For those curious about water quality from different sources

[tangman99]

After using an aquarium pharm... Tap Water Filter for a couple of years, I finally installed a 5 stage RO/DI unit today. I received a TDS meter with the unit and decided to test all the different types of water I have available. Someone is always asking about Ro, RO/DI, Tap water filters. This is by no means a scientific experiment and I leave you to take what you like from this.
I have city water and it is very hard. It registers a 21 for hardness so I put in a water softner. This does nothing for TDS because is just replaces 1 CA++ with 2 NA+. When I tested my water right out of the tap, it registered a 628 TDS.
I have a water filter on my refrigerator that is just supposed to improve the taste of water and is a single canister unit. This is similar to the water filters that you add to your sink faucet to filter water. Water coming out of my water dispenser on my fridge registered a 415 TDS.
I tested some water I had that I collected from the Aq Pharm Tap Water Purifier. I had just added a new filter so it should be of good quality. That water measured a 3 on the TDS. I was quite surprised.
I test the RO/DI water and it measure a 0 on the TDS.
My RO/DI has a DI bypass, so I decided to check the RO water before it passed through the DI filter. It measured a 15 on TDS.
So for a quick recap:
Faucet - 628
Refrigerator filter - 415
Aq Pharm Tap Water Purfier - 3
RO - 15
RO/DI - 0

 

[salty rick]

Thanks for that information!. I use the Aquarium Pharmaceutical tap water filter. I am glad to see that it does that good of a job.

 

[tangman99]

Salty Rick,
I always thought the TWP did a good job also, but it is very expensive to use with my water quality. I could only get about 40 or 50 gallons with a filter that worked out to about 40 cents per gallon. I think I'll recover the upfront cost of the RO/DI in a pretty short time.