Transition tap water to R/O

[HappyHooligan]

Do those R/O kiosk things you see in grocery stores and so on produce the same water as the filter systems sold for aquariums?

I found one that can fill 5g jugs and was going to start using that in my PWCs to control diatomes that haven't gone away yet after a couple months.

Are there any considerations while switching from tap to R/O?

[Zer0]

If the kiosk is using water from an RO system, then yes, it should be exactly the same. May want to find out details about it though. As for switching, nope. Just use RO water everytime you do a PWC and in a short while, you will be fully converted to RO water.

[thominil]

Not sure if the are ro, most will say what filtration they have been run through. I just buy mine from a store who specializes in ro units and other water purifying units and that stuff. I get to see the ro unit it goes through, pretty cool unit that is also big.

Just do your regular pwc's with ro water and eventually all the water will be ro.

[HappyHooligan]

It advertises as RO for multiple uses; drinking, cooking, plants etc...it has a short explanation stating the water goes thru some sort of carbon filtration followed by some other particulate filter and finally a UV treatment.

[roka64]

Well, to be honest, you want to find out if they keep up with replacing the media. If you have a TDS meter, you could test their water.
Diatoms thrive off of silicates and light, so if you have silicates in your water, they may linger for a while.
Do you have a pic of the diatoms?

[HappyHooligan]

I can try and get a pic. They have cleared up considerably over the past couple weeks. Just a sporadic brown dusting in areas right now.
The light has been off for a few hours so they are almost unnoticeable. I'll try for a pic tomorrow.

[Kurt_Nelson]

Originally Posted by roka64

Well, to be honest, you want to find out if they keep up with replacing the media. If you have a TDS meter, you could test their water....

If you're not in direct control of your water, I'd get a TDS meter to spot check here and there. No sense paying for "pure" water if that's not what it is, regardless of where it comes from.