r/o units

[tonyponty]

which are the best r/o units my son got one about 2 months ago cost about £74.00 but it takes about 6 hours to do 5 gallon lol and it says 50 gallon per day any ideas to why anyone at this rate think we will need 1 each lol

[Macca]

I have a 200 gallon per day RO Man unit. Very pleased. Used to use a 50 gallon a day unbranded but it would take all week to produce about 30 gallon. :shock: Cost me a fortune in water charges!

James

[tonyponty]

thx how many gallons a day would that do

[Macca]

I would reckon I get 200 gallon from it in all honesty. I am really pleased with the RO unit although it is basically just a housing. The quality must be in the membrane and the ones ro man supply produce a good flow of ro water and I get reading of 0 ppm with a TDS meter. :-D

James

[Paul P.]

Have to agree with James, my RO Man unit does the business

[tonyponty]

ok thx very much might have to invest in another 1 the 1 my son as the water just trickles tricles out lol

[Reefer]

Best thing to do is throw them away buy some prime by Seachem and some reef crystals and use water from the tap, this RO is an uneccesary bother.
Some shops in Leicester dont bother and have no trouble and I also heard that even TMC dont use it??!!

[Macca]

:Shame on you: I just wanted to use that emoticon :-D

I have to disagree, Our Water reads 260 TDS and unless I know what disolved solids are in it (Rust etc) I would not put it anywhere near my tank.

James

[Reefer]

That was just my opinion based on a straw poll of retailers, it would be interesting to see what TMC use and also other people on the forum use?
Whats TDS by the way?? Never heard of em even in Marine world.
As for rust, fish/corals etc live in rusty old ships at the bottom of the sea dont they!? (iknow what your going to say about that 1) :twisted:

[Macca]

Pure water has a TDS of 0 (I assume???). So anything above this should not be there. TDS (Total dissoved solids) I think???

The water I use from R0-Mans RO Unit strips my water down to pure water according to the meter??? so it has removed 200 - 300 parts Per Million which could be bacteria, cooper, arsenic etc.

Anyway these substances are what your nuisance algae flourish on.

James

[Buster]

And of course the out put flow relies on the input pressure. if your input pressure (water pressure) is low then the filtered water out the other end will be a very slight trickle. to over come this you could buy a pump to increase the pressure into the unit. and I think these units are measured in u.s gallons not uk ones. :-D

[Reefer]

So basically your saying that nuisance algae comes from tap water? I disagree.
How come red slime algae was in my tank when I was R.O. ?
Switched to tap water 6 months ago, no brown or any other algae blooms no established coral deaths, existing corals have thrived, and no fish deaths, still got red slime algae to contend with. Water has benefited from higher ph of Leicester water (around 8.2ish) less buffering needed.
I still think its all a bit of a brain wash, people kept marines years ago with an undergravel filter and tap water. I think the keys of marine keeping are quality of salt used, use a nitrate, nitrite and ammonia detox for top ups and always run a skimmer or miracle mud sump.
Disagree if you want but till you have tried it you have nothing to back up your argument.
n.b. i will say to be fair i only keep soft corals never attempted hard corals they may be a different kettle of fish so to speak.
I welcome your opinions / experiences
Please reply

[Reefer]

Reef Critters says I have to disagree, our water reads 260 TDS
Then says
Pure water has a TDS of 0 (I assume???). So anything above this should not be there. TDS (Total dissoved solids) I think???

The water I use from R0-Mans RO Unit strips my water down to pure water according to the meter??? so it has removed 200 - 300 parts Per Million which could be bacteria, cooper, arsenic etc.

Reefer says: Arsenic in our water supply are you sure???!!!


All sounds a little vague and inexact to me, I'm still unconvinced, not having a pop at you Reef critters but you dont sound very sure of your facts, please prove me wrong and i will gladly go back to R.O.

[Paul P.]

"Reefer"
All sounds a little vague and inexact to me, I'm still unconvinced, not having a pop at you Reef critters but you dont sound very sure of your facts, please prove me wrong and i will gladly go back to R.O.

