RO/DI unit upkeep

[Funky_Fish14]

Originally Posted by hillegom

agreed, use only cold water for the ro filter. Every hot water tank has an anode of zinc in it to stop the corrosion of the glass lined steel tank. (glass lining is never 100%).
This zinc is the sacrifical anode, as in aluminum fish boats, or the lower leg of your outboard. Anyway, hot water then has zinc ions in it. Never cook with hot water, nor use hot water for the aquarium.
On a side note, if you replace the zinc anode every 5 yrs in your hot water tank, it will last a very long time.

I've heard of magnesium being used as well because it is far down at the bottom right of the redox table too (Strong RA)... If thats the case - guess the water might be GREAT for the tanks too eh? Haha. Everyone wants good Mg+ in the water!
(Actually now that I think about it, Magnesium is even better than zinc, its lower on the table)

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

I've heard of magnesium being used as well because it is far down at the bottom right of the redox table too (Strong RA)... If thats the case - guess the water might be GREAT for the tanks too eh? Haha. Everyone wants good Mg+ in the water!
(Actually now that I think about it, Magnesium is even better than zinc, its lower on the table)

That works until the beneficial magnesium gets to the RO membrane, whose job it is to remove any solids, including the beneficial ones... My source/tap water has fairly good calcium and not bad magnesium levels. I worked with it for quite a while, but am glad I went to RO/DI recently for my system, I can see the improvement after three water changes. Too bad there isn't a way to extract all the good stuff before the RO takes most of it out, well, there probably is, but I reckon you'd need quite a chem lab to make it happen.