What should i buy to purify my water?

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

Sorry SP, have to go with Brad on this one. For such an expensive hobby its just not worth the risk to introduce phosphates, Chlorine or any dissolved solids. You don't buy a brand new BMW sports car and then fill it with regular gas so why would you put unpurified water into a reef system? Besides, it doesn't "destroy" or make the waste water unusable so there are many applications for RO waste.
Levi

That's kind of a weird comparison wouldn't you say? A sports car may need premium fuel to work properly and maintain it's warranty. Fuel is consistent through out the country, tap water is not. And by your reasoning you should fill every car with premium because cars are expensive and reading the manual is time consuming, best just put the good stuff in there to be safe

All I was saying is it would be smart to measure your TDS to decide on your filtration requirements, if you're only getting around 20ppm like many people in BC you're better off using a simple 3 or 4 stage filter with DI if necessary, RO would be wasteful and unnecessary. But 65 could benefit from an RO unit, you can skip the DI as you won't really benefit from its addition.

Yes this is an expensive hobby so all the more reason to save where you can, not the opposite. Also would you like to explain how you would practically go about reusing the waste water from an RO??

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Also would you like to explain how you would practically go about reusing the waste water from an RO??

My drain goes out kitchen to rain barrel for garden use. Many people can hook up the unit in the laundry room and fill the washer with the waste water. You can fill jugs and use it to water plants. If you care enough, it's no big deal. It's as difficult as washing that tin can and going all the way across the kitchen to put it in the recycle bin.

[Zoaelite]

SP it was a weird comparison but think of the concept behind it. For a reef tank that has $1000's of dollars invested in livestock you wouldn't want to cheap out and put something that could potentially kill that live stock. Same with a BMW or any luxury car, use of a higher end fuel reduces the chance of damage/ wear and tare on the unit. You do have a good point, people should be measuring there TDS before deciding what RO to purchase. In the end though a RO also removes chlorine and other impurities in the water that could be entering your system.
I would never put tap water in my tank, as it just spells hair algae for me :\.

[fkshiu]

It's a common misconception that "premium" gas is somehow "better" than regular unleaded. All the octane numbers refer to resistance to premature detonation. Higher end cars require greater resistance to detontation because they generally run at higher compression ratios. The bottom line is always use what is recommended by the manufacturer - if the owner's manual says use regular then putting in "premium" will not give any measurable advantage in terms of either performance or fuel efficiency for a properly maintained engine.

Anyhooooo, that aside I do agree that you should run RO/DI even in the GVRD not because you have to (you don't) for water QUALITY but for CONSISTENCY. Several times crews have been mucking around outside or there's been a large rainstorm runoff and the TDS has shot up dramatically for short periods of time. With RO/DI you have those extra layers of protection as it were to maintain a consistent end product.

As Aquattro mentioned, there are a myriad of uses for rejected RO water - my wife uses ours to water her garden.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

My drain goes out kitchen to rain barrel for garden use. Many people can hook up the unit in the laundry room and fill the washer with the waste water. You can fill jugs and use it to water plants. If you care enough, it's no big deal. It's as difficult as washing that tin can and going all the way across the kitchen to put it in the recycle bin.

That's fine if you can do that but not all of us have the ability to run a new water line outside and some of us have 8 months of below freezing winter. For indoor use you would have to setup a large storage tank with float and bypass system, then you would have to rig up some kind of way to use the stored water in things like laundry (but only the wash cycle not rinse). Reusing the waste water simply isn't always as practical as some of you make it out to be, 99% of the people using RO send the waste water down the drain and for good reason.

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

SP it was a weird comparison but think of the concept behind it. For a reef tank that has $1000's of dollars invested in livestock you wouldn't want to cheap out and put something that could potentially kill that live stock. Same with a BMW or any luxury car, use of a higher end fuel reduces the chance of damage/ wear and tare on the unit. You do have a good point, people should be measuring there TDS before deciding what RO to purchase. In the end though a RO also removes chlorine and other impurities in the water that could be entering your system.
I would never put tap water in my tank, as it just spells hair algae for me :\.

