I use the 75 GPD unit also for my discus tank. I got it on Ebay and it works great! As for the need for RO water, if you have a tank that does not have a soft water requirement, your tap water should be OK. I have a planted community tank that uses tap water but is slightly softened through my CO2 system. PH starts at about 8.2 and is beffered to about 7.4. Almost all LFS use tap water.
Reverse Osmosis
- Thread starter looney417
- Start date
There is a difference between soft water and acidic water. CO2 does not soften your water, it just lowers the pH.
I design membranes and water treatment filters. Let's not confuse gallons per day with quality. The best water quality, post RO, comes from proper pretreatment and from adaquate processed water storage.
Regardless of estimated gallons per day, the best and most reliable membranes are the TFC ,or thin film composite, made by DOW.
Beware of online RO's systems that can be purchased though pet supply chains or even ones offering a DI cartidge. Most of them are garbage. And a functioning RO system, without a doubt, should be producing water that is below 12 TDS. If not you got ripped off.:headshake2:
To increase the quality and production you can buy an inline booster pump from Procon. And while water temperature raises the amount of water that can be produced, it does lower the life on the membranes slightly. The best thing you could do for your RO is pretreat the feed water by using a carbon block filter and softened water.
Thx for pointers mphunk, I'm too on the fence about purchasing an R/ unit. I dilute my tap 50/50, because its hard plus its loaded with nitrates and phosphates. And my rummynose tetras shine with the softened water, since more than likely they too are wild caught specimens.
okay, i should have clarified as to how RO should be used (as how I should be religiously, but im not). Duh, when using RO, you should always re-add in trace elements etc. You use RO with having weekly/monthly (whatever schedule with whatever %) water changes so you have an idea of reference point to add in nutrients, in the event you dont know whats being consumed. if you dont keep tabs on concentrations of nutrients, and it runs amuck, you'll eventually have an overdose of something if you are following some sort of dosing regiment, and that could be disasterous or not. for sticklers, its gives a peice of mind.
also, yes it should be absolutely certain to be true, that theres always a large amount of phosphates in your tap, just to keep the heavy metal ions out of solution, because in reality, people do drink tap water. any city that doesnt add in phosphates, might have lots of lead in it, so if you live in that city and you're drinking it have fun with high doses of lead.
also, yes it should be absolutely certain to be true, that theres always a large amount of phosphates in your tap, just to keep the heavy metal ions out of solution, because in reality, people do drink tap water. any city that doesnt add in phosphates, might have lots of lead in it, so if you live in that city and you're drinking it have fun with high doses of lead.
