What's all the hype about R/O Water

[blu11]

I am setting up a 46 Gallon BF this week...my first venture into the saltwater world. I have seen alot of posts reagrding R/O units and talk of using R/O water. What is the difference in quality of R/O water compared to distilled water. Why not a Brita On-Tap unit? I thought those removed the majority of tap water impurities. Please give me a little insight on the subject...I am getting ready to fill
Thanks guys

 

[fishhead81]

I was reading my Barron's First Aquarium book this evening and highlighted a phrase in the section of the chapter discussing water that caught my attention. I also wanted to use my brita filter that I have in my fridge and just make countless trips back and forth to my tank. I used "drinking water" from wal-mart at $.54 a gallon. About the book(sorry got off track), it said in very clearly, distilled water, RO(reverse osmosis) water and ANY PURIFIED water is acceptable and recommended for saltwater aquarium enthusiests. Isn't Brita water or any other filtered water "purified"? Now, I made a special trip to wally world after reading that and looked at the "drinking water" tag and it didn't say a word about RO water. BUT! The wal-mart brand distilled water and the "purified water" made by Crystal was "RO water". I'm gonna keep my tank how it is cuz my friend did the same and he's had no probs so, we'll see. I don't have the space for a RO kit in my apt. so until then i'll be adding jugs after jugs.
I dunno if i've helped at all by posting but i'll definately be returning to see what the pros on this forum have to say.

 

[treystang]

brita will not pull out everything from tap water.. TDS (total disolved solids) in your water will probably range in teh 400-900ppm range. All of that is impurities in the water; which in a satlwater tank is what all the nusiense algae thrives off of. RO Water will bring the TDS down to the 15-30ppm range, and RO/DI will bring it down to the 0-2ppm range. Obviously the less TDS the better.
Lot's of newbiew (myself included) don't listen to this advice and go ahead with the tap water.. sometimes it takes learning on your own before you listen. I had a an outbreak of diatoms (brown algae) in my tank that was so bad I ended up starting over. All my rocks were brown.. every iunch of the glass had to be cleaned when I got home from work.. and that was just to be able to see into the tank. I learned and purchased an RO unit.. and I started the tank over wasting another 3 weeks with a cycle.

 

[reefnut]

Both good posts above!!!! The major advantage I see between distilled and buying your own RO/DI water is the cost. In the long run the RO/DI unit will far pay for itself.

 

[kbaz]

I have not set up my tank yet...I was just going to use tap water and treat it with a conditoner?? Is this the wrong way to go. I have a 120 gal. and that would be a lot of water to buy! Please help.

 

[reefnut]

I would use distilled or RO/DI water from the start... but using tap water for the initial fill isn't going to ruin the tank... assuming there's no copper in your tap water.
Look here>>>http://www.epa.gov/safewater/dwinfo/index.html
You may can find a water report in your area. What county do you live in, in Michigan?? After looking at your water report you may find yourself buying a RO for drinking water!!

 

[kbaz]

This is the info I found for my area:
Type of Violation Occured Between: Begin Date Occured Between: End Date Contaminant Maximum Contaminant Level Contaminant Level Found Violation Code
Public Education
MAR-11-1995
DEC-31-2015
Lead & Copper Rule
--- Not reported 96030001
What do you think?

 

[kbaz]

I am in Wayne county Michigan. City is Brownstown.

 

[reefnut]

Wayne County 2004 Water Report
What a bummer... it doesn't give you ammonia, nitrites, nitrates or phosphates. The copper looks minimal though at .0956ppb.

 

[clownme]

On the discussion of initial setup and tapwater vs. R/O water; Does protien skimming have any benefits during the cycling stage to prevent the bad algae?

 

[acrylic51]

Just my .02 worth on the topic........

