Is RO drinking water the same as what i use for the tank?

[gsxrguru2]

Just wondering if the RO system that is already hooked up to the sink for drinking will be adequate for the tank? The only reason i ask is because the guy at the LFS said that drinkable RO water doesn't filter out all the stuff that aquarium RO water does. According to him some of the minerals that we need to get out of our drinking water will pass through a RO drinking system but not through a set of filters for water to be used in a tank system. pretty much what this is all boiling down to is wheather I should use what i already have or buy a system off of ebay. just wondering if any of you know anything about wheather this is true or not- the LFS guy was of course trying to sell his RO water.

 

[krap101]

yeah. if your talking about a brita type thing its totally different i think. britas use carbon but ro uses a couple diff stages of crap

 

[gsxrguru2]

I am talking about an actual RO unit- it has the 3 canisters under the sink and the storage container. I am only concerned about wheather the filters for drinking are different than the 3 filters that would be used to make RO water for a tank.

 

[Skuseman]

Yes they are different. I've been using tap for years on my tanks with mo problems. But my water supply is unusually clean. So I'm recommending you get a RO filter from ebay.

 

[ccCapt]

It's the same thing. Some RO units have a DI cartridge in the unit, which is what most people use as the final filter for the aquarium water.

 

[jaiden]

same thing. get a TDS meter or take the water somewhere to be tested. Then add a T fitting so you can still use the RO for drinking, and then run the rest through a DI for the fish.

it's exactly what I do.

 

[gsxrguru2]

So with a TDS meter what sort of readings do i want to see?

 

[jaiden]

you WANT to see 0. But this depends on your source water.

you should get around a 90% reduction in TDS from a RO. So if you have 180 source, you should look for 18 out of the RO.

Then, the DI should get it down to 0. But if it's 50 coming out of the RO because you have terrible water, your DI won't last long at all.

make sense?

 

[Ricky@3rdshift]

I was gonna ask the same ? b/c the Sam's brand water from walmart says RO water on it in the back label. I have been using it instead of tap water or buying water from the LFS.

 

[seaham358]

IMO a TDS reading is not what you really need to be testing. You need to test your water for nitrates, phosphates and silacates. If you have a reading of any one of these then you need a Di housing added to the unit.
TDS is total disolved solids, it does not say if the solids are good or bad and the 3 items listed above are not picked up by a TDS meter.
Don't get me wrong you want a 0 TDS out of the DI unit, this tells you that it is working properly and the filters are good. IMO you still need to test the water for NO3, PO4 and silacates because even with a low TDS you can have high levels.