*newbie alert!* ro water for South American plecos

[Broomha1]

hi all. Newbie here. I appreciate any help you can give. I have been keeping plecos and tetras for some time now with some success, but my tap water is fairly hard, and I'd like to soften to try breeding the plecos. I have purchased an ro unit and would like to know how to add back what I need while keeping the ph low.
my tap water is...
ph8
Tds 352
Kh6
Gh14
My ro unit gives me...
ph5.6
tds6
Kh0
Gh0

To have ideal water for the plecos I would like
ph sub 7 and stable (kh)? Low tds And low gh. How could I achieve this? I've done a little reading and think I need to add neutral regulator to the ro water, so it reaches ph7 then drop it using discus buffer, is this correct? Would I need to add minerals too? Pretty confused right now, any help is a bonus. Thanks Dan

[Tech Support PE]

Good day Dan,

Thank you for your questions. If you're going to try breeding your Plecos, the simpler and more consistent you can make your water treatment regimen, the better. Before we go any further, would you please tell me which species you're keeping so I can do a bit of research?

Thank you,
PE

[Broomha1]

hi, thanks for getting back to me. I have a few different pleco that I would like to breed. L046 zebra pleco would be the main one I guess. Others would be l183, l397 and l134.
thanks again, Dan

[Broomha1]

hi. Any update? Thanks Dan

[Tech Support PE]

Good day Dan,

I hope you had a good weekend. I would recommend using Alkaline Buffer and Replenish in your RO to reach your desired pH and GH/minerals with Discus Trace to add essential trace elements. Alkaline Buffer and Replenish are easier to use for targeting specific parameters since they allow for more control than our more general buffers. If you decide to add plants to the tank, I'd switch Replenish with Equilibrium.

Since you plan on breeding, the fewer products you use to control water chemistry, the better, since it reduces the possibility of error and increases consistency.

Regards,
PE