DIY passive RO generator
- Thread starter CWO4GUNNER
- Start date
Sorry my friend but you could not be more incorrect, in fact drinking water generators aboard all the Navel ships I was aboard used evaporation systems that worked exactly like the plastic and it is a scientific fact that evaporated then re-condensed water is far purer the RO. Home RO membrane filtration registers between 15 and 30 PPM dissolved solids which get by the membrane while evaporated re-condensed water registers below what a common TDS meter can read (0) becasue minerals unlike water do not turn to gas and therefore are left behind, you know that white crust on your tank lids (Doh!). The only way RO can approach evaporated re-condensed or distilled water TDS is with the addition of an deionizeing filter used in water and Nuclear plants.
Somebody pinch me, I like this place also, its very exciting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_32tdy2kQ
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Sorry my friend but you could not be more incorrect, in fact drinking water generators aboard all the Navel ships I was aboard used evaporation systems that worked exactly like the plastic and it is a scientific fact that evaporated then re-condensed water is far purer the RO. Home RO membrane filtration registers between 15 and 30 PPM dissolved solids which get by the membrane while evaporated re-condensed water registers below what a common TDS meter can read (0) becasue minerals unlike water do not turn to gas and therefore are left behind, you know that white crust on your tank lids (Doh!). The only way RO can approach evaporated re-condensed or distilled water TDS is with the addition of an deionizeing filter used in water and Nuclear plants.
Somebody pinch me
Did the naval ships mix the drinking water with the wastewater before putting it in the water fountain? They don't work the same. Get a grip...I think you may have spent a little too much time at sea, capt'n.
You are still missing a major point. When water evaporates, only pure water evaporates and the TDS particles stay IN the water.
Google search gave me this which can explain it better than I can: http://www.poolmanual.com/manual/tds.html
What some of us are saying, is that if you have a 50 gallon tank with 100 TDS and you expect 1 gallon of water to evaporate per day, at the end of one day (without your system) you will really have 49 gallons of water AT 102 TDS since the dissolved particles stay IN the tank rather than being evaporated and getting stuck on your membrane. With your system that one gallon of pure water is returned to the tank and added to the 49 gallons at 102 TDS which will bring the tank to 50 gallons at 100 TDS.
The white crust you talk about is most likely mostly lime build up and other chemicals that do get evaporated, but that build up is so slow it does nothing to affect the lowering of TDS, then again if that lime build up is growing at a very fast rate (to make you think you have some sort of evaporation/re condense filtration system) then you have another problem since it should only build up slowly overtime. Whatever does end up on your hood, errr membrane as a white crust will be far lower than the TDS your fish/plants/substrate/etc. are producing and dumping into the tank. If you don't believe me then record the TDS of your tank every day for the next two weeks with your system on it, I guaranty that your TDS will rise!
Google search gave me this which can explain it better than I can: http://www.poolmanual.com/manual/tds.html
What some of us are saying, is that if you have a 50 gallon tank with 100 TDS and you expect 1 gallon of water to evaporate per day, at the end of one day (without your system) you will really have 49 gallons of water AT 102 TDS since the dissolved particles stay IN the tank rather than being evaporated and getting stuck on your membrane. With your system that one gallon of pure water is returned to the tank and added to the 49 gallons at 102 TDS which will bring the tank to 50 gallons at 100 TDS.
The white crust you talk about is most likely mostly lime build up and other chemicals that do get evaporated, but that build up is so slow it does nothing to affect the lowering of TDS, then again if that lime build up is growing at a very fast rate (to make you think you have some sort of evaporation/re condense filtration system) then you have another problem since it should only build up slowly overtime. Whatever does end up on your hood, errr membrane as a white crust will be far lower than the TDS your fish/plants/substrate/etc. are producing and dumping into the tank. If you don't believe me then record the TDS of your tank every day for the next two weeks with your system on it, I guaranty that your TDS will rise!
Sorry my friend but you could not be more incorrect, in fact drinking water generators aboard all the Navel ships I was aboard used evaporation systems that worked exactly like the plastic and it is a scientific fact that evaporated then re-condensed water is far purer the RO. Home RO membrane filtration registers between 15 and 30 PPM dissolved solids which get by the membrane while evaporated re-condensed water registers below what a common TDS meter can read (0) becasue minerals unlike water do not turn to gas and therefore are left behind, you know that white crust on your tank lids (Doh!). The only way RO can approach evaporated re-condensed or distilled water TDS is with the addition of an deionizeing filter used in water and Nuclear plants.
Somebody pinch me, I like this place also, its very exciting!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_32tdy2kQ
The water is only purified if it is kept separated from the dirty source to begin with. Heres how the system works. Water evaporates. The 'dirty' stuff in the water remains. The films collects the now 'clean' water. If the system stopped here then you'd have pure water and slightly higher concentration of TDS in the source. But your system doesn't stop here. Your system takes the 'clean' water and adds it right back into the source meaning that the concentration of TDS stays the same. By simple definition your water is no more 'pure' or 'clean' then when it started. The reason other systems work is because they separate the 'clean' water into a new container, which you are not doing.
That is why I said on page one, it is a good first step towards a purifier. You stopped at the most critical point to actually get purified water though.
So is it officially a water purifier or a system to limit evaporation? Since you felt the need to draw out the "everyone just doesn't get it" when it came to evaporation but keep defending it as a water purifier.
interesting to see the actual readings since pothos is used and will also take up some minerals as well as nitrate
On a note about TDS......You cant keep adding..... i.e. fish food, fish waste, plant biomass etc. and never take out without raising TDS, organic breakdown has to go somewhere and a pothos wont cut it for a "normal" aquarium. Its possible in nature, but not in our tanks by any means, we cant scale big enough. There is a few plants out there that will strip the hardness out of the water, but not enough to justify not being proactive about TDS build up.
To me, this is just a way to recapture evaporation, nothing more and nothing less. K.I.S.S. I just call it as it is. Mention your waterchange methods and you probably wont get so much lash back.
To me, this is just a way to recapture evaporation, nothing more and nothing less. K.I.S.S. I just call it as it is. Mention your waterchange methods and you probably wont get so much lash back.
He did mention waterchanges....He said they are "redundant" and his tanks are "98% natural cycle" - Whatever that means.
lol
lol
