RO System for Tank/Drinking, Remineralization

Personally if using RO water I like to be in total control over what goes back into the water, that is the main reason for using it.

I would not bother with a re-mineralizing cartridge personally, you could just run a few test mixes with tap water and see what results you get from that.

Our tap water is really bad. High tds, and a long list of nasty things. Not to mention the bitter taste. If I am going to invest in one of these, then I need to be able to ween my family and myself off of bottled spring water, which is quite sweet by comparison.

dannylc said:

Personally if using RO water I like to be in total control over what goes back into the water, that is the main reason for using it.

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+1

My tap water in Texas has a pH of 10+ so needless to say my ro/di unit is relatively necessary. I re-mineralize with Seachem Equilibrium and a pinch of baking soda. All my planted tanks have been doing quite well the last few years with this combination.

Ok, I have been studying on RO systems, specifically how chloramines/chlorine/ammonia are removed. I have read everything from, ammonia can only be filter out with dual DI cartridges, to ammonia can only be filtered out by quality carbon prefilters, to ammonia can be filtered out by the RO membrane itself. Having chloramines in my water as well as 1 ppm ammonia, I would be interested in everyones opinion.

I had a very old, failing unit and it did not remove chloramine. I used it for a year or two for very soft water fish (Rams were breeding). I always used dechlor.

If your tap water is bad then no, do not use it as a source of remineralizing.

You can add back minerals in the exact ratio you want, or you can fill a garbage can with RO then run a filter full of coral sand, oystershell grit or limestone sand until the levels suit the fish you want to keep.

My tap water is fairly soft and is just fine for all the hatchery raised soft water fish.
I use Seachem Equilibrium or Barr's GH Booster plus baking soda for my hard water tanks, and have coral sand substrate in those tanks.