ro water vs. walmart water

[videohub]

I've had quite a struggle with my tank and the ammonia levels. I've come to the conclusion that it is the water I've been using to change my water, and fill any evaporation. That is all that is left to try as I've tried all suggestions and the ammonia just won't go down.
I went out and bought a Watts Premier RO system from Lowe's and have not put up yet. ($225 for unit with refill cartridges)After reading the instructions, It says there is an average 4 gallons of reject water for every 1 gallon of product water produced. So, by the sounds of things this product is going to really raise your water bill? How often SHOULD you really change your water.
I've been reading a lot of posts that Walmart sells water that is reverse osmosis. Would it be more economical to buy Walmart water once a month than to run this unit??
Any suggestions would be appreciated before I decide to go ahead and hook up this unit.
95 gal tank
corals
bubble, elegant, xenia, gonaporra, mushroom
fish/vertabrea
damsel, 2 snails, 2 cleaner shrimp
cona lactus anemone, 2 feathr dusters, couple bumble bee snails.

 

[nas19320]

I just use distilled water from Walmart. I think it is more economical to buy the water at 46 cents a gallon then to run RO/DI unit off my well for the small amout of water I need.

 

[krunk]

walmart water = ro/di isnt it?

 

[brewercm]

I've been using the water from the RO machines at Wal-Mart or other grocery stores and it averages about .25 a gallon. Just take two 5 gallon containers and fill them up when I go. Easier than carrying around a bunch of 1 gallon jugs of water. Seems to be working fine, just make sure the machine you use is maintained regularly.

 

[beth]

Have you tested your source water for ammonia? I can't see drinking water having that much ammonia in it.
RO/DI water waste is negligible. I use mine ALOT for both drinking and the fish tank. I top off a gal of fresh water daily and, on the average, do a gal of water change daily with no notible changes in my water bill. I have a display tank, 20 gal freshwater holding bucket, a 15 gal tank with mixed water and a QT.

 

[krux]

get a second bucket and collect the waste water, use it to water the plants, scrub the dishes, cook the pasta, etc.
yeah, the impurities are 20% higher than it would be on tap water for cooking for instance, but if you boil water and it steams, you are concentrating them anyway.
in portland we dont worry about water, but i know in california, we were able to get really creative as to what we did with the waste water.
heck, if you wanted to, you could even fill your toilet tank after you flush and just refilling the reservoir will take all the waste water you made for a day's worth of top off. i think they do wierd stuff like that in the desert (same places they put bricks in the toilet to make em lower flow via displacement).