Still don't see the comparison, it's not the same. If one gas station sells premium fuel for a standard price and another sells the same fuel for double because it's traveled further to get there, where would you buy from? If you've got a low TDS like 20ppm and can filter it down to 0ppm without an RO, why use and RO? You pay more for the filter and introduce a waste ratio of at least 3:1 compared to 0:1. It's still filtered water not direct tap water and it's not going to damage your tank, it's the exact same thing without the extra waste.

You also don't need an RO to remove contaminants like chlorine, and using the proper filter for the proper application will produce consistent results. Any stirred up sediment or heavy containment from city maintenance will be easily filtered out by a sediment and micron filter, you don't need an RO for this. We could also all use 12 stage filters with triple RO membranes but that of course would be silly, or would it? Or maybe we should ll adjust our RO membranes to waste 10:1 so we get a little more pure water and we're more on the safe side. Where do you draw the line? I simply say you draw it based on your tap water TDS and therefore your specific requirements.

[Zoaelite]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Still don't see the comparison, it's not the same. If one gas station sells premium fuel for a standard price and another sells the same fuel for double because it's traveled further to get there, where would you buy from? If you've got a low TDS like 20ppm and can filter it down to 0ppm without an RO, why use and RO? You pay more for the filter and introduce a waste ratio of at least 3:1 compared to 0:1. It's still filtered water not direct tap water and it's not going to damage your tank, it's the exact same thing without the extra waste.

You also don't need an RO to remove contaminants like chlorine, and using the proper filter for the proper application will produce consistent results. We could also all use 12 stage filters with triple RO membranes but that of course would be silly, or would it? Where do you draw the line? I simply say you draw it where it should be, based on your tap water TDS.

I agree with you 100%, where applicable the best suited RO system should be used but I believe some sort of RO system as a safe guard to your tank is a great investment.

We have gotten way to complicated with my comparison, the point I was trying to get across is you get what you pay for. Perhaps my lack of knowledge behind cars and fuel has made this hard for you to see, if so my bad .

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

I agree with you 100%, where applicable the best suited RO system should be used but I believe some sort of RO system as a safe guard to your tank is a great investment.

We have gotten way to complicated with my comparison, the point I was trying to get across is you get what you pay for. Perhaps my lack of knowledge behind cars and fuel has made this hard for you to see, if so my bad .

Well that's fine, I'm not saying anyone's opinion isn't perfectly valid but validating your own by obscurely trying to cut someone else down with a completely irrelevant comparison isn't really necessary so please excuse me if I was a little defensive and blunt.

Also keep in mind RO membranes can fail, they require more maintenance and they are more complicated and as a result are often hocked up wrong. I once examined a tank after a complete crash. The problem sourced back to new RO unit that wasn't connected properly.

You do get what you pay for but why pay for something you don't need or even use? The main point I was making is that if you can get the same results without an RO why use one? Safety? Maybe I guess but what about people like me who use an RO to it's maximum potential, should I get another RO unit and waste twice as much water for the extra safety even though I've never had a problem? It's just like anything else, things can fail and go wrong with any piece of equipment.

[Zoaelite]

Well that's fine, I'm not saying anyone's opinion isn't perfectly valid but validating your own by obscurely trying to cut someone else down with a completely irrelevant comparison isn't really necessary so please excuse me if I was a little defensive and blunt.

My post wasn't intended to destroy your argument or cut you down it was merely my opinion on the matter. My comparison was simply trying to represent this. SP do you let your water sit out before you add it to the tank or do you use a dechlorinator?
Levi

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by zoaElite

My post wasn't intended to destroy your argument or cut you down it was merely my opinion on the matter. My comparison was simply trying to represent this. SP do you let your water sit out before you add it to the tank or do you use a dechlorinator?
Levi

Maybe but I find it strange that you used that particular example for a comparison, especially since you admit to having very little knowledge about the subject. I think I know what you were going for and maybe you think I'm contradicting myself as you feel I'm wasteful and do the unnecessary but either way I don't think it was necessary.

I use an RO-DI unit to bring my tap water TDS down from around 200ppm to about 2-3ppm. The filtered water is feed directly to the tank.