To R/O or not to R/O

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Phildo

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Nov 26, 2003
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As of now I am not using R/O water on my 225. (I know, I know, flame away!!)
I recently converted it to reef after having fish only for several months. After the cost of additional live rock and lighting upgrades (whew!) My budget is busted and there is no way I can acquire an R/O unit at this time.
So until I can get an R/O unit, I just use tap water and deal with the hair algae. Call it a labor of love for me and my snails, it's not really that bad of a problem in the grand scheme of things.
Anyhoo, I'm in the LFS yesterday and the guy there is acting like I'm commiting a mortal sin by not using R/O water and proceeds to tell me that I'm doing more harm than good by doing my bi-weekly 20 gallon water changes! He says that I'd be better off not doing any water changes at all if I'm not using R/O water. Saying that the water I'm putting is "dirtier" than the water I'm taking out.
I think that sounds nuts but that's why I'm asking this to the pros here. Do I listen to this guy and not do any more water changes until I get an R/O unit (which could be months away)?
He seems a little over the top with his attitude of "it's R/O water or no water at all."
What do you think?
:confused: :confused:
 
Umm.. ya guy is crazy. I mean not using RO is not reccomended but its definately better than no water changes at all. Most LFS sell RO water reasonable ($.25 a gallon) maybe check around. And personally I think you are changing the water too often, when you had fish only it may have been neccesary but with all the live rock you have added unless you have a serious bio load I would do a weekly 10% change. I beleive you can change too much water, unless you can magically match the water you add, there is some swing that if occurs frequently can stress the fish.
 
is R/O water still recommended if you dont plan on having corals, or anything difficult to keep?
 
With a fish only system the main benefit will be less algae. I use RO in all my marine tanks otherwise algae can get out of control even in a fish only. Kent marine sells a cheap RO for around $100. Makes 5g a day which is all i need.
 
Do you have a link to that R/O unit from Kent? Thanks.
Found it on Marinedepot, looks good thanks. Maybe I'll be able to swing it sooner than I thought for $100.
Let me ask you this, is the D/I part necessary? I see that on some of the more expensive units. What more does that do?
 
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I dont knoe the number exactly, but with out the DI it will remove like 95% and with it it is like 99%. I dont have the DI, if you have really hard water you might want to consider it.
 
seems like such a small percent for such a large jump in price.
Kinda hard for a reefer on a budget, i think that $100 unit would do just fine when the budget allows. Thanks again for showing me that one.
 
another alternative to using RO is a Kold Streile unit, i work at a LFS and we use one on all of our salt rows and we have great tanks, the system runs about 200 dollars i think and it is much faster than RO i think Petsolutions.com sells them but u can also buy directly from Kold just make sure you get the one that they use for food service rather than any of the home applications
 
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