a kit? (See my 2nd paragraph above.) Also why can't I seem to bring my GH up simply by following the directions rather than having to add so much more of the R/O Right? I thought maybe my kit needed to be replaced but found the same results after getting a new one by a different company.

Thanks, Lois


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## Roger Miller (Jun 19, 2004)

There is no such thing as a meter that reads GH -- and certainly not anything like that practical at the hobby level. If that is what Kent said then it is a misstatement. It is practical to measure dissolved solids content with a meter, but that is not the same thing as GH.

Also, there is no practical way to increase GH without adding calcium and magnesium. Calcium and magnesium are all there is in GH.


Roger Miller


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## nino (Oct 2, 2004)

Lois, I did use this product before and not really satisfied with it. I ended up mixing my hard tap water with my RO water. But in your case, you have soft water so the cheapest and effective way is to use Epsom salt and CaCO3 (calcium carbonate) to raise GH.

If you do google search on RO right, you can read some similar complain regarding RO right. Many claims that it doen't increase GH enough even using the electronic meter. And then Kent put a warning not to use over certain amount of RO right. This makes it hard to reach the GH level people's want to get. Some also claims that the people at Kentmarine can't even give a clear answers on this problem. If you still want to use a finished product, you can try Seachem Equilibrium. It's quite popular right now but I haven't personally use it. Or you can get help at www.seachem.com and ask which product they recommend.


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## Lois (Jul 28, 2003)

Thanks all,

I appreciate your advice. It's been very confusing for me just trying to understand all the ins and outs of GH & KH and having read the statement on R/O Right further confused me. I began thinking there might be some form of potassium that might raise GH.

Ninob,
As to Seachems Equalibrium, I've considered it but had already bought a huge container of R/O Right and figured I'd work with that for now. BTW, did you happen to hear what would happen if you used much more of the R/O Right than recommended? 

Thanks,
Lois


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## nino (Oct 2, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Roger Miller:
> There is no such thing as a meter that reads GH -- and certainly not anything like that practical at the hobby level. If that is what Kent said then it is a misstatement. It is practical to measure dissolved solids content with a meter, but that is not the same thing as GH.
> Roger Miller


I missed that. Yes, the person who wrote a complaint actually used TDS meter.

Lois, I only use RO right for a month only. I don't even have any right now. From what I read in the web, Kentmarine support people were not really useful either. They did not give a straight answer and tried to shift the subject by saying that RO right was using Instant OCean salt or something.

You can try e-mail them and see what answer they could give you. That one complaint I read was very similar to your problem. He also dare not try to go ever the max. limit and could not get a straight answer from the support people.


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