In Praise Of RO Water.

This is a quick post on Reverse Osmosis water, i.e. water that is just H₂O and nothing else. I wanted to bring the hardness of my water down as I live in the chalky Chilterns and, according to Thames Water's latest water test publication, my water has 296ppm general hardness, which is 16.5^o GH. It also has a Nitrate value of 25ppm in the tap, 

So I now mix tap water with RO water in a 3:1 ratio, (7½ litres tap and 2½ litres RO in the bucket) which gives me a GH of 12½^o and a better hardness for 'general fish' to go with my Guppies and Platies. So I've added 6 Cherry Barbs.

However; there are other benifits.....

.... the water I use for water changes now has 19ppm of Nitrates, so the API test is orange for that water and it's much easier to spot a rise in Nitrates in the tank as it'll show an orange to red change. I've enough plants to keep the Nitrates going down at the mo'.

.... I top up evaporation loss with RO water as it's just H₂O that evaporates and if you replace that with tap water you end up with a 'Dead Sea' effect of a slowly rising concentration of 'salts' in your tank. Using RO water keeps the chemistry more stable.

.... I don't get a hard-water chalk line around the top of my tank any more.

So it's a win-win situation (or a win-win-win-win situation) and at 55p for 5 litres from MA, who are a mile up the road from me, then what's not to like?

Happy New Year y'all.