Why you NEED RO/DI!!!

[Cameron]

Nuff Said:
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q76/kerdon99/IMG_1750.jpg

[andrewsk]

That is awesome. A picture can say it all.

On a serious note, are many reefers NOT using RO/DI?

After all of the money we spend on our tanks, why would anyone use tap water and potentially cause so many problems?

[bv_reefer]

-pictures like that reassure me that the $ I spent on a DI was worth every penny! -i totally agree with andrewsk on that one, if your already spendin' large coin on a reef, it's more than worth your while to invest in at least a simple DI-

[digital-audiophile]

So is the top bucket right out of your tap? If that is the case I think there is something wrong with your water :O

[Cap'n]

So is the top bucket right out of your tap? If that is the case I think there is something wrong with your water :O


ditto

And why all the references to spending a lot of money on your tank? That's not necessary, and neither is RO/DI. I just can't justify all that 'excess' water going down the drain.

[bv_reefer]

-i agree 100%, i know tap water isn't the best but definitely shouldn't be brown!

[Johnny Reefer]

I'm no scientist, but I think it has more to do with how the light hits, refracts, reflects on/around/about the particles in the water, than something actually wrong with the water itself. Note that the bottom bucket has a colour too. A bluish tinge. My last draw of Victoria tapwater to my RO/DI metered 20ppm going in. Not bad. But there definitely is stuff that gets removed. Before RO/DI, I used to get a brown ring in my changewater totes. Now that I use RO/DI....no brown ring.

[michika]

I've seen a few tanks that actually look spectacular on just tap water + conditioner.
Regardless that is quite the photo comparison! Did you happen to measure the TDS in both buckets?

[Cameron]

Sorry don't have a TDS meter.

[Cameron]

I think if everyone filled up a 5 gal bucket of their tap water...it would have a tint to it.

[Zylumn]

One thing nice about the tint in the Calgary tap water is you just have to add sugar and ice to make ice tea.
188 to 205 tds

[scsi]

On a more sinister note........
I live in Slave Lake.
Apparently, the natural water table runs down from Swan Hills to discharge in Lesser Slave Lake.... I don't know if anyone here has seen it, but it's a massive lake.

We all know what's located in Swan Hills, AB......
Well, if you're an Enviromentalist......
This can't be good for my tap water.

[bv_reefer]

-a facility that disposes tonnes of PCBs, pesticides, paint thinners and other toxic chemicals every year...yup probably wouldn't hurt to have a RO water purifier there would it-:neutral:

[fkshiu]

All this discussion over what colour tap water should or should not be is the exact reason why you should be using RO/DI even if your tapwater is usually OK - consistency.

RO/DI will always be the same beautiful blue water and you know exactly what is in it. All it takes to destroy your entire reef system is a sanitation crew outside mucking around with the pipes and stirring up a bunch of crap just when you're changing your water. Visually you may not even notice, but your system sure will.

This is coming from someone who lives in the GVRD where we routinely get ~10 TDS coming straight from the tap. I probably could get away with using just tap, but the 2 weeks of brown water we got last winter completely justified the RO/DI investment. My pre-filters were nasty after that incident - filled with stuff that could have otherwise gone into my tank.

And you don't need to "waste" any water with RO - collect it and use it to wash your clothes or water your garden.

[andrewsk]

Thankyou fkshiu. I was going to try to respond to some of the comments but you said it better than I could have.

As for the cost, JL has one available for 230.00 and I am sure you can pick up a second hand or off of ebay for even less.

Unless you run a nano (and even then!), you cannot argue that Saltwater Aquariums are inexpensive. When you add up the cost to replace all of the livestock, coral, sand, and live rock in your tank from a bad water change, 230.00 is a sweet investment.

I know there are some great tanks that use tap water. I just think that I would be constanty worried every time I did a water change, that I would find my inhabitants belly up in the morning.


All this discussion over what colour tap water should or should not be is the exact reason why you should be using RO/DI even if your tapwater is usually OK - consistency.

RO/DI will always be the same beautiful blue water and you know exactly what is in it. All it takes to destroy your entire reef system is a sanitation crew outside mucking around with the pipes and stirring up a bunch of crap just when you're changing your water. Visually you may not even notice, but your system sure will.

This is coming from someone who lives in the GVRD where we routinely get ~10 TDS coming straight from the tap. I probably could get away with using just tap, but the 2 weeks of brown water we got last winter completely justified the RO/DI investment. My pre-filters were nasty after that incident - filled with stuff that could have otherwise gone into my tank.

And you don't need to "waste" any water with RO - collect it and use it to wash your clothes or water your garden.

[bv_reefer]

oh god last winters water was horrible,brown and abundant in the worst bacteria, all from excessive rain in december, but I always thought that last winters incident was only in burnaby not vancouver:neutral:

[Fishman]

I don't disagree with the RO/DI results/benefits. I'm just curious what would happen if you added a "tiny" amount of food to the RO/DI water and let it fester for a day ... many say one incident of overfeeding contaminates your water 10 times of what's in the tap water.

[surgeonfish]

Fisherman
It is true that you can spoil your tank with rotting/decaying food. However, we are talking about something different; possible contaminants from the water supply including chlorine, heavy metals (lead, copper, etc) not an explosion of bacteria from decomposing food.

[digital-audiophile]

I have had an RO/DI unit sitting under my stairs for a year and a half, I still have not hooked it up mainly becuase I suck at plumbing and have not got around to it. I've been using tap water for over 2-1/2 years and I really cannot say that it has caused me any problems.

[Fishman]

I was just making a point of the effort we put into getting the "bad stuff" out of our water (RO/DI) and then turn around and put it back in again ... phosphates for example.

[bv_reefer]

Fisherman
It is true that you can spoil your tank with rotting/decaying food. However, we are talking about something different; possible contaminants from the water supply including chlorine, heavy metals (lead, copper, etc) not an explosion of bacteria from decomposing food. -yup excess nutrients can cause bad problems, but i can't imagine them being any where near as bad as chlorine,chloramine,copper and all that gunk...

[supersmile]

What exactly is an RO/DI and where do you get them.....sorry I am a bit new with this stuff. What is a reasonable price for them?

[Doug]

What exactly is an RO/DI and where do you get them.....sorry I am a bit new with this stuff. What is a reasonable price for them?


They are for filtering your source water. Water passed though a series of carbon & micron filters and then through a membrane which removes most impurities. It can also be run through a DI filter after, to remove anything the ro filter leaves behind.

If you wish put reverse osmosis in the search engine and it will bring up lots of RO threads. Most of our sponsers carry them.

[theredben]

I was just pondering over the last couple of days if it is sooooo bad to use regular water for water changes and only use ro/di for evaporation replacement. I was thinking that the only reason that MOST people see a problem is that they are using 20ppm water to replace the 0 ppm water that evaporated. This would be an upward trend that would end up with a bad case of algea.

[Doug]

I do use commercially purchased ro water for water changes and my ro water for top-off. I would not use our tapwater. I only wish it was 20ppm but more like 400ppm.

[spencerC]

Could i test the ppm in my water?
Do aquatic stores sell test kits for that?

[surgeonfish]

Could i test the ppm in my water?
Do aquatic stores sell test kits for that?

You sure can test your water with a TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter. They are either hand held or can be attached to your water purifier to test the incoming and outgoing water. Most LFS that sell water purifiers should carry TDS meters.

Link: http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/details/rounits.php?product_ID=ro-aftdsh