quick questions on RO like water??

[Apisto ranch]

I'm fixing to fill my cockato and aggassi tanks with RO water I'm getting from a local water mill. I'm wondering if the water goes bad faster then regular tap water?
Or does it really just depend on the waste left in the tank from food,fish, etc.?
It's not RO water it's from this little water places in some of the parking lots and wal-mart in my area. The readings on the water is as fellows

PH-5.9
gh -0-
kh -0-
amonia -0-

 

[tjudy]

Let the water sit in the open air for a few hours and test the pH again, or better yet aerate it with a bubbler for a whil. 5.9 pH out of a unit like that seems low. My system makes 0/0 water with a pH of 6.8.

Cacatuoides does not need very soft water. Depending upon what your tap water is like, you can probably mix 50/50 and get levels for the cacs. Aggies are not picky either, but fry are harder to raise in hard water.

Water going 'bad' is a product of wastes. RO water has the potential to drop in pH quickly and gramatically due to the lack of buffers. On the other hand, water with a low pH and low hardness will naturally react with ammonia to make ammonium, a less harmful pollutant. (Ammonia NH3 will pick up a H+ ion from acidic water to make an ammonium NH4+ ion.) That means that wastes in acid water are not as fast to cause problems as they are in hard alkaline water.

 

[Apisto ranch]

Also one other thing I should ask is how do plants fair in RO water?