Ro water

[leopard_babe]

I am just starting out my tank. tomorrow I am adding some shrimp, but I want to know about RO water. Where is a good cheap place to get it. Do you buy it by the gallon? Can you buy like a five gallon? At my LFS they have it, but it is kind of expensive. Thanks all!!

 

[birdy]

Some grocery stores sell it, usually RO water from the LFS is around 25 cents a gallon, how much is your store selling it for. The problem with buying it from a grocery store ( or your LFS for that matter) is that you have no way of know if they are staying on top of changing the filters in the unit, this is very important. I can't remember how big your tank is but if it is over 40gallons then I would recommend you look into getting your own RO unit.

 

[dzones]

I got a really nice unit from ---- for like 140 delivered. it has the tank, faucet for drinking, and is rated 85gpd and a 5 stage RO/DI unit. you can get one for like 100 bucks easy without tank and faucet...an AWESOME investment for sure.

 

[daniel411]

The meijers in trenton should have it, really cheap too.

 

[leopard_babe]

thank daniel i will try that

 

[reefnut]

Originally posted by SquishyFish
I have a 120 gal reef tank, well established, but the evaportation is killing me. I want to look into a R/O unit, but I live in an aptment and not sure how this would work. I dont have anywhere that I can put a large tank and obviously cant plumb this through the walls. Are there units out there that would be compatable w/ my limited space?
Squishy
A Typhoon III would do well. I don't have a holding tank... just fill 5g buckets as I need them.

 

[reefnut]

Probably about 250.00 after shipping and everything from air water ice. Yes you can fill buckets as you need them. It takes me about an hour to a hour and a half to fill a 5g bucket.

 

[tony detroit]

I have a RO if you need water buy a couple of buckets and I can hook you up.

 

[offshore80]

Hey Squishyfish, I have the same unit dzone got off ----. It's very compact and comes with a pressurized 4 gal holding tank with stand. It also came with a drinking faucet. This unit works great for top offs. I keep a 2 gallon plastic NEW gas can just for top offs. I also have a couple 5 gal cans I use to pick up from the LFS cause It's easier to get that quantity from them. Although it sucks hauling it. What I wasn't aware of though was that you have a bypass line that dumps the waste water from the RO unit. So to make 1 gallon of RO water you unit have to process about 3 gallons of water to get it. So keep that in mind too. 20 gallons of RO water is actually 60 gallons of used water down the drain.

 

[offshore80]

Hey Squishy, the unit comes with 1/4 flexible plastic tubing & compression fittings. So all you need is a razor to cut the 1/4" tubing. As far as the 4 gal tank goes. That's what makes it nice. It's small. About the size of a wash bucket. May be a hair smaller. But, it maintains pressure and refills itself. So you always have 4 gallons made up. Cause it takes about an hour to make up just that small quanty. So remember if your doing a big water change 25-30 gal it will take quite awhile to make up that much. Therefore, I still pick up 10 gal a week. I hooked up the faucet for quick fill ups for my top off can for my other tanks and I've also hooked up a seperate line to my 175 for daily top offs.

 

[leopard_babe]

Hey tony, that sounds great. I went to meijer and i could not find anyone to ask if they have Ro water. I could not find it on my own. I might just take you up on that offer.

 

[dzones]

Kipass4130 (kip) did a great post on this already. he showed a picture of his RO/DI unit (typhoon 3 i think). I used his picture to set mine up. Essentially he got a Y hose adapter and ran one line to his washing machine and the other to his ro unit. the waste line just gets put into the washer waste line. very neat and easy. if you seacrh this forum i am sure you will find it.
Dave

 

[offshore80]

The unit I got off ---- was made by Water General. They have a website and sell them for much more there. They also sell replacement parts such as filters and fittings.

 

[offshore80]

Oh, it's a 5 stage 85gpd ro/di system item# ro585+di

 

[tlk]

Originally posted by Daniel411
The meijers in trenton should have it, really cheap too.
.29/gal at my meijers....cheapest place in my area

 

[smokinstarfish]

I just have four five-gallon jugs I bring to the RO machine at my grocery store. It takes about 15 minutes to fill all four and costs about $12 CDN or $8 US. It's a bit of a pain but it's good if you're on a budget.

 

[leopard_babe]

I will have to search meier alittle harder. There was a lot of empty shelves in the water department. Power outage must of made people stock up.

 

[tony detroit]

If you're not keeping any corals you should be fine with tap water on GI.
When I lived with my parents on GI the tap water was tested and came out surprisingly good. Just make sure you use a tap water dechlorinator product.

 

[reefnut]

IMO even in a FO tank RO/DI water is beneficial. My RO/DI unit produces about 4g of waste water to 1g of fresh water. I had a hard time with this at first but we use it to water plants and other things. Have you ever looked to see what 1- gallon of water costs you in your home???? Here it is less that 1c a gallon. IMO, and I'm keeping track to make it fact... a RO/DI unit is cheaper in the long run even factoring in filter replacements, water costs, everything.

 

[leopard_babe]

I still live with the family. So I don't really have the room to set up a unit. Otherwise I might invest in one. Maybe in the future I will buy an RO unti. Thanks all!!