I run skimmerless tanks and have community well water. My incoming water is 5-stage filtered before it hits the RO membrane and finally DI. Final pH of RO is typically 7.6-ish and that's where my tanks tend to fall back to if I don't add buffer. Example tank: Alkalinity(dKH) 9.41, pH 7.6
My problem with adding buffer to increase pH is that after salt mixing my dKH is already high in the 8-10 range, so adding buffer sends it over the top (12+). CO2 is certainly a contributor because it's worse in colder weather, but opening windows and/or aerating with outside air only gains me about 0.2 increase at best. And within a couple days the pH will fall right back to the original value of the generated RO water. It's like there's something besides CO2 that's not being caught/filtered by RO that's buffering the pH into the 7.6-ish range, and dumping more chemicals into the water never seems to be a good solution for me.
I'm thinking about trying H202 in the RO water, allowing it to mix for 24-48 hours, then add salt and mix. Thoughts, suggestions? Is this just too much chasing numbers?
My problem with adding buffer to increase pH is that after salt mixing my dKH is already high in the 8-10 range, so adding buffer sends it over the top (12+). CO2 is certainly a contributor because it's worse in colder weather, but opening windows and/or aerating with outside air only gains me about 0.2 increase at best. And within a couple days the pH will fall right back to the original value of the generated RO water. It's like there's something besides CO2 that's not being caught/filtered by RO that's buffering the pH into the 7.6-ish range, and dumping more chemicals into the water never seems to be a good solution for me.
I'm thinking about trying H202 in the RO water, allowing it to mix for 24-48 hours, then add salt and mix. Thoughts, suggestions? Is this just too much chasing numbers?
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