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ApacheDan wrote: Ok, McEve.....so how do I make the water harder. Can I reconstitute it with some products? I know that there are some products for Discus to make it brackish...will this work? thanks. Dan

Brackish will kill most plecos Like smithrc said, you will find products to raise the Gh in your LFS. I have to use it as my tapwater has 0Gh and 0Kh.

The best way is to not use RO water in the first place. Fry grow better in unaltered water, as people like Jack Wattley would tell you.

Who? I take it I should have heard of him? :p
[edit - Ah discuss]

RO is a proven method of triggering a spawn by lowering the TDS...

It's only now (from this thread) that I've learnt that you should raise the hardness back up after a spawn - I've read a LOT of peoples guides on here about spawns and no-where has mentioned it berfore now...

Shame really.

Yes, RO for triggering. But not for growing fry.

You can use pure ro and then add something like this:

http://www.aquariumguys.com/liquidroright1.html

Better get yourself a conductivity meter and a ph meter if you are going this way.

smithrc wrote:

Who? I take it I should have heard of him? :p
[edit - Ah discuss]

Here in the USA Jack Wattley is considered the grandfather of Discus. Pretty much he introduced the fish to the rest of the hobby. I had the honor of meeting him & he was my mentor with Discus. I've read all his books & it is true that he has mixed feelings about RO water, mainly that fry need trace minerals to grow healthy.

My water is tap water, just very low in hardness. I noticed that the city water changed about 6 months ago, before it was very Alkaline & hard. No pH is around 7.5 & very soft. Looks like somebody in City Hall put some filters to work. Meanwhile I went to my LFS & bought Kent Liquid R/O Right & Kent Freshwater Essentials. Oh yeah, and a new GH/KH test kit.