Holy crap! I have been using 170ppm TDS water!

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by H2o2

I live on okanagan lake

Usually when I talk about water contamination, I'm referring to a year I lived in Kelowna and the entire drinking water distribution circuit was shut down due to toxins in the water. If someone had done a water change that day before the emergency was declared, I'd guess they'd lose their whole tank. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. The Kelowna sewage treatment plant discharges directly into the lake, and while the water coming out is top quality, if there were an accident, the lake would be contaminated. The cost of RO is small compared to replacing everything in the tank

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

The cost of RO is small compared to replacing everything in the tank

So true lol.

Theres no words more true than "be safe or be sorry" in this hobby.

[H2o2]

I am up stream of kelowna and in the deepest part of the lake and all the water sample people from the government that i talk to says it is the best right there are very few homes and all of Vernon sewage gets treated then irrigated onto the hills then ran though mother natures giant biological filter unlike Victoria's

[Aquattro]

The Kelowna plant is one of the best in the world, and I've drank water out of the outflow. In fact, they were breeding trout in it last time I was there. But...what if something went horribly wrong??

The water intake has a 6" grate filtering it before the chlorination stage, keeping out larger ducks -lol

[mrhasan]

So basically, RODI is mostly like an insurance and just making sure all the contamination are taken out (if any) before they get into the tank. So, if my understanding is right, RODI is "highly recommended" rather than a "necessity". Some reefers need to change their perspective

RODI unit is definitely not expensive compared to the cost of this hobby. But what intimidates me is the amount of water wastage. I don't have gardening or anything where I can use the waste water. Plus since its a rented house, wasting water is restricted in the contract. I was actually thinking of starting to by water from stores. Anyone knows where I can find "RODI" instead of just "RO" water?

[neoh]

I get 7-9 TDS out of my kitchen sink and don't use any kind of conditioner and let the water sit overnight with a powerhead and heater. I've yet to have algae - except in my planted tanks, it was a battle I suffered for a long time despite every effort and made me shut it down, afterwords I realized that I should of probably be using RO water.

So far in the marine tank, I haven't had any algae issues - but I do have an rodi system, that I don't use, but have some ro water stored in case of an emergency. I don't know, it's a fail safe thing for me.

[H2o2]

That is why i am adding the ro at least i will have a bench mark like you said because i hope as we all know this hobby is great and the last thing anyone wants to do is hurt livestock if maybe we could have done something just a bit different :-)

[Aquattro]

What people need to understand is that TDS doesn't equal bad. It's just a measure of total dissolved solids. Of course those DS's could be bad, we have no (easy) way to tell. Calgary for example, has very high TDS. But much of that is mineral content from the water source. Not a bad thing at all. Areas near agricultural areas might be a bit more concerned, as run off also measures as TDS, which can be N or P compounds, and/or toxic compounds. Again, risk is low, but cost of RO to offset that risk seems negligible, at least for medium to larger tanks.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by mrhasan

RODI is "highly recommended" rather than a "necessity".

Right. Only thing you absolutely need is salt. Everything else just makes it easier

[deepRED]

I feel the same way about the waste water with an ro unit. I ran ro/di for years but when I moved I got lazy and didn't set it back up and used conditioned tap water.

Mind you my tds out the tap is around 8, but like Brad mentioned, it's an insurance policy.

I know a lot of people in BC with small to medium tanks use the aquarium pharmaceuticals tap water filters. For many out here this is enough to get their tds down to zero.

Not really cost effective if you are running larger systems though as the cartridges can get pricey.