Bottled water questions

[Pisces]

Thanks for all the advice guys but here's the deal.
Yes there is a deionizer unit, we put both the RO and DI on there ourselves in order to use the water for our tanks, no we don't drink it. Right now we are having to use a very shallow, very DIRTY well for the time being so the RO/DI units do what they can with the sludge coming out of the well but it's not removing everything because the well water is so dirty to begin with, like I've been trying to say. I would never add this untreated well water to a fish tank for any reason.
In order for us to consistently get very pure water we'd most likely have to add another RO or DI unit and would have to change all the filter cartridges very frequently and as expensive as that would be, I might as well just buy the water and be done with it.
For now, the RO/DI is useless for our tanks UNTIL we get a new, deeper well drilled that has cleaner water and I can't see that happening anytime soon, unfortunately.

I guess I'm sticking with distilled water that has been tested for copper and I will add buffer and electrolytes by using R.O. Vital, R.O. Right or something like that. Thanks again!

 

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by Pisces
....In order for us to consistently get very pure water we'd most likely have to add another RO or DI unit ...

There wouldn't be enough pressure to have another R/O unit after the first one...

Surpising to hear of your water problem... My brother lives near Vero and his well is ok..

 

[Pisces]

Hi 80gJoe. How does your brother like living in Vero? My husband always says he'd like to move up there if we ever decided to move. It's a very pretty area and it doesn't seem as congested traffic-wise as we are around here and the Stuart, Jensen Beach area.
We actually did have a decent well when we moved into the house in 1997 but the main pipe developed a large crack in the bottom of it (not fixable, we tried) and it basically started sucking in sand and mud so that well had to be closed down.
My husband hand-drilled (meaning manually shoving a pipe into the ground...not easy!) an emergency well all by himself and he estimates that he got down about 30 feet and then he hit rock and had to quit. We've been using the "emergency" well for about 2 years now. You know how it goes, as long as we're getting water it's ok for now, other things come first moneywise. We know we need to have a new, professionally dug well done at some point, but it all takes money.
We could hook up to city water now (for a large hookup fee) but it's so loaded with chemicals I still wouldn't drink the stuff without some major filtering. Although with city water the RO/DI unit would function so much better and we could use it for the fish tanks. Another drawback to hooking up is that they aren't allowing people to stay on their septic systems, so that means a very high water bill, the sewer portion is usually much higher than the water usage part, utilities are outrageous around here.
I am going to check with the water utilities this coming week just to see what the actual fee is to hook up, I know it's upwards of $1500 or more, but we may have to bite the bullet and do it.
I'm SOOO tired of having water problems and dealing with a well, water softener, pump, and so on.

 

[valerie]

So what water do you use in your reef tanks?

 

[Pisces]

Correction...

I need to correct myself. I had said that the water I tested recently was RO & DI filtered but NOW I find out the DI isn't even running right now. My husband just informed me that the membrane of the DI was getting wore out so fast with this dirty water that he totally disconnected it for now and the water is just being RO filtered, that's why the silicate level was so bad.

Sorry for arguing with you guys...geez, I feel stupid.

 

[Pisces]

Originally posted by valerie
So what water do you use in your reef tanks?

We've been using distilled water all this time and copper has never been a problem. I didn't even know to test it for copper until recently reading that on this board. The LFS people never mentioned it even though we've always said we use distilled water in our tanks...but anyway, it is coming up 0 for copper content so we'll keep using it. It's 59 cents a gallon so that's not too bad I guess. The RO purified water is 69 cents a gallon.

 

[125gJoe]

Originally posted by Pisces
Hi 80gJoe. How does your brother like living in Vero? My husband always says he'd like to move up there if we ever decided to move. It's a very pretty area and it doesn't seem as congested traffic-wise as we are around here and the Stuart, Jensen Beach area.
.....

He likes the area... There's not much traffic - no comparison to here in Orlando.