broomer5
Active Member
Here's something to think about when you're trying to decide if you should buy a home RO or RO/DI unit, buy RO or RO/DI water from a LFS, vs using tapwater or freshwater from your well.
As with any freshwater - it's quality all depends on the source.
Most any source of freshwater besides RO, DI, RO/DI or distilled, will most likely contain some minerals and other dissolved compounds. This would include tapwater, ground wellwater and to some degree store bought mineral or spring water.
How much and what types of dissolved compounds is going to vary from source to source, from well to well, from tap to tap, from jug to jug.
Even our RO, RO/DI and distilled "can" contain dissolved stuff too, but it's less likely to occur.
Here's the real kicker ...
As the freshwater evaporates from our saltwater tanks - it leaves the system. The freshwater is gone.
It would only make sense to add back what has evaporated. The only thing I want to add back is water - water in it's purest form.
Anything else besides H2O that is added, will eventually rise in concentrations over time. It has to. It does not evaporate - it stays behind.
In a large tank that evaporates a lot each day - adding large quantities of fresh top off water each day, freshwater that contains other stuff "WILL" lead to a situation where you're tankwater changes over time. It has to.
It could be good stuff you're adding, like calcium, magnesium, carbonates or bicarbonates, that in theory ..... could help the tankwater chemistry under certain conditions.
It could also be bad stuff like chlorine, chloramine, silicates, sulfur, nitrates, phoshates, ammonia, hydrocarbons, organic chemicals, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, elements such as copper or iron, uninvited bacteria, fecal coliforms from livestock/agricultural wastes, other nitrogen compounds ..... and some really nasty chemicals I can't even spell without looking them up.
In my opinion, ground water wells are notorious for containing many of these things that are not welcome in my marine tank - so I wouldn't even consider using it. Even after it's treated in a home wellwater treatment process. If you have a water softener, the water softener is basically just replacing the magnesium and calcium ions with sodium ions. So you're actually removing the calcium and magnesium ( hard water ) and "softening" it with sodium ions. Sodium Na+ ions is half of salt. The other half being Chlorine Cl-
Continuously adding sodium to the tankwater will change the tankwater chemistry too. It has to. Everything we add to the tank that is an ion will interact with other ions and compounds in the tankwater. There's just no way around it.
Municipal water treatment plants do a very good job providing huge populations with drinkable water. We drink it. We are large animals and can process/eliminate many impurities.
Not all .. but many.
Water treatment plants are run and maintained by people.
People make mistakes.
Equipment goes without proper maintenance.
Budgets are cut.
Government agencies require testing and documention.
Levels of acceptable water contamination are "set" and most often adhered to.
Occasionally not.
It's what's in the water that we don't know of that can burn us.
It's the unknown impurities that may lead to problems with our tanks.
As an extreme example ...... If you had a 125 gallon reef tank containing valuable corals and delicate fish .... would you feel comfortable taking an eyedropper and dropping 1 drop of gasoline, Raid insecticide or Round Up herbicide into the tankwater ?
1/2 of a drop ?
1/4 of a drop ?
1/8 of a drop ?
Any amount ?
How about a drop of nitrate, or a drop of phosphate, or a drop of any other undesirable chemical ???
Of course you wouldn't ... no one would.
( contrary to what many think, there is such thing as a stupid question, and that was an example of one )
I said it was an extreme example. I'm sure less extreme conditions occur without our knowledge.
RO, DI, RO/DI or even distilled water - you almost totally eliminate, or at least greatly reduce the chance of these "unknowns" from entering the tankwater.
If you don't test for them ..... they are unknowns.
Eliminating unknowns then let's one focus on the knowns that we do test for.
If you know what's going in - you can better predict the results.
It's all about risk vs gain, and controlling what goes into our tankwater.
Just something to think about.
As with any freshwater - it's quality all depends on the source.
Most any source of freshwater besides RO, DI, RO/DI or distilled, will most likely contain some minerals and other dissolved compounds. This would include tapwater, ground wellwater and to some degree store bought mineral or spring water.
How much and what types of dissolved compounds is going to vary from source to source, from well to well, from tap to tap, from jug to jug.
Even our RO, RO/DI and distilled "can" contain dissolved stuff too, but it's less likely to occur.
Here's the real kicker ...
As the freshwater evaporates from our saltwater tanks - it leaves the system. The freshwater is gone.
It would only make sense to add back what has evaporated. The only thing I want to add back is water - water in it's purest form.
Anything else besides H2O that is added, will eventually rise in concentrations over time. It has to. It does not evaporate - it stays behind.
In a large tank that evaporates a lot each day - adding large quantities of fresh top off water each day, freshwater that contains other stuff "WILL" lead to a situation where you're tankwater changes over time. It has to.
It could be good stuff you're adding, like calcium, magnesium, carbonates or bicarbonates, that in theory ..... could help the tankwater chemistry under certain conditions.
It could also be bad stuff like chlorine, chloramine, silicates, sulfur, nitrates, phoshates, ammonia, hydrocarbons, organic chemicals, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, elements such as copper or iron, uninvited bacteria, fecal coliforms from livestock/agricultural wastes, other nitrogen compounds ..... and some really nasty chemicals I can't even spell without looking them up.
In my opinion, ground water wells are notorious for containing many of these things that are not welcome in my marine tank - so I wouldn't even consider using it. Even after it's treated in a home wellwater treatment process. If you have a water softener, the water softener is basically just replacing the magnesium and calcium ions with sodium ions. So you're actually removing the calcium and magnesium ( hard water ) and "softening" it with sodium ions. Sodium Na+ ions is half of salt. The other half being Chlorine Cl-
Continuously adding sodium to the tankwater will change the tankwater chemistry too. It has to. Everything we add to the tank that is an ion will interact with other ions and compounds in the tankwater. There's just no way around it.
Municipal water treatment plants do a very good job providing huge populations with drinkable water. We drink it. We are large animals and can process/eliminate many impurities.
Not all .. but many.
Water treatment plants are run and maintained by people.
People make mistakes.
Equipment goes without proper maintenance.
Budgets are cut.
Government agencies require testing and documention.
Levels of acceptable water contamination are "set" and most often adhered to.
Occasionally not.
It's what's in the water that we don't know of that can burn us.
It's the unknown impurities that may lead to problems with our tanks.
As an extreme example ...... If you had a 125 gallon reef tank containing valuable corals and delicate fish .... would you feel comfortable taking an eyedropper and dropping 1 drop of gasoline, Raid insecticide or Round Up herbicide into the tankwater ?
1/2 of a drop ?
1/4 of a drop ?
1/8 of a drop ?
Any amount ?
How about a drop of nitrate, or a drop of phosphate, or a drop of any other undesirable chemical ???
Of course you wouldn't ... no one would.
( contrary to what many think, there is such thing as a stupid question, and that was an example of one )
I said it was an extreme example. I'm sure less extreme conditions occur without our knowledge.
RO, DI, RO/DI or even distilled water - you almost totally eliminate, or at least greatly reduce the chance of these "unknowns" from entering the tankwater.
If you don't test for them ..... they are unknowns.
Eliminating unknowns then let's one focus on the knowns that we do test for.
If you know what's going in - you can better predict the results.
It's all about risk vs gain, and controlling what goes into our tankwater.
Just something to think about.
