reverse osmosis

[aqh88]

I just moved to an apartment. Luckily basement floor so all the tanks can come but the water is 8.0 ph, 20 kh, and it comes out of the tap full of dissolved gases. The ph directly out of tap is 6.4 and you can't see into the water from all the bubbles. 8O I don't have room to store water for it to degas and I don't really want to use this hard of water. I can buy ro water from the store but I think I'd save alot of money over time if I buy an ro unit. Especially since Chris also wants to buy water for drinking. Problem is.. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. I figured I need about 50gallons a week and I don't think I can really install it into the pipes... I don't have the ability to shut off the water to this apartment at least I don't think I do. Really I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to pipes and water. Can someone point out an ro system that is around $100 and the parts I need to just attach it and unattach it from the sink as needed or anything else I need? Where do I send the waste water to? Where do I send the ro water? Do I need a garden hose or 2?
Next if I accomplish getting ro water I need to add stuff back into it. I was thinking of using kent's ph stable which is carbonic acid salts and seachems equilibrium for gh. I'd rather control the gh and kh somewhat seperately than using something like kent's ro right. Any other suggestions what to use or will that work?

 

[bussardnr]

http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/showproducts.asp?Category=91&Sub=103
thats the best price for quality ro/di filters i've found they have regular ro systems too if you dont want the extra cost.

 

[greenmaji]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4394308641&category=20684
this e-bay store has the best prices on the net right now for RO/DI systems.. I have searched high and low, because Im cheap! LOL.. this system is similar to the one above but it has a big refillable DI chamber and costs a little under $110.00 with the shipping and handleing...

 

[aqh88]

What benefit does the DI give me? Is there anything important it removes? I don't really need 100% pure water. I mostly just want softer water, no chlorine, less silicates, and all those dissolved gases out.

 

[greenmaji]

it removes disoved minerals.. a ro makes water 90.8% and ro/di makes 99.5% pure water.

the numbers are approximante.. it is advertized give or take those numbers within 1%

 

[greenmaji]

and the gasses would be removed.. ro is a very forcefull solid filter almost nothing can get through except water molicules..

 

[hashbaz]

I live in an apartment and have had an Aquasafe (same as greenmagi's link) RO+DI for about a year. I'm quite happy with it.

I don't know if all RO filters are the same but I can tell you how mine works. There is 1 inlet and 2 exits. One exit goes through all 6 stages of the filter and the other exit (the waste water) only goes through the first three. This water is used to rinse off the garbage filtered out by the RO membrane.

To attach the inlet: you will need to drill a small hole in the plastic pipes below your sink. (I don't know what to do if yours are metal and not plastic) You don't even need a drill just a drill bit. There are usually knobs to turn off the water in the plastic tubes, so that you don't need to turn off the water to the whole apartment. Then there is a little attachment included in the kit to attach the inlet hose of the filter to the pipe under your sink. I assumed that replacing this plastic pipe when I leave the apartment will not be hard.

Fully filtered exit: This hose is left open and you simply fill a container and turn off the valve when you are done. There are some RO systems that come with a storage tank so that there is always fully filtered water available, but these cost $20 to $30 more.

Partially filtered exit (waste): The instructions in my kit said to drill a hole in the elbow pipe below the drain of the sink. There was another attachment to connect the filter's hose to this elbow pipe. But I chose to leave this hose free also. When I use the filter, I jam the waste hose exit into the sink's drain.

When doing water changes, half of the water goes through all 6 stages and is very close to PURE water. The other half goes through only the first three stages of the filter. This filters out chlorine, nitrate, and other crap, but leave the minerals in the water. Doing this way I don't have to add any additives to the water whatsoever. If you wanted to use pure RO water, I would suggest using "RO Right" or some other additive specifically designed for RO water.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

PS I bought mine on ebay for $100 (with shipping) using "buy it now" and a few months later bought another identical one for my brother for only $65 (with shipping) by waiting till I got lucky bidding on auctions.

 

[aqh88]

Both the kitchen sink and bathroom have 2 small metal pipes(1"? diameter). One runs to hot, one runs to cold. Then the drain is metal except the elbow joint. I do think I found how to turn the water off. Above the hot water heater in the closet it says WATER SHUT OFF in 4" letters. By the way I've never used a drill.

Can you change the setup of the filters in an RO system? Such as using a finer or coarser filter. Where do I buy replacements for that ro system? All I found in their ebay store was a 1 box of various filters.

I am using additives for ro water. Kent ph stable has directions for using with ro water. It does also say to use ro right but ro right is a mix of general hardness salts with a small amount of buffer. I would rather use seachem's equilibrium which is made for planted tanks but I don't like seachem's buffering system. Kent's ph stable is much simpler than seachem's alkaline and acid buffer mixture. Which they don't say what's in it. It's also 1/4 the cost to use ph stable.

 

[bussardnr]

do not get the 100gpd ro units off ebay, they use the dow membrain wich is really crapy. dow doesnt even sell there units with this membrain as ro units

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

I'm that lucky $65 brother. There are different r/o membranes available but they are all going to be about the same If it was coarser it wouldn't do its job and if it was finer it would take forever to get any water. That box of filters is a great deal, but it will take a while to use them all. Many home stores have water filtering systems so you may be able to get individual replacement there.

I am thinking about getting some r/o conditioner myself and abandon tap water. My tap water has occasionally had toxic levels of nitrates (80-100+) plus ridiculous hardness and wacky pH swings. What is the R/O conditioner of choice? R/O right, R.O. vital, Equlibrium...?

 

[bussardnr]

http://www.dow.com/liquidseps/prod/les2inch.htm look at the Description and Stabilized Rejection % for the 100 gpd. bty the link i gave uses this membrane has well.
http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/
those are more pricey and have real 100gpd ro membranes

 

[aqh88]

I'm not looking for a pricey but perfect ro unit. I'm looking for a cheap ro but useable ro unit. If I wanted perfect water I can get extremely filtered and double uv treated water 2 blocks away for $.25 a gallon. I just figured I don't need extremely filtered and uv treated water when it's going to end up costing me around $600 a year. I do want to avoid the changes in filtration method that some cities will do without warning. I've heard of plenty of tanks getting completely killed off because the city added or quit filtering for something. I also don't like the high silicates, high ph, and all the dissolved gas which by the smell includes some sulfate. Before this I used well water that I controlled the filtration system and was taken from an underground spring.
That being said when it comes time to replace the membrane can you use a higher quality one from a different company? Are all the parts standard?