RO/DI for Cichlid tanks?

I had question about what kind of water to use for a cichlid tank. Everywhere i read people suggest using tap water now i'm thinking wtf i would never do that for a reef tank.


They(cichlid forums) said that using RO/DI water will rediuce the pH to 7 and i would need buffer water everytime i do a water change and its just better to use Tap water with something like stressX to neutralize the ammonia and the chlorine in there.

So naturally i have couple of questions about the RO/DI unit.

What do the stages do.... i mean what does each stage actually remove?

I have a 7 stage RO/DI unit which has sediment, carbon,ro and di

I was wondering if i skip a stage or 2 and keep the hardness..i don't know

Fish store tells me they can give me all the stuff to buffer the water chemistry and they also use RO/DI water..im confused here

Its going to be a 75 gallon cichlid tank with UV filter

 

Cheaper and easier....use tap water when using freshwater fish. I raised freshwater angel babies for two years and sold them to local stores and they adjust to our water very well. I always added a bit of prime and ph7 to new water and never had troubles. I now have discus .

My ro/di is for my saltwater only. I was told the ro/di water would burn angels but not sure?

 

i wouldn't use ro/di for fresh because of the lack of minerals in the water, it will suck nutrients from the animals. its ok to use in salt because of well the vast amount of salt and minerals the salt contains. ive tried using it in a fresh shrimp tank, and the shrimp looked horrible until i switched over to tap, and they regained there healthy coloration.

i don't know how much cichlid salt is need for a tank, but it probably isn't enough. most additive manufactures assume your gonna use tap water.

 

Thanks guys that really helped

 

Just had a thought..what if i ran it through carbon and sediment filters only and skip the RO membrane and the DI units

Would that be ok or should i just not use it at all

 

I wouldn't waste the water personally unless your water is just that bad. These filter units have so much water they waste that. A filter and regular carbon I don't think would be a problem though.

Any reason you really want to use it over your tap water?

 

I had cichlids years ago. I aways used tap water, but used Jungle Laboratories Start Right Water Conditioner as a water conditioner. Never had any issues. Make sure you have the right salt for what region your cichlids are from...

If you want to use RO, which you could, I'd avoid the DI though. But RO is not needed.

 

It's not that i don't want to use my tap water, its much cheaper to. Im just thinking about chlorine, ammonia and phosphates.

What impotant things would by losing using only the Sediment and Carbon from the RO/DI unit?

I wasnt gona use RO or DI, just prefiltration with 4 stage sediment and carbon filters and collect the water before it hits the RO membrane or the DI units

 

use prime, no more ammonia, chlorimines, and chlorine