New here

[barrettsline]

very nice. Welcome back to TEXAS.

[plantman65]

Well if you need anything when you do just give me a shout. From the looks of it you got your hands full with those cichlids lol. My ultimate tank will be a 300 high tech planted when I win the lottery lol.

[barrettsline]

Will do!! I would love to have a beautiful planted tank again.

[SunnyHouTX]

You got that right about "those cichlids" Thanks for the offer and please keep posting pics of your awesome tanks. They are very inspirational.

[Complexity]

I've always understood RO to be discouraged for planted tanks. Sometimes people will add a little RO water to the tap water to lower the pH, but it's not a common practice. Crashes like what you experienced are common, and there are certain minerals that are taken out in the RO process that must be put back in. Everyone I've always known with planted tanks use tap water.

I think the reason you've run into problems when you've used tap water is not due to the tap water itself, but because of how you've gone about it. You've added it only on occasion to a RO water system. This throws everything off balance. And if there's one thing about planted tanks that's very important, it's balance. You always want to achieve and maintain balance. If a person were to use tap water and suddenly do a water change with RO water, I would expect they'd have problems with algae for the same reason -- it throws a balanced system off-balance.

Most important is a very stable pH. Our tap water is great for that. There may be a few plants that may not like our higher pH, but most adjust just fine. I would honestly suggest that you consider using tap water. I think you'll be pleased with the results once you use it consistently.

[plantman65]

I will stick with my r/o and seachem equlibrium hasnt let me down yet.Anytime I have ever tried plain tap all i was doing was growing algae. I havent had one ph crash yet knock on wood lol.

[Complexity]

Sounds like the RO water is working well for you! If you're happy with it, then that's all that matters.