RO/DI Water for Plants?

kangy

So my new Spetrapure RO/DI unit comes in the mail today. Got it to use for water in my reef tank. Would this also be something to use instead of tap for my planted tanks? Just curious, but this goes against what I have learned so far regarding planted tanks. From my understanding planted tanks actually need the somewhat harder water and all the minerals that come with it. My tap is medium hard and all I do is use a decholorinator and let it sit overnight. No issues with the tank now so not sure I want to mess with what works. I would assume I would need to replace the elements that are being stripped by the RODI unit defeating the purpose of running it through there in the first place.

Thoughts, experience?

Mikaila31

Yep you would need to replace the stuff the RO unit removes.

Geomancer

Yes, the plants need minerals like calcium and magnesium. Flourish Comp assumes you have some in your tap water so it dosen't contain as much as plants need.

You can use something like Equilibrium to add in some hardness. You'll need something to raise the KH also as RO water won't have any buffering capacity, unless you want a fairly low pH for fish like Discus.

beetlebz

While its not dialed in, Ive begun using crushed coral with aragonite (a SW substrate) in a media bag on my 55g to try to raise the PH and the GH. It has so far been successful, though as I said i'm still in the process of dialing the exact amount in. If you want to replace the hardness without raising the PH, I understand that equilibrium is the cats meow.

kangy

Eh, not worth it, I'll leave the planted tanks well enough alone with tap water and stick with RODI for my reef tank. The salt mix replaces everything I need in one nice measured dose, just dump, stir, aerate, and heat.

Comparing the reef tank, I like the simplicity of my planted tanks Was just excited to play with my new toy lol