RO Water
- Thread starter emt3786
- Start date
RO stands for Reverse Osmosis filtered water. The RO filters remove pretty much 99% of the impurities within water--dissolved minerals, pollutants, chlorine/chloramines, metals, phosphates, nitrates, etc. It produces a LOT of waste water--I think most give you about 1 gallon of filtered water/10+ gallons of tap water, depending on the condition of the tap water. This 'waste' water can be used for gardens, or some fresh water tanks (like cichlid tanks, that need hard water with a high pH). RO water has a netural pH, and needs to have 'stuff' like buffers added back in when used for FW tanks, or for drinking water.
so is ro water pretty much just distilled water and if so is the distilled water good for sw tanks?
Distilled isn't as pure, and depending on the method of distillation, can contain copper--not a good thing for a reef tank. Copper is deadly to most invertebrates. You'll see people refer to RO/DI--by the DI here refers to dionized, rather than distilled. Dionization is another filtration method, resulting in 100% pure water.
I use filtered tap water--not RO, but enough to remove phosphate, heavy metals, copper, chlorine/chloramines, and a few other things. I've never had a problem that could be pinned on my source water. I'd contact your local utility and request a water quality report, to determine if additional filtration would be needed. Most utilities can be located on the internet.
I use filtered tap water--not RO, but enough to remove phosphate, heavy metals, copper, chlorine/chloramines, and a few other things. I've never had a problem that could be pinned on my source water. I'd contact your local utility and request a water quality report, to determine if additional filtration would be needed. Most utilities can be located on the internet.