i thought someone said somewhere,that for every gallon of pure water,the unit produces,ten gallons are wasted.
Tapwater nitrate high
- Thread starter Tracy10
- Start date
will have to look into getting one maybe.
I did buy some seachems de-nitrate,but still not sure if to add or not.Worried as i have peat running in filters & didn,t know if the 2 would clash in anyway.
I did buy some seachems de-nitrate,but still not sure if to add or not.Worried as i have peat running in filters & didn,t know if the 2 would clash in anyway.
There are resins you can add to the filer like purigen & chemipure (in the US anyway). I'm not sure of the cost/effectiveness though. We used to use Chemipure & I don't remember the numbers but it helped a lot. Purigen is rechargable in salt water but I have not used it although I have a small packet "just in case".
Whoever said 10 to 1 has an RO as old as mine. The newer ones only waste about 3 or 4 to 1. In order for the reverse osmosis to work, you need enough pressure on the inlet side to overcome the osmotic pressure from the pure water side. If you can get high enough pressures from pumping systems and have the right kind of membrane, it is possible to turn ocean water into fresh with one of them.
For a reasonable design running on normal house water pressures, 3 or 4 to 1 is a very good ratio. If you throttle down more than that, it quickly stops producing pure water because as the waste water mineral concentration goes up, the osmotic pressure you need to overcome also goes up. It gets to the point where your household water pressure just can't do it.
A deionizer works on a completely different principle. It can also make pure water from not so pure but it does it by ion exchange. The problem is that the resin becomes exhausted quickly and a normal home environment is not equipped to regenerate it. This means you end up buying disposable resin at significant economic and environmental cost. Its sort of like buying a water softener and throwing away the resin every week instead of using the salt to regenerate it. The cost would be ridiculous.
For a reasonable design running on normal house water pressures, 3 or 4 to 1 is a very good ratio. If you throttle down more than that, it quickly stops producing pure water because as the waste water mineral concentration goes up, the osmotic pressure you need to overcome also goes up. It gets to the point where your household water pressure just can't do it.
A deionizer works on a completely different principle. It can also make pure water from not so pure but it does it by ion exchange. The problem is that the resin becomes exhausted quickly and a normal home environment is not equipped to regenerate it. This means you end up buying disposable resin at significant economic and environmental cost. Its sort of like buying a water softener and throwing away the resin every week instead of using the salt to regenerate it. The cost would be ridiculous.
Like an earlier poster said, unless you have some super sensative fish (?) nitrates in those ranges wont be an issue. Many planted tank enthusiasts have kept nitrates at that or higher, with many so called 'sensative' fish, as well as the occasional +100ppm mishap, with no loss of fish nor any apparent short term stress either.
you can use ro or chemical filtration, the only downside is it strips the water of everything (including trace elemets) and leaves only h20, this imo is not enough to recreate natural environmental conditions you will need to suppliment. your best bet may be to setup a moderatley planted tank, because healthy plants will consume a lot of nitrates.....
You could throw in some hornwort; just let it float, it will absorb some nitrates and the fish will like it.
I mix some distilled water to my tap water with every water change. I like that I know exactly what I am getting with distilled (7.0 PH and virtually 0 GH KH and nitrate) whereas RO can vary quite a lot in parameters
I also prefer smaller water changes, in my case 15% or so at least once a week. Keeps the water chemistry on an even keel. I do not think once a week 50% changes are necessary unless you are heavily stocked or breeding softwater fish.
I mix some distilled water to my tap water with every water change. I like that I know exactly what I am getting with distilled (7.0 PH and virtually 0 GH KH and nitrate) whereas RO can vary quite a lot in parameters
I also prefer smaller water changes, in my case 15% or so at least once a week. Keeps the water chemistry on an even keel. I do not think once a week 50% changes are necessary unless you are heavily stocked or breeding softwater fish.
I agree with gmh's suggestion to use hornwort. It grows like crazy in my tanks and seems to keep the algae down.
My tap water has around 20ppm nitrate so I too have considered adding distilled water to even out some. Hmmm...will have to read more on it.
My tap water has around 20ppm nitrate so I too have considered adding distilled water to even out some. Hmmm...will have to read more on it.
I have ordered lots of plants,including hornwort.So hopefully they will help.
I do have lots of moss balls in tank,but they have made no difference at all,May remove them.
Want to get tank down in nitrates,as worried when i take out fake plants & add live ones i will cause a mini cycle.
I do have lots of moss balls in tank,but they have made no difference at all,May remove them.
Want to get tank down in nitrates,as worried when i take out fake plants & add live ones i will cause a mini cycle.