Reefer
look at this basic breakdown of the water quality in my area and I don`t suppose the rest of the country will be too much different

F001 1,2 dichloroethane 3 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.024 < 0.024 < 0.024
A021Aluminium 200 ug/l 27 R 0 0 <11 <11 <11 !!!
F002 Benzene 1 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.048 < 0.048 < 0.048
D007 Benzo (a) pyrene 0.01 ug/l 10 0 0 < 0.001 < 0.001 0.003
F003 Bromate 10 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.5 < 0.667 1.2
B004 Chromium 50 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.76 < 1.46 2.37
A001 Colour 20 mg/l 28 R 0 0 < 0.34 < 0.556 1.4
A024 Copper 2 mg/l 9 0 0 < 0.009 < 0.032 0.095 !!!
C002 E. coli 0 No/100ml 176 0 0 0 0 0
C003 Enterococci 0 No/100ml 9 0 0 0 0 0
A006 Hydrogen ion (pH) 6.5 -10 pH 28 R 0 0 7.44 7.71 8.02
A022Iron 200 ug/l 27 R 0 0 <7 <10.7 31
B007 Lead 25 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.123 < 0.155 0.408 !!!
A023 Manganese 50 ug/l 27 R 0 0 < 1 < 1.63 16.6
B006 Nickel 20 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.44 < 0.867 1.63
A012 Nitrate 50 mg/l 55 0 0 4.55 35.9 43.5 !!!
A013 Nitrite 0.5 mg/l 55 0 0 < 0.003 < 0.206 0.44 !!!
A003Odour 3 DilNo 29 R 0 0 0 0.034 1
B011 PAH (Sum of 4) 0.1 ug/l 10 0 0 0 0.001 0.004
A009 Sodium 200 mg/l 9 0 0 33.5 35.5 38.1
D009 Solvents (Sum of 2) 10 ug/l 9 0 0 0 0.301 0.75 !!!
A004Taste 3DilNo 28 R 0 0 0 0 0
D008 Tetrachloromethane 3 ug/l 9 0 0 < 0.042 < 0.042 < 0.042
D011 Trihalomethanes 100 ug/l 9 0 0 3.8 7.98 13.7
E002 Alkalinity -HCO3 -mg/l 1 --249 249 249
C009 Chlorine Free -mg/l 178 --< 0.01 < 0.048 0.36
C010 Chlorine Total -mg/l 178 --< 0.02 < 0.407 1.03
E001 Hardness as Ca -mg/l 1 --128 128 128
A027 Fluoride 1.5 mg/l 4 0 0 0.155 0.162 0.166
F001 1,2 dichloroethane 3 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.024 < 0.024 < 0.024
B008 Antimony 5 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.29 < 0.341 0.47
B001 Arsenic 10 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.34 < 0.426 0.57 !!!
P004 Atrazine 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P006 Bentazone 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
F002 Benzene 1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.048 < 0.048 < 0.048
D005 Boron 1 mg/l 8 0 0 < 0.068 < 0.068 < 0.068
P086 Bromacil 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
B002 Cadmium 5 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.39 < 0.39 < 0.39
P014 Chlorotoluron 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
B003Cyanide 50 ug/l 8 0 0 <1 <4.52 6 !!!
P026 Dichloroprop 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P032 Diuron 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
A027 Fluoride 1.5 mg/l 8 0 0 0.134 0.177 0.257
P048 Isoproturon 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P051 Linuron 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P054 MCPA 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P053 MCPP(Mecoprop) 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
B005 Mercury 1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.035 < 0.035 < 0.035 !!!
P113 Monuron 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P070 Prometryne 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P066 Propazine 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
B009 Selenium 10 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.54 < 0.804 1.01
P073 Simazine 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
P077 Terbutryne 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01
D008 Tetrachloromethane 3 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.042 < 0.044 0.056
P132 Trietazine 0.1 ug/l 8 0 0 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.01

ive highlighted some that I would be concerned about including Arsenic and Cyanide !!! I haven`t even heard of some of the things in the list !!!
and I doubt very much that there is a product on the market that can neutralise/de-toxify everything on that list

as you say, hard corals are a different matter altogether as are clams and some other inverts, lighting is also a factor but with second hand lighting upgrades are regularly available to suit the requirements of hard corals, clams etc why would you want to limit your options by using tapwater ?


still not convinced that RO is the best way to go for your fish/corals ? :Thinking:

with a tapwater TDS reading of around 560 which includes all the nasties on the above list I know I am :grin:

[Electric Monk]

I have to agree with the above posts, RO-man has a good range of RO/DI equipment. Good prices too.

[Macca]

All sounds a little vague and inexact to me, I'm still unconvinced, not having a pop at you Reef critters but you dont sound very sure of your facts, please prove me wrong and i will gladly go back to R.O.

Paul has given some facts and figures regarding tap water quality. Unless I know for a fact I will always question my subjective opinions as it would be unfair to assume what I believe to be a fact without spending time looking up appropriate material.

On the reference to algae Reefer, Nuisance algae requires phosphates, silicates, and nitrates to blossom. These are stripped out of tap water by an RO unit. These compounds are what we strive to keep down in a reef setup so why would you want to introduce them in tap water?

