water treatment

[justinl]

Okay so here's the deal, i live in Port moody where the tap water is pretty decent. TDS of about 10-15ppm usually, unless there's been some bad rain after a long period of sun or something.

my question is what kind water treatment should i go with? RO? RO/DI? DI? tap filter? keep in mind that im poooooor (yay for student life:neutral: ). so i guess a better question is: can i get away with just the tap filter?

here's the tap filter ive been looking at...
aquarium Pharmaceuticals tap water filter
http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/rounits.php?product_ID=ro-aptwpr

[Zylumn]

I purchased an R/O setup from J&L and a tds meter. My tap water is 155, I purchased 5 gal containers of water from Coop and found it was 38, the kirkland bottled water i just tested at 67, rain water I tested last week was 7, my R/O water is 1. You have much better water coming out of your tap than I can buy in Calgary, I can only make better water. If $ is tight for you I would consider using the tap water. If my tap water was 10-15 I would not have purchased a R/O unit and would be running from the tap. Just my opinion though.
Kevin
ps maybe get a second testing on your tap water just to be sure and store some up for spring run off etc.

[fkshiu]

I used to use the AP Tapwater Filter on my 46 gallon and still keep it around as a backup now that I've gone to a bigger tank and RO/DI. It's great for a smaller tank, but really too slow for anything larger than 50 gallons or so.

It's essentially just a DI cartridge which is a good choice for the GVRD given that our TDS is very low. You'd be going through the cartridges (which are not cheap) like crazy if you were in Calgary, for example. In fact, last time I checked OA uses DI only for its water.

You also have to be careful with the little plastic water diverter that you put on your tap. It's easy to leave it diverted and you end up with a jet of water spraying sideways if you turn on the tap anymore than a trickle. Worse yet, you could mess up the DI resin if you've left it attached and you turn on the water full blast.

[daddy01]

I use my wifes "RainFresh" under the sink filter it checked out at .03ppm and I just run it a gallon at a time and fill up a 5Gal container (with id) then when I do water change I add salt to the tanks spec thro in heater and do change folloing day.
Jim