reverse osmosis machine?

[hc8719]

correct me if im wrong, im under the impression that you need to have reverse osmosis water before you add the marine salt. i havent seen any in the stores. who all has one, and how much do they cost? or how many of you just buy pre mixed sw like at petco?

 

[dorian965]

check filterdirect on ebay. they have good ro/di units for about 110 bucks. ro units will be better for your tank and cheaper than premixed water in the long run.

i have one of these filters from ebay and at a reef meeting last week i found out that i was starting out with the worst water sample and the ro water from my unit was more pure than the other more expensive units.easy to install also.

 

[hc8719]

how do they work? i kinda imagined you pour tap water into them, then dump it into the tank? or are the connected to the tank?

 

[SCFatz]

They are units that you hook you to your own plumbing and you water pressure moves the water through it.It mostly a series a fine filters with deionizing media after that...it can be collected in whatever container you would like.I'll edit this in a minute after I find the link,the visual will help.

Fwiw we just installed this unit under my sink yesterday.

Edit:http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-2-110G...4QQihZ002QQcategoryZ20756QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[dorian965]

http://cgi.ebay.com/WaterGeneral-RO...hZ002QQcategoryZ20756QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

this is the one i have and i like that it has the tank and ro faucet for drinking water.very happy with this unit.the one that scfatz listed is the one i originally wanted but they were out of stock. the water coming from this unit is so clean that i think the tank would be more usfule instead of the 2nd di chamber unless your tap water has a high phosphate content to begin with.tank holds about 3 gallons of water.

 

[hc8719]

thanks for the links, so a RO water machine is really just a water filter. how expensive are they to maintain? buying new filters and stuff?

 

[dorian965]

you should replace the membrane once a year. the di resin and carbon filters about every 6 months. probably around $100-140 a year on maintanance. this is just a rough guess. you have to test the water coming from the filter to see when you need to replace things.

 

[hc8719]

do sw fish really need RO water? or can they live without it, and just use regular dechlor water?

 

[Charlie]

hc8719


I'v only had my tank running for a few months so I'm no expert. My tank is in my office so installing a RO/DI would be problematic. I use tap water that has dechlorinator added. So far I haven't had a problem.

If I had the tank at home I'd probably spend the $100-$150 and eliminate any possibility of adding something undesirable to the display tank. With all of the money that I've put into this tank, cutting corners to save a few bucks doesn't make much sense.

 

[hc8719]

thats actually really interesting.

im only setting up a 10gal that my african clawed frog lived in before he got bumped up to the 20gal. so i already got the hood and everything, really if i just keep some LR and some snails and inverts, (i know this sounds really unanimal rights of me) but nothing to loose.

eventually if this works out, maybe a brown clown goby. hope yours works out for you charlie, keep me posted if anything happens, and you think its because of non-RO/DI water

 

[dorian965]

the main problem with dechlor. tap water is that the disolved solids in the water will be high and most tap water contains phosphate. both of these will contribute to all types of algae problems. you could try it but once you get hair algae growing on the rocks, its hard to get rid of the stuff.

are you running a skimmer? this would help. i have known people to run saltwater tanks with tap and well water along with a good protein skimmer with success. it depends on the quality of your tap water.

 

[Charlie]

I use a 50 micron filter mat in my wet/dry and an internal protein skimmer. I also have a clean-up crew. So far, you couldn't find a speck of algae in my tank. It is so free of algae that I put seaween into the tank every night so that my critters don't starve to death. So far my Electric Blue Crabs have eaten several of my snails. Don't want to lose any more.

 

[hc8719]

the main problem with dechlor. tap water is that the disolved solids in the water will be high and most tap water contains phosphate. both of these will contribute to all types of algae problems. you could try it but once you get hair algae growing on the rocks, its hard to get rid of the stuff.
.

really? ive never had algae in my fw tanks, is saltwater more prone to algae?

 

[SCFatz]

Usually yes because of the amount of light required to support corals.

Unlike FW, co2 is not used in high light situations,so algea will thrive if not starved.The purer water (rodi) keeps the water nutrient free and helps keep the algea in check regardless of the wpg.

At least thats my generic understanding of it all.

HTH

 

[hc8719]

so algea will thrive if not starved.

thanks for the reply could you repeat that part though?

i dont plan on keeping corals for the time being, as i would like to keep this as an intro to sw fish on a minimum budget. and halogen lighting is just too expensive to buy and use.

as of my not keeping coral, and wanting to be cheap, will tap water really be that bad?

 

[SCFatz]

Whoops...missed the question.

Well thats a little tough to answer...or at least for me it is anyway.I'm pretty new to the salty side thing myself.

I think if your are not keeping corals it will be ok.Inverts I just don't know enough to reply about.Small amounts of metals can mean death so I guess that will depend on the tap water quality.

[I'm just typing what i'm thinking so I also expect a correction or agreemeant form somebody who actually knows]

You certainly will not be the first to start with tap...Heck even I did that with the 90,but I saw the need for RO/DI so it was a no brainer here.My bud also started with tap and has the situation you discribe (low lights,just normal NO aquarium hood) and he still had a pretty bad algea problen setting in.He just did his first PWC with the RO so I can't really report if it helped or not just yet,but I'm confidant it will.

The store I was riding to sold both premixed salt and fresh RO/DI.The cost was 75 cents and 25 cents per gallon respectivly.I bought the fresh and mixed it myself.

For ten gallons thats $2.50 and thats for a complete start up in your case.PWCs will be even cheaper.

Long post a bit longer,You will "probably" be just fine....but at the price of RO in such small quanities I'd start with the good stuff right off the bat.

HTH

 

[hc8719]

thanks for the reply, i havent seen RO water at the lfs, but then again the ones i go to cater to fw and sw. i know there are some sw only stores around, so i'll have to check those out. thanks for the tip

 

[SCFatz]

If they sell premixed SW it should be from RO/DI (At least I'd hope so).

The two strores I've been in that offer both don't really advertise it fwiw....or at least I never noticed it.