Humans have adapted to the amount of chemicals in tap water (some scientists blame certain cancers etc from this - another story) We introduce chemicals to keep bacteria etc out of our water but how many times have you heard of farm pesticides etc getting into our water system too? Quite often IMHO. The water authority must keep within guidelines for human consumption only!

As for a known fact - I have personally removed clump of a ferrous material from my cocunut filter in my RO unit whilst changing the membrane. God knows what damage this could do long term. On another note Chris from the reef ranch will be joining the forum shortly and as a dedicated marine scientist in this area we are sure to welcome his views.

James

[Dons1903]

My first marine tank was fish-only and was successful using tap water and de-chlorinator (and an undergravel filter).

However when I tried to move up to corals I struggled to keep nitrate and phosphate down :(

Swapping to RO water made a huge difference with them now hardly detectable :grin:

I would never go back!

[subz88]

I've been using RO water for the last nine years and wouldn't go back to tap. Before that I struggled with hair algae smothering everything, and since the change over there's been less nuisance algae, and fish and corals have always been healthier.

Broadly speaking, most of the standard synthetic salt mixes are designed to be mixed with pure RO/DI water to produce a close match to natural sea water, adding them to tap water can result in an imbalance in the ions available, but IME that isn't a problem for softies/mushrooms etc.

A couple of things to bear in mind though with RO's (all learnt via mistakes and not reading enough :oops: ):
1) Change your prefilters often (at least every six months). My 5micron chamber usually gets covered in rust and algae very quickly, but that's london tap water for you.
2) Flush the membrane after every period of inactivity. This will prevent any contaminant build up (usually calcium deposits) on the surface and increase it's longevity(a membrane should give about 5years service).
3) Also after any period of inactivity, run the first few minutes of product water to the drain. Due to a build up of contaminants on the membrane the initial product water won't be very pure. I've measured about 20ppm nitrate and 5ppm phosphate on my product water before I learnt to do this :o
4) If at all possible use a DI pod to ensure the output of your water purification system has 0 Total Dissolved Solids. Only that way you can be sure you have removed the bulk majority of contaminants from your tapwater. Even trace amounts of silicates and phosphates can set off nuisance algae blooms and fuel cyanobacteria outbreaks.
5) If your water pressure is low, invest in a booster pump(NOT a permeate pump!). Since getting one I get a consistent 95-98% rejection ratio on my 100GPD RO-Man system. An inline TDS meter is a good way to check that your unit is functioning correctly.
6) Next on the cards for me. With a pending change over to being on a water meter, add a second membrane chamber (the upgrade kit on RO Man's website). This will significantly increase the product water to waste water ratio, and speed up the production of RO water from your system to boot.

HTH :?

[liquidlogic]

u might neeed a pump find them at most RO establishers

[thereefshop]

Why do people say dont bother with ro-units?? :? proof is in the pudding look at what they pull out! people who say just use tap water makes me mad :evil:. just test your tap water. i have been to t.m.c many times and i can tell you they do use ro-units just on a bigger scale.
i would never ever put tap water in my reef tank i know that.
we are lucky down here in plymouth the water only come in at 110ppm so our filters last longer but does'nt mean you have to neglect them at all.
look after the ro-unit and it will look after you :-D

have to say ro-mans units are the best around and they are the only units i will use and sell in the shop. if a ran a tank using tap water,and one using ro water i know which one would be the best. :grin:

[liquidlogic]

Seconded

the reef shop got a website?

[thereefshop]

yes the reefshop.org.uk not up and running yet been so busy but it will be soon :-D

[Electric Monk]

.......

[Electric Monk]

Why do people say dont bother with ro-units?? :? proof is in the pudding look at what they pull out! people who say just use tap water makes me mad :evil:. just test your tap water. i have been to t.m.c many times and i can tell you they do use ro-units just on a bigger scale.
i would never ever put tap water in my reef tank i know that.
we are lucky down here in plymouth the water only come in at 110ppm so our filters last longer but does'nt mean you have to neglect them at all.
look after the ro-unit and it will look after you :-D

have to say ro-mans units are the best around and they are the only units i will use and sell in the shop. if a ran a tank using tap water,and one using ro water i know which one would be the best. :grin:

I agree 100%, It's very simple, Tapwater is filth. An RO/DI unit is a must.

If you keep marine, Think whats best for your tank not your wallet.

100% pure water is good for your tank ;)

[Reefer]

Right ok . . .
I'd better go back to R.O. then !!!

:whistling:


p.s. But when I was using R.O. I stil had red slime algae, water movements good so why wont it go?

[thereefshop]

your red slime is not a true algae its a bacteria you must have to many nutrients and not much of a clean up crew! tell us what type of system you have number of fish,what you fed and how you fed it.turn over rate of tank lighting etc and test your tank and we will see whats going on for you reefer :-D