? about reverse osmosis

[Smonkey15]

just a quick question here, how do you feed the water into [acronym:b848ee0496="Reverse osmosis"]ro[/acronym:b848ee0496] systems? from what i have read it sounds like tapping into some plumbing lines but since i am a renter in house my landlord wouldn't be too happy if i tapped into the plumbing, he doesn't care about my fish. anyways, do they make some that i could hook up to the faucet and leave over night or something? also, anybody have and [acronym:b848ee0496="Reverse osmosis"]ro[/acronym:b848ee0496] system recomendations. i think that will be my next fishy investment. thanks

They make a Garden hose Adapter for Use with [acronym:5b0d499203="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:5b0d499203] kits.. You can hook it up to like your washer fitting.. I am sure that they also make a sink adapter but I am not sure.. I am a renter as well and still tapped into my pipes but bought replacements for the pipes that I tapped into so when I move I can just install them in its place and no one would ever no the difference.. With Plumbing just about anything can be done... [acronym:5b0d499203="Laughing out loud"]LOL[/acronym:5b0d499203]

[acronym:5b0d499203="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:5b0d499203],
James

[fishfreek]

If you venture thru the plumbing section of [acronym:5476130811="Home Depot"]HD[/acronym:5476130811] or Lowes your sure to find a faucet adaptor to allow you to connect the 1/4" diamater [acronym:5476130811="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:5476130811] tubing. I use the same garden hose adaptor that james mentioned on my coldwater connection to my washer. If your apartment does nto have washer/dryer hookups then that might not work for ya. WHen I think of a sink attachment I see one of those things where you pull a little pin and it closes off the sink faucet and reroutes the water thru the hose.

[lbritish]

in my old apartment I had washer and dryer with valves that had garden hose type ends on it. I got a "Y" connector with the inline shut offs made out of brass (not those piece of junk plastic ones...) and hooked the Y on to the cold water line. Then I hooked the washer side back up to the one side and a garden hose end for the 1/4 inch into the [acronym:6265cc4394="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:6265cc4394] side.

As for recommendations... I have a Captive Purity 75 gpd 4 stage unit. (I have a 5 micron floss, and depending no what's available in the store at the time.. 1/2 micron or 1 micron carbon block, then the [acronym:6265cc4394="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:6265cc4394] unit, and then it runs it through a De-Ionizing cartridge.) I got it from Marine Depot I think it was... But that model isnt carried by 9 out of 10 places soooo Kent Marine seems to be the most available popular model on the list. As far as "recommending a model" it really doesnt matter... MOST of them use the exact same parts and have standard housings for the filter media to get installed in...

When choosing a unit you need to A) Figure out how many gallons you need at a time.... B) How long you can wait for that many gallons to produce.... and C) how much if any you want to store..... and if storing it do you want to be able to use it for drinking water (in your case in the apartment... unless you run the tube into a jug and stick it in the refrigerator this probably isnt much of an option though since you cant mount a "faucet" for the water easily in the house... unless they have one of those refrigerators with the water in the door feature which I've never seen an apartment with one of those... but you never know in that case you have to pass a tube to the water supply line of the refrigerator from a "3 gallon Drinking water kit pressure canister" more complicated... more money... always available for future upgrade once you move to a house for example..etc..etc.. all standard equipment...doesnt matter what brand...)

I went with the most GPD I could afford at the time. Most of the stuff in the [acronym:6265cc4394="Home Depot"]HD[/acronym:6265cc4394] and Lowes etc are around 30-40 gpd probably.... GE is the more common one there.. they're just as good as the others on the market except usually a lower GPD then what you find in the fish catalogs cuz...well... we use more water then people just drinking it... I'm sure GE makes a higher GPD unit.. but I've never seen one past 35..

If looking for an online mailorder [acronym:6265cc4394="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:6265cc4394] system.. look at all the Saltwater specific retailers first.. and look at the units on Marine Depot. There's a couple on there.. search using Google for places selling those models since they have the most common ones there so you'll find them easily in other places.. Foster and Smith sell them too...

I actually have a place locally here that sells nothing but [acronym:6265cc4394="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:6265cc4394] equipment and supplies. Unfortunately they charge $30 for a $10 replacement filter

As I said.. MOST filters use the same cartridges you can buy at Home Depot etc... they dont sell [acronym:6265cc4394="Deionization"]DI[/acronym:6265cc4394] there... and they dont sell the [acronym:6265cc4394="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:6265cc4394] membranes the last I saw...

but the floss/thread/sediment filters are there and the carbon blocks are there. They are usually available in multi packs and usually cheaper then buying them 1 at a time from mail order unless you find a place that sells them in cases or something.

[shawmutt]

If you have a smaller (smaller than 55 [acronym:36b6ec7d1f="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:36b6ec7d1f]) tank, another option would be to find a store that sells r/o water by the gallon. I have a couple 5 gallon jugs that I refill every week. I also rent, and didn't think too much about water spills until my 10 gallon sprung a leak and emptied on my livingroom floor--I would be too worried about plumbing leaks to even think about an r/o system in my apartment. [acronym:36b6ec7d1f="In my opinion"]IMO[/acronym:36b6ec7d1f], better to wait until I own a house (this goes for the 120 gallon tank too )

[drinkingbird]

I have a diverter aerator on my faucet, it's the thing fishfreek mentioned (pulling a pin ).
It was a pain in the butt the get all the parts for it. I ordered the aerator from Marine Depot, but since my faucet has a female end the aerator had a female end I had to find a male-male connector. Home Depot is terrible by me, nothing is ever in stock. Finally found what I needed at my local hardware store.
With this piece of hardware , you may need to pick up extra washers. The one that was in the pin mechanism blew out on me after a couple of uses. The washer is easy to replace.
Good luck!

[loganizzi]

If you look on EBay, there are a series of [acronym:a23372dafb="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:a23372dafb]/[acronym:a23372dafb="Deionization"]DI[/acronym:a23372dafb] units for sale from FilterDirect that don't require a tap on the supply side. I just purchased one a few weeks ago and it is working well. The waste side does require a tap, but that is just a piece of [acronym:a23372dafb="Plastic pipe"]PVC[/acronym:a23372dafb] pipe that will be simple to replace when you move.

If you already have a [acronym:a23372dafb="Reverse osmosis"]RO[/acronym:a23372dafb]/[acronym:a23372dafb="Deionization"]DI[/acronym:a23372dafb] unit or have your eye on one that you prefer, you can get the non-tap connector at a plumbing store. Look for a water feed adapter and an angle needle valve.