Don't start the tank with regular tap water....Regular tap water has all kinds of junk in it and yes you can obtain a water quality report from your water company......The funny thing is that most of us don't drink our tap water anyways for whatever reason it might be so why if we don't drink it ourselves would we put it into our tanks......
RO/DI units are different then the Britta filters your talking about....The Britta filters are fine for human consumption, but do not remove other harmful items present in the water system to make our tanks thrive........An RO unit is similar, but different than a RO/DI unit.....An RO/DI unit goes a step further with a DI canister that removes anything that might have been missed and does a final polishing of the water quality......
Why untrust your water quality or for that matter your tank inhabitants to you LFS, Walmart or grocery store????? I'm not saying you can't get good quality water from these sources, but the point is how do you know they are keeping up on the maintenance end of these machines and such?????? :notsure: And if your a bottled water buyer, what happens if you need water in a pinch and they are out???? I've seen it happen and there you are without quality water, and yes in a pinch I guess regular tap water would do, but again your relying solely on someone else for your tanks success
I heard a story the other day on a thread about a person going to their LFS where they were going to buy water, and the person in the LFS started getting water out of a tank in the store!!!!!!! :scared: I'm not saying it was bad water, but you don't know it could have been water they drained from a tank after a water change and they are selling it to the public....Sounds shady to me.......
Bottom line an RO/DI unit is a worth while investment and we all know the hobby is expensive, but try to take precautions where you can......In the long run the units will pay for themselves.....No more lugging jugs to the car, the cost of gas is already outrageous, so you figure in gas to and from the store and and your time, right there is enough to make you think, but the bottom line is you can't really put a money factor on a unit, it all boils down to is the success of your tank, and it's inhabitants...that is priceless

 

[reefnut]

I agree and one more comment on the water reports... one it doesn't tests for "everything" that is in the water and two the levels can change... changes due to heavy run offs, a mistake by the water company, problems with your neighbor's water lines, etc. So, the only way to truly know what's in your tap water is to send it through a RO/DI... at which point everything will be filtered out.
Bottom line is most newbies (including myself) fight the fact that RO/DIs are needed... but most if not all advanced hobbyists use them or something equally effective.

 

[kbaz]

I see how important it is now to have a RO DI unit. So I checked them out on the "#1 auction website" and found ones from 59.99 to 189.99. I will be maintaining a 120gal tank. What should I buy?
Thanks!

 

[reefnut]

Not sure what all they have but I would look for a 75gpd (you may have to request a 75gpd membrane instead of the 100gpd membrane) unit with a Clear DI Housing Chamber, Color Changing DI cartridge, DI Bypass, Backflush Valve (Fast Flush), auto shutoff & pressure guage.
The Typhoon III is a perfect unit IMO.

 

[kbaz]

Hey Reefnut-
I found one on the auciton site for 199.99 is that good or should I keep looking for a better deal?

 

[acrylic51]

If it's being sold by the H20guro it's a good unit.....Like ReefNut said check for about 75gpd, when you get around 100gpd you start to decrease in your rejection rate of the membrane........

 

[reefnut]

In the search put in "Typhoon III" and check them out. They are also 199.00 but IMO it's a better deal. You also get a TDS Meter with it.

 

[sankysyuck]

Using R/O water or distilled water is fine, as long as you add supplemental conditioners to replace the trace elements that were removed. If your looking for an inexpensive way to get purified water, you can always purchase a Tap Water Filter (Creative name huh?) it's by Aquarium Pharms. It costs about $30 online, to replace the can it's about $15. It's what I've always used, seems to have worked out. I've used it years ago since I started with Discus fish (Freshwater fish that's pretty expensive) and when I got into saltwater I continued to use it.

 

[airforceb2]

I got my RO/DI for $100 shipped and it works awesome. It is a 100GPD and the numbers prove that it works!!
One more thing to keep in mind...drinking water and RO water bought in pre-packaged bottles contains mineral additives to improve taste and these minerals may affect your tank.

 

[acrylic51]

Originally Posted by SankysYuck
Using R/O water or distilled water is fine, as long as you add supplemental conditioners to replace the trace elements that were removed. If your looking for an inexpensive way to get purified water, you can always purchase a Tap Water Filter (Creative name huh?) it's by Aquarium Pharms. It costs about $30 online, to replace the can it's about $15. It's what I've always used, seems to have worked out. I've used it years ago since I started with Discus fish (Freshwater fish that's pretty expensive) and when I got into saltwater I continued to use it.
The Tap Water Filters are crap!!!!! A friend of mine went this route and you could see the difference like night and day when he finally decided not to be a cheap

[hr]
and buy an RO/DI unit.....These things can't even compare to an RO/DI unit. Might be fine for Discus and FW, but a you won't have the same water quality....Trust me!!!!!