RO water or ro/di

[bdacamel]

So this should (im guessing) be an easy one to answer. I was using conditioned tap water... BIG NO NO!! Do not do like I did. Algae WILL happen! So I started buying ro/di water from the lfs and obviously this water is amazing. my two fish and cuc are happier than ever and my algae has thinned out. NOW... My girlfriends parents have a RO unit for drinking water so my question is, can I use this for my tank? I really would like to save some $$ here... we all know this is an expensive hooby!

 

[mr. limpid]

Take a sample of there water to the LFS, they should have a TDS meter to test the water. If it reads 0 or under 4 then you are golden.

 

[bdacamel]

right on. I will do that. I would feel silly buying my own for my apartment when i may have access to good water ten mins up the road lol. If everythings good then i can concentrate on a better protein skimmer and my sump build. THanks for the help

 

[mr. limpid]

If you have corals adding a DI unit will help them a lot. RO/DI units are well worth the money. If you have corals do get a protein skimmer if not I would get the RO/DI unit first.

 

[bdacamel]

so far no corals. Just a LM Blenny, Green Chromis and cuc (pep shrimp, snails, hermits). I think I will wait on the ro/di unit as my lfs is saying they would be glad to test my ro water and im limited on funds.
as far as the protein skimmer, Im leaning toward a tunze 9002 in tank unit since my tank is only a 20 long. Ive read nothing but good things and this will allow me to place it into the sump once that is complete. What do you think? any thoughts on skimmers?

 

[mr. limpid]

Tunze are good but pricey. I like Octopus skimmers.

 

[acrylic51]

Can't go wrong with either skimmer.....

 

[geridoc]

RODI is noticeably different from RO water. Just try drinking RODI - it is considered to have a bad taste because there is nothing in it that is detectable to our taste buds. OTOH, RO is what you get in bottled water becasue it tastes good - there are still dissolved salts in it that give it a taste that we can detect. We don't have the most sensitive tastes, yet we can detect the difference between RODI and RO, so I'm guessing that the fish can too. The purpose of using RODI for topoff is to use water with no contaminants, so that you don't gradually increase the concentration of the "stuff" that is dissolved in less pure water.