Why you NEED RO/DI!!!

Fishman · #1 08-15-2007, 06:20 PM

I don't disagree with the RO/DI results/benefits. I'm just curious what would happen if you added a "tiny" amount of food to the RO/DI water and let it fester for a day ... many say one incident of overfeeding contaminates your water 10 times of what's in the tap water.

surgeonfish · #2 08-15-2007, 06:27 PM

Fisherman
It is true that you can spoil your tank with rotting/decaying food. However, we are talking about something different; possible contaminants from the water supply including chlorine, heavy metals (lead, copper, etc) not an explosion of bacteria from decomposing food.

digital-audiophile · #3 08-15-2007, 06:38 PM

I have had an RO/DI unit sitting under my stairs for a year and a half, I still have not hooked it up mainly becuase I suck at plumbing and have not got around to it. I've been using tap water for over 2-1/2 years and I really cannot say that it has caused me any problems.

Fishman · #4 08-15-2007, 06:40 PM

I was just making a point of the effort we put into getting the "bad stuff" out of our water (RO/DI) and then turn around and put it back in again ... phosphates for example.

bv_reefer · #5 08-15-2007, 06:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surgeonfish

Fisherman
It is true that you can spoil your tank with rotting/decaying food. However, we are talking about something different; possible contaminants from the water supply including chlorine, heavy metals (lead, copper, etc) not an explosion of bacteria from decomposing food.

-yup excess nutrients can cause bad problems, but i can't imagine them being any where near as bad as chlorine,chloramine,copper and all that gunk...

supersmile · #6 08-17-2007, 10:06 PM

What exactly is an RO/DI and where do you get them.....sorry I am a bit new with this stuff. What is a reasonable price for them?

Doug · #7 08-18-2007, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supersmile

What exactly is an RO/DI and where do you get them.....sorry I am a bit new with this stuff. What is a reasonable price for them?

They are for filtering your source water. Water passed though a series of carbon & micron filters and then through a membrane which removes most impurities. It can also be run through a DI filter after, to remove anything the ro filter leaves behind.

If you wish put reverse osmosis in the search engine and it will bring up lots of RO threads. Most of our sponsers carry them.

theredben · #8 08-18-2007, 01:46 AM

I was just pondering over the last couple of days if it is sooooo bad to use regular water for water changes and only use ro/di for evaporation replacement. I was thinking that the only reason that MOST people see a problem is that they are using 20ppm water to replace the 0 ppm water that evaporated. This would be an upward trend that would end up with a bad case of algea.

Doug · #9 08-18-2007, 02:10 AM

I do use commercially purchased ro water for water changes and my ro water for top-off. I would not use our tapwater. I only wish it was 20ppm but more like 400ppm.