Mixing Salt

[cmor1701d]

You can always set up a home still and use distilled or double distilled water if you don't want to use RODI.

Tap is ok but not desired for an initial fill. Top off and water changes in a reef should really use RODI.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You can usually buy RO at Wal-mart, just get some 5g buckets and lids from Home Depot, wipe with vinegar to clean, rinse well, and good to go. 37 cents/gallon and way better than tap water.

 

[NickRummy]

You can usually buy RO at Wal-mart, just get some 5g buckets and lids from Home Depot, wipe with vinegar to clean, rinse well, and good to go. 37 cents/gallon and way better than tap water.

I've thought about doing something similar. My LFS sells it for .50 cents a gallon. Here's my reasoning though........

I'm setting up my 65g with a 29g sump which will hold around 15-20g so I'm looking at needing 85G plus whatever I'll need for water changes. That's $42.50 for water just for start up. They have the 5 stage RO/DI systems on ebay for under $100. It's already paid for half of itself just in the tank fill up. I'm really thinking about just getting my own unit.

 

[mwilliams]

You can usually buy RO at Wal-mart, just get some 5g buckets and lids from Home Depot, wipe with vinegar to clean, rinse well, and good to go. 37 cents/gallon and way better than tap water.

Which water from Walmart are you referring to? The machine were you put your own container into the machine and get the water??? or the water that you buy on the shelves inside the store?

 

[mwilliams]

I am not sure about all the above regarding Tap water vs RO that you buy at the LFS. Only because I had been buying all my water previously from the LFS both RO & the saltwater already mixed. I had more cyano algae growing then I do now. Currently I am using the tap water and using Prime from Seachem to remove the chlorine, chloramine and ammonia. It also detoxifies nitrite and nitrate but I am looking into buying my own RO/DI unit.
Does anyone have any thoughts about those units that you put on your faucet to purify the water such as like Britta Water Filter Systems or the PUR water filters remove 98% of TTHMs untill I can get the RO Unit?

 

[cmor1701d]

Brita is a basically a charcoal filter, Pure does more, but neither approaches RODI units, especially for cost. You can get small DI filters for the faucet which are generally made for humidifiers, but the DI resin will be used up very quickly from straight tap water. The RO membrane removed up to 98% of the impurities from tap water. The DI resin then takes care of the rest.
Any water you use needs to be tested, regardless if it's from the lfs, WalMart or your own RODI unit. You always need to have a tds meter on hand.

 

[mwilliams]

Will do I just saw another RO System can you take a look at it and advise...????
www.advancedwaterfilters.com/filter-products/value-line-3-stage-water-filter.html

or

www.freshwatersystems.com/p-2149-flowmatic-50-gpd-5-stage-ro-system-with-quick-connect-fittings.aspx

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Which water from Walmart are you referring to? The machine were you put your own container into the machine and get the water??? or the water that you buy on the shelves inside the store?

The one where you fill the water yourself, which is why you would need to buy buckets to fill up. From my experience their water is about 12-15 ppm so it's pretty good. I've pulled 80g in one shot from my local WM.

Are you saying that you got more cyano when you were using pre-mixed SW bought at the LFS, or more when you were using tap water?

 

[mwilliams]

I got more of the cyano when I was buying their RO water and mixing the salt (Oceanic Salt) when I got home. I never could get good readings on any of my Nitrites, Nitrates, Salty. PH, etc... it was always off when I would use their saltwater so that is when I deicded to switch over. Using tap water with Prime from Seachem and Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt. The last time I took my water sample in to the other LFS store that keeps all records of the water samples that you bring into them on index cards for each person. They said the water was absolutly perfect and do change what I am doing. I still have some cyano but not as bad as I did before hand.

The water machines at Walmart can you put the big buckets in there like the ones that the Salt comes in for making 200 gallons??

 

[cmor1701d]

The first filter doesn't have an RO membrane or a DI cartridge so it's like a whole house Brita filter. The second link doesn't have a DI cartridge, but it does have a RO membrane. It is designed for drinking water, not a reef tank.

Take a look at the Typhoon for $149 or the Typhoon III for $189 from one of our sponsors. I've had my Typhoon III for 6 years. There are other cheaper units on eBay that do about the same, but AWI has been there to answer my questions at night, weekends, pretty much anytime I had a question my email was answered in a few hours.

 

[mwilliams]

I looked at those and by the way they are hooked up to the pipes I can not do that I live in an apartment and I can not alter any of the pipes and if I damage those pipes in anyway then we will be held responsible for the damages. Can those units be hooked up a different way other then being hooked up directly to the pipes?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

You can buy an adapter that hooks to your faucet for just about anything, including an RO system. They sell 'portable' RO systems, but it's the same as a permanent system, just different connection and arrangement of the system.

There can be many causes for Cyano. I successfully battled it in a tank with extremely high N and P by siphoning it out (along the the substrate it was attached to), scrubbing the LR vigorously, running a diatom cartridge filter, and doing a series of large PWCs. N and P in that tank are still high by most standards, but the Cyano is gone. Now GHA is everywhere...