Ro/di, Gh And Gulf Coast Fishes

Howdy... Is anyone else using RO or DI water for their fish? What general hardness (GH) are you keeping them at, if you're paying attention to that? Or those of you fortunate to have really soft water and are enjoying success with different cyprinids and fundulids from the Gulf Coast, is anyone paying attention to what this parameter is at?

I have extremely hard water, and was having abysmal success with some of the more desireable Gulf Coast fishes. Once I switched to DI, the change was in incredible. P. merlini and Elassoma sunfish lit up like christmas trees.

However, now I'm running into general hardness problems (not enough), since DI strips pretty much everything. pH is around 6.0 now that I have some Kent RO Treatment stuff (was down around 5.0!), going to pick up a GH test kit tomorrow. I may start treating with a Discus buffer or something instead. I think I have too much respiration going on for small doses of the Kent stuff to stay around for very long. I think it's getting burned up QUICK, and that's not the way I want to use a product (or bankroll it for that matter).

The solution may just be 1 gallon of tap water for every 5 gallons of DI water for water changes and top off with DI only, or something simple like that. I'm curious to see if anyone else has done anything along these lines, and what kind of number I'm shooting for.

Any thoughts from those who've paid attention to these things appreciated.

Thanks,
Todd

I think Irate would have some info on this, i know for a fact he is camping tonight, we are collecting in the morning, ill ask

My water down here is pretty soft already, but I usually run a mix of creek water, tapwater, and distilled water. I get very good results from this with local cyprinids, including numerous spawnings.
I would think that running a mix of 75% RO/distilled/rain to 25% tapwater should get you something just about perfect in your area if your water is as hard as it sounds. Not especially convenient, but your fish should like it.

Tried using baking soda? Pickling Lime also works I hear...

Todd,

There's a recipe for a reconstitution mix on the Krib site. The recipe is down near the bottom:
http://www.thekrib.com/Filters/ro.html

You might want to reduce the amount of baking soda at first until you see what your results are.

I have used RODI water for my reef tank.I probably should have also used it when I kept discus.but even then you are supposed to mix regular tap with RODI.you really shouldn't use straight RO water for your water changes.as you are finding out.

personally I would go with a 50-50 MIX.save yourself some money on filter cartridges.as you know they're not cheap.

I think Irate would have some info on this, i know for a fact he is camping tonight, we are collecting in the morning, ill ask

Are you wanting a straight answer?