Which Water for Your Reef?

[1911_guy]

Originally Posted by Thomas712
Typhoon III, 5 stage RO/DI unit,. cost about $200
thanks thomas, i found it. yep $200
Do you like it?

 

[dejaco]

From my time breeding discus where soft acidic water is a must. Never ever trust
RO water dispensed at stores and sold by the gallon. There filter maintainance schedule
is non existant. Get your own RO water putifier and be safe. Water quality is on thing
we can control at the start when we mix our salt - after that it's really an endeavor in
waste water management!

 

[dea_mt]

all of these TDS measurements are in PPM's correct?

 

[mikersof]

I have an RO unit sitting under my sink. It's new from Home Depot and I'm waiting on a day off when i can get a plumber to run a new water line for me-- the one that's here has reduced flow and won't power the unit.
QUESTION: Will RO water be ok for my reefs or do I need to go ahead and invest in an RO/DI unit now?
QUESTION 2: and don't laugh. can you drink RO/DI water? My LFS told me that drinking RO/DI water was really bad.
I got the RO unit before we jumped into SW.
Thanks ya'll,
james =)

 

[dragonboy]

Well from what I know they said the DI has sodium in it and take electrolytes from your body into solution and carry them out. It might be harmful over periods of time depending on how much you drink. And for us we don't need it that pure to drink cause our bodies need the minerals but its good for our tanks. I think RO is good enough for tanks but if you want to make it more pure then go with RO/DI.
Originally Posted by MikerSof
I
QUESTION 2: and don't laugh. can you drink RO/DI water? My LFS told me that drinking RO/DI water was really bad.

 

[speg]

A lot of times bottled water has stuff added to it which would probably show up on the TDS. I know some bottled water companies add salt for instance.

 

[perchpsk]

I buy my water bottled. The guy gave me choices of his reverse osmosis water and his distilled water. In his opinion the distilled water was more pure and that's what I buy. Any advice on RO vs Distilled?

 

[mikersof]

Originally Posted by perchpsk
In his opinion the distilled water was more pure and that's what I buy. Any advice on RO vs Distilled?
One of the things I learned about distilled water is in the process of making it, some companies run it through copper coils and thus can have some copper in it. Copper is one of those minerals that I know we need to avoid at all costs!
Best wishes!
james =)

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by DEA_MT
all of these TDS measurements are in PPM's correct?
No, actually it's microseimans. I don't know if there's a direct conversion but I think there might be.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by MikerSof
I have an RO unit sitting under my sink. It's new from Home Depot and I'm waiting on a day off when i can get a plumber to run a new water line for me-- the one that's here has reduced flow and won't power the unit.
QUESTION: Will RO water be ok for my reefs or do I need to go ahead and invest in an RO/DI unit now?
QUESTION 2: and don't laugh. can you drink RO/DI water? My LFS told me that drinking RO/DI water was really bad.
I got the RO unit before we jumped into SW.
Thanks ya'll,
james =)
I recommend the DI as well. It further purifies the water by removing Phosphate and Silicates.
RO/DI is fine for drinking. It has no taste though.

 

[thomas712]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
I recommend the DI as well. It further purifies the water by removing Phosphate and Silicates.
RO/DI is fine for drinking. It has no taste though.

I agree, but if any of you drink coffee make a pot with your RO/DI water and you will be amazed at how much smoother it is vs. tap water.

 

[ktsdad]

We were drinking our RO/DI water and everyone is correct - it is tasteless.
I put a "Valve Tee" between the output of the RO membrane and the input to the DI unit.
RO water to the drinking jug and the DI water to the storage tank.
Drinking water taste much better.
BTW our tap water is really not good for drinking, makes chunky coffee :notsure:

 

[speg]

It boggles my mind how people can say water is tasteless... I drink ro/di water and I enjoy how it tastes so much. I can taste huge differences in all water too.. I hate fiji bottled water.. I hate aquafina.. I looooove dasani though

 

[oozy]

Ive always used tap. never any other source. (not by choice but thats what i have)
its never been a problem, except that maybe i run my lights a shorter amount of time than people who use ro/di....
humm
thats a usefull experiment for someone to run.
-oozy-

 

[dea_mt]

if you had a TDS meter that read in PPMs what would you want the be reading?

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by DEA_MT
if you had a TDS meter that read in PPMs what would you want the be reading?
0.0ppm.

 

[dea_mt]

i'm reading IN - 86 OUT - 7 wish i wouldn't have gone cheap on the RO/DI unit

 

[speg]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
0.0ppm.
Of course keep in mind that you will NEVER read that.

 

[jamie814]

Originally Posted by Speg
Of course keep in mind that you will NEVER read that.
I have a kent marine Hi-S RO/DI 60 gpd with a builtin TDS meter and pressure gauge and I get about 180 ppm in and 0 ppm out so yest it is possible. I even went to as far as switching the probs around to see if they read the same to make sure their both reading correct. If the unit sits a while without being used some of the minerals can "leach" back into the product water from the di resin. then I sometimes get a blip with a few ppm of tds in the water otherwise it is 0. But that is why it is best to run ro/di units for long periods and not a lot of short peroids.

 

[dburr]

I am not surprized at all.
Vending machines are only as good as the person tending to them.
Bottled water, heh, anybody guess what kind of water it really is. Prolly just plain old city water from a tap.
And my last comment, alot of wells are better than tap, IMO.