Is buying RO/DI water a thing?

Hi all

I'm in the deep research stages of setting up my first caridina shrimp tank. It'll only be a 30 litre nano scape with moderate planting.

Where I'm hitting somewhat of a dead end is, is there an option to buy RO/DI water anywhere in Randburg, JHB that isn't Dischem/Clicks? Is RO/DI strictly necessary? Is installing a 5 stage RO unit in my imminent future? I'd appreciate any advice.

Apologies for such noob questions, I promise I've tried the search function to the best of my abilities

Many thanks,
Mark

 

I’m sure 99% of LFS will have RO water on tap, especially if they sell marines.

But if you get one tank you will soon have 15. So you may as well invest in the RO system now


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This was my thought process, as I'm already planning my next 2ft tank

Thanks for the idea of checking out my locals to get me scaping and cycling before I manage to get the RO system sorted.

 

I used to get some from Oasis Water Randburg, Robindale—the one on Malibongwe towards Linden Police.
You can also get it from PicknPay, the one on Ferndale on Republic.

 

If you can, please invest in the RO system it is more convenient.

 

Heck yeah, I thought Oasis might be a decent bet but thought it might be remineralised in potentially unwanted ways. If I can use that to at least get started, that gives me a minimum of 8 weeks to get the RO installed so it should all work out just fine (I hope). Thanks for the advice guys

 

The RO water you buy in shops like P&P/Oasis are completely different water than what you want for Caridina shrimp.
They add a mineral block to add minerals, that are not the correct minerals for Caridina.
This is where you want DI water to take your tds as low as possible, anything under 5 is good. And then add the correct salts.
Rather get a proper ro/di system and avoid setting yourself up for failure.
You can get a proper 3 stage filter with DI chamber for R1.5k

 

Yeah - do not even think of getting into the water manipulation game without the tools to measure what you are aiming for.

Later Ferdie