Buying RO / DI - I know nothing

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Myka

DI water tastes like crap. It's no worse (or any different) than drinking RO or distilled water. In the end, it's all "pure" water. It's actually not good to drink any form of "pure" water as your main source of water as it lacks essential minerals for healthy living. Natural mineral water is much better for you.

I second that 0 ppm water is bad, if you drink DI'ed water at 0ppm you body will draw minerals from bones and blood, its not immediately lethal of course, but I would not drink it for sure.
Good rate is about 150-200ppm I drink bottled water sometimes 2000 or more ppm but no longer then a week.
So for drinking: RO tap water is ok DI not good.

[Ron99]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

I second that 0 ppm water is bad, if you drink DI'ed water at 0ppm you body will draw minerals from bones and blood, its not immediately lethal of course, but I would not drink it for sure.
Good rate is about 150-200ppm I drink bottled water sometimes 2000 or more ppm but no longer then a week.
So for drinking: RO tap water is ok DI not good.

As Snaz said this is an old wives tale/urban myth. Drinking purified water will not draw minerals out of your body. No way; aint gonna happen; not possible. The main drawback will be a very bland flavour which many people don't like. Drinking water is a negligible source of minerals for your body. It all comes from your food. Pure water in your gut cannot absorb enough minerals from anything to draw it out of your body. So drink whatever water you want, it doesn't make a difference. Personally, I'm okay with tap water. Nothing wrong with it at all. I save the RO/DI for the tanks

[fkshiu]

Originally Posted by Myka

You do know that RO/DI water isn't suitable for drinking, right? You have to unhook the DI part to just get RO for drinking, and buy the drinking water add-on. You can buy a pressure tank so you get RO water on demand, then just hook up the DI part when you want to make water for your reef. Or you can just use the 20 litre jugs (which are actually 5g, not 6).

All you need is a t-connector to divert the RO water through a "taste" cartridge for drinking water - dead simple. I've installed my RO/DI under the kitchen sink upstairs connected to a tap. I run another line downstairs to laundry room within reach of the aquarium.

As mentioned, you can drink RO/DI to your heart's content. It just tastes bad which is the reason why household units have that taste cartridge which is usually filled with coconut husks. The DI water is instantly re-mineralized when it hits your saliva in any event. It's not some kind of vampire water that'll suck you dry. That misconception comes from the fact that you should NOT keep DI water in a metal container. It will react with the metal and cause rust in the container and contamination of the water.

[Snaz]

Thanks for the help guys. Looking further into that Costco link Macky provided I came across this interesting fact.

"While standard reverse osmosis systems waste 15 or more litres (4 gallons) per every 4 litres (1 gallon) produced. The new patented "Zero Waste" reverse osmosis system wastes no water. "
http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product....835&lang=en-CA

Is this correct, how do standard RO units waste water? Surrey residents are metered for water use so wasting four gallons to produce one seems costly and not very "green".

[hillegom]

I see that link to costco has a pic of the unit. This is a new system and I have not seen one yet. I guess it doesn't waste water as it uses the pump, electrically operated, to push all the water through the RO membrane. But this would coat the membrane with all the "bad" molecules you would normally pass out to the drain. So I would check to see how long of a life the membrane is rated for.
Normaly, Ro units make one gallon of good water and 4 gal down the drain. This will flush all the bad things down the drain, and this will lengthen the life of the RO membrane .
You could always plumb the drain water outside and water the lawn. Good only in the summer though!

[macky]

The Watts RO zero waste system sends the waste water into the hot water line to be used for washing clothes, showering, etc. The bad part is that it only makes RO water when it is able the send the waste water into the hot water line(hot water has to be on and running). Therefore, the amount of RO water produced depends on how much hot water you use.
I chose to buy the one that wastes because I didn't think that the amount of RO water produced by the zero waste model would be enough for all my drinking water and tank water.

[Myka]

If you guys really believe RO or even RO/DI water is ok to drink, go check out what the World Health Organisation says about it.

[subman]

After reading as much as I could take and then trying to navigate the WHO website. I can't see any where that says Ro water bad! RO/Di on the other hand seems to be a great debate and after further understanding why it's bad for us, it make me not want to use it at all for my tanks or anything for that matter.

[hillegom]

RODI is good for tanks. You start out with just pure water, and then add salt. So the water then is perfect, no phosphates, or heavy metals

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by Ron99

As Snaz said this is an old wives tale/urban myth. Drinking purified water will not draw minerals out of your body. No way; aint gonna happen; not possible. The main drawback will be a very bland flavour which many people don't like. Drinking water is a negligible source of minerals for your body. It all comes from your food. Pure water in your gut cannot absorb enough minerals from anything to draw it out of your body. So drink whatever water you want, it doesn't make a difference. Personally, I'm okay with tap water. Nothing wrong with it at all. I save the RO/DI for the tanks

its Not the water in the gut that absorbs minerals, its what body will do to survive.
For example body will draw calcium from bones if blood has less then enough of calcium for proper hart beat rate.Why ? because hart is more important for survival the bones at the moment.
You can drink 0ppm water for long time without any ill effect, what body will do is it will take required minerals from whatever source available; food veggies etc. or other body parts if levels are critically low.
The point is to supply natural (Not synthetic) minerals to the body at regular intervals.
So yes tap water is OK to drink. RO/DI is OK to drink IF you have enough minerals in perfect proportions, but what we know in this hobby is that, if you don't test it you don't know where you at right?
jmtcw