Ive Been Using Tap Water For Six Months And............

[murph]

I am hesitant to make any recommendations since I just recently bought my own unit but I am perfectly happy with the AquaFX. Its four stage with built in TDS meter and PSI gauge. It makes a gallon every 20 minutes or so and has a quality DOW high rejection membrane.
Should run 200 to 250. I consider myself a septic when it comes to any equipment in this hobby but like I said, so far no complaints. A rarity for me.

 

[fishychick]

Thanks, Murph. LOL when I saw you were a septic. I am guessing you meant skeptic. If that is what you meant, me too. I will check into that model. From what you've experienced so far, it sounds reasonable.

 

[flamehawk]

I have not used RO water in years. I do however filter the water through carbon and fine fiber(2 stage) before using it. No problems. I can't bring myself to wasting so much water through RO process.

 

[murph]

Well if your like me and your water bill is part of the condo fee each month sending that reject water down the drain doesn't seems so wasteful not having to pay for it. The reject water can also easily be collected for watering gardens and lawns. Probably would not be to expensive to tank that reject water up with a pump inside and send it out to a lawn irrigation system.
As far as the Florida water the original poster spoke of it is quite possible, if coming from the Florida aquifer, that quality is quite high. Probably explains my low TDS in to my system. The bad part is Florida is also the phosphate state with phosphate mining the primary business prior to the snowbird invasion and tourism. Its probably a safe bet we have higher than normal phosphate content in the tap water and phosphate content is conspicuously absent from my counties tap water quality report. Probably not required by the powers that be so was left off to make things look better overall.
The only other advice I can give with my vary limited experience is to clear your water lines prior to hooking up the RO/DI by running the water a minute. If I don't do this my TDS in starts at 20 before dropping down around 6 after the lines clear. Might add a little more longevity to the filter by clearing the lines prior to hook up on each water making session.
And to make things even funnier fishy; I am not even on a septic system. Spell check fails me again. I am blaming Bill Gates. Anything that goes wrong while I am sitting in front of this monitor is always his fault :joy:

 

[mrdc]

I hate the waste water also. At least this Spring and Summer, I will use the waster water around the yard. I would run it to the pool but I am afraid that it would cause me problems. Other than that, I don't know what else to do with the waste water.

 

[nytrillium]

I just read everyones post and i was thinking .... there is "tap water" and then there is "tap water". Its just kindof a generic term. All water that you get from a faucet in your house is "tap water"...

I have well water at my house here in Upstate NY and the water is alright. During the spring time it gets some sediment in it but it has no organics in it. We are building a new house just up the road and we drilled the well 3 years ago. It ended up going 430 feet down and the water runs out the top at 5 gpm.... :cheer: We had it tested and there is absolutely nothing in it (except for a trace amount of copper, which is easily taken care of by carbon or cuprisorb). So it kindof depends on what you have, if its municipal water i wouldnt trust it at all. if its well water, its up to you, but i would get it tested to see what is actually in it.

 

[uberlink]

I think the problems with tapwater will increase over time as you concentrate the minerals, metals, etc in the tank with evaporation. I used to battle that in my freshwater tank. The water was always getting harder and harder as it would evaporate and leave behind minerals over time.

 

[key00west]

a little bit of info on using WELL water if you live in Florida, you will never get your phosphates under control, florida is on a phosphate bed, it took me two weeks to come to that, after a 70 gallon water change on a 90 gallon tank in a three day period using RO/DI, still have very high phosphate readings, also i have two types of phosphate removal media in there also, so slowly but surely, the levels are going down after i stopped using well water from my house, just FYI

 

[khaosreign]

I have been looking around for an RO machine myself. I have found a couple at our local petsmart. It run about 60 bucks and the replacement filters are around 25 for 2. I was planning on reseraching more about it before i bought it. But i just wanted to let you know there are some reasonably prized Ro machines out there. whether or not they are as good as the high priced one I'll let you know in a week or so.

 

[reefrobert]

you can pick up a bottle of water conditioner, or use RO water. I get Ro from my fish store and use it on tank top-off, but use water conditioner on the tap water for water changes. ***)