Anyone with an R/O system?

[PooCooper]

Are they worth it? I have well water that is not what one would call good quality. I have been reading up on them and I keep seeing that 1oo gpd units will fill a 4 gallon bucket in 2 hours! Is this true? Doesn't water just run through them? It would take forever to do a water change on my 125. Well any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[got_nailed]

Most of the time people that use RO water have salt water tanks. They run the RO water into a holding container that they can mix the salt into. There are cheaper water filters out there. I don’t think you will need an RO unit for your tap. You might want to look into a filter like this one. Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Tap Water Filter (http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22577)

[slipknottin]

you can set them up to do all sorts of things, auto water changes, auto top-offs, etc. So how long it takes to fill a bucket or tank only really matters the first time.

[PooCooper]

I definitly like the idea fo paying 20 plus dollars instead of 100 plus dollars.

[NikkO]

I have 3 of those systems set up in my house. But I use them mostly for drinking water(GREAT water), but they waste water while its filtering the water- I think it wastes 1 cup of water for evey 3 filtered cups, or something like that.. I forgot

I tried using some R/O water in one of my tanks(I didn't fill the wholething up with it), but I dont think it made a noticeable difference.

[Cearbhaill]

I have a Kent RO/DI unit that I purchased for my reef tank.
I hook it up for a day or so once a week to keep my reserve water receptacle full. I keep 40 gallons of RO/DI water in one Brute garbage can ("Brute's" are foodsafe and do not leach TDS), and another 25 gallons of saltwater pre mixed at all times.

The GPH ratings on RO units can be misleading- it depends entirely on the water pressure going into it to determine how fast RO water is produced. They are also notoriously slow when initially hooked up- the speed with which RO is produced increases over the first two weeks of use then levels off. But it is never as many GPH as advertised.

They also produce a huge amount of waste water. I try to be kind to the Earth, so recommend finding a use for this waste water rather than throwing it away- I run my waste line to a portion of my garden.