Purchasing RO water from Food Stores

edikpok · #1 05-26-2009, 03:58 PM

As I do not have an RO system, I buy my water from Safeway / Superstore which are located pretty close to my house. I was wondering about the quality of this water.... Is it OK to use this water for aquarium system? do you know if they add any additives to it?

Thanks!

Snaz · #2 05-26-2009, 04:12 PM

It has been speculated those "community" machines are not serviced regularly and not trustworthy.

Better to go to a local water bottling company as that is their business. We have one here in Surrey that gave me a full tour and opened the log books detailing maintenance and regular testing. I know of at least one other nano reefer who gets his water from this guy:
http://www.aquaibiza.com/

Myka · #3 05-26-2009, 04:30 PM

They are hit or miss. Some stores are really good at keeping their filters changed and won't run above 2 ppm. Others I've seen up to 18 ppm. I haven't seen anything over that personally. You can always buy yourself a portable digital TDS meter ($35 or so), and you can be sure what quality you're getting.

BlueAbyss · #4 05-26-2009, 08:23 PM

I get my water from a local company that bottles distilled water. They guarantee it to be under 0.9 TDS, and when they have damaged 18.9l jugs they send me them for free (and deliver it too). In my experience, the water from the grocery stores will always be much better than the water from the tap, no matter what.

hockey nut · #5 05-26-2009, 11:38 PM

I have in the past used store water for my reef tank with no problems. It should say on the water unit how they process their water ( uv , reverse osmosis etc etc ) and I'm pretty sure they don't add anything to the water as well.

hth

Funky_Fish14 · #6 05-27-2009, 06:16 AM

I understand that some stores might not keep up on regular maintenance, and so their 2ppm tds might fly up to 20ppm... but really... 20ppm is pretty damn good water, unless its 20ppm nitrate or something... but its still fantastic compared even to good tapwater. I however do refuse to buy from a place like that, because they dont change the filters as often as I would in my own system, but their water im sure is still much better than tap.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,

Chris

Floop70 · #7 05-27-2009, 01:58 PM

I used Superstore water for the first few months after starting my tank with no issues at all. I eventually just bought a RO unit because I got sick of having to make a trip to the store to by water.

Black Phantom · #8 05-27-2009, 02:41 PM

I've had to use store bought a few times when my RO system filters expired. As Myka said, have a TDS meter to check the water and you should be fine. Some people with smaller tanks use it all the time.

TheMikey · #9 05-27-2009, 05:23 PM

I've got a 15G Nano and I use the water that I buy at the carwash. TDS reads between 2-6 after 5 months, so I assume it's good. I didn't think about checking out local water stores, though, I might have to make a trip.

edikpok · #10 05-27-2009, 05:37 PM

Hmmm...Thanks for the info!

The Safeway attendant says that they change filters on a regular basis. I guess I will have to trust him on this one....As for driving to Surrey to buy water - it is a bit of a drive for me to do once every two weeks considering safeway is across the street and i can just go there, and carry the watr back. Mind you, the cashier has quite a laugh everytime she sees me with water - she is like : "Are your fish thirsty AGAIN???" :-)

I will also look into buying a TDS. Thanks.

As for additives, do you think that they add anything to the water (at least they do not mention it one the machine operational description..)? Also, does RO get rid of phosphates and slica?