Is RO water needed.

[Spoor3773]

Hi. I currently have a 240 litre tank containing all male malawi cichlids. I ve always wanted to keep marine fish, so I ve decided that after I get married in June I'm going to make the plunge. In order to gain as much knowledge as possible between then and now I ve been reading as much on the subject as possible. One question I have is will I need to run the tank on RO water. It will be a struggle to find the place to install a unit and don't really want the extra cost of always buying 50+ litres every couple of weeks. Or can I not get away with ordinary treated tap water???

 

[Drak]

Personally I don't think it's worth the effort and maintenance to deal with non RO water.
It's just going to make it so much harder to have a great tank.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Couldn't agree more. If you can't get RO water I'd stick to cichlids. Using RO is that important. It's just one of the many expenses of going salt.

 

[Schism]

Hi. I currently have a 240 litre tank containing all male malawi cichlids. I ve always wanted to keep marine fish, so I ve decided that after I get married in June I'm going to make the plunge. In order to gain as much knowledge as possible between then and now I ve been reading as much on the subject as possible. One question I have is will I need to run the tank on RO water. It will be a struggle to find the place to install a unit and don't really want the extra cost of always buying 50+ litres every couple of weeks. Or can I not get away with ordinary treated tap water???

I agree with what the others have said but if your only worry is about were to install one that is an easy fix.

Fact is you don't have to install it anywhere simply hook it up to the sink when you need to fill some buckets of water and store it in a closet when not in use, you can also instal them under a sink or near a washer hookup. Its really that simple.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

^This, plus the models that hook up to a sink can often be found for really cheap!

 

[Drak]

Mine is under my kitchen sink. You can also use it for your own personal drinking / cooking water. Believe.me you won't go back to tap water again.

 

[Spoor3773]

Ok. How does the unit hook up to the sink.

 

[bavass]

It is best to have a RO/DI unit. RO alone is not good enough. It will take out some of the junk in tap water but not all. You can buy a faucet adapter to hook up to sink

 

[Spoor3773]

It is best to have a RO/DI unit. RO alone is not good enough. It will take out some of the junk in tap water but not all. You can buy a faucet adapter to hook up to sink

Ok. So I could just turn on the tap and hey presto RO water. Water so you recommend if RO water is not enough alone.

 

[bavass]

RO Membrane alone will remove some stuff but not all the DI Resin will pollish it off. I have a TDS meter before and after my RO membrane TDS reads 86 going in and 77 coming out. Once it goes through the DI it reads 0. The unit I recommend is below.

BRS 4 Stage Value RO/DI System - 75GPD - Bulk Reef Supply

 

[CorallineAlgae]

RO/DI units are the best way but I and many others have used just RO units for over a decade without any issues. If you're getting that low of a rejection rate out of the membrane something with your unit is way off. You should see about 96% rejection or more unless your pressure is way low or something else is off. You may want to swap out your flow restrictor.

Did you happen to upgrade the membrane from the original?

 

[bavass]

RO Membrane alone will remove some stuff but not all the DI Resin will pollish it off. I have a TDS meter before and after my RO membrane TDS reads 86 going in and 77 coming out. Once it goes through the DI it reads 0. The unit I recommend is below.

BRS 4 Stage Value RO/DI System - 75GPD - Bulk Reef Supply

Correction the 86 before and 77 after is after my 2 prefilters. The Prefilter Input is 86 the RO input is 77 and the RO output 6 TDS then after DI its 0. The DI is what removes most of the Nitrates, Phosphates and silicates from the tap water

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Correction the 86 before and 77 after is after my 2 prefilters. The Prefilter Input is 86 the RO input is 77 and the RO output 6 TDS then after DI its 0. The DI is what removes most of the Nitrates, Phosphates and silicates from the tap water

Right. That makes sense. Some source waters really do require a DI cartridge to get the residuals.

 

[bavass]

Right. That makes sense. Some source waters really do require a DI cartridge to get the residuals.

Yes if my membrane read that it I would panic! LOL
At 86TDS out of the faucet I am lucky some cities the TDS runs in the hundreds. I have seen some people say they had TDS of 700-800

 

[Drak]

Nice - Might be time for a new investment