Dont drink DI water????

[taikonaut]

I feel that drinking DI water is a waste of money, but RO is fine. The osmotic pressure should not be an issue for drinking DI, but that's just my gut feeling (sorry for the pun...).

>... there is evidence to suggest that the forms found in 'hard' water are more protective against cardiac disease.

The logics here sounds fishy to me. Dissolved solid and ion is dissolved solid. There is no way to find out rather a hard water is naturally hard, or artifically hardened with chemical.

 

[Deadhead1450]

Waste of money.........yes, because it tastes terrible. It won't hurt you, it's still just water.

 

[jbpig]

Well it makes iced tea and coffee taste a whole lot better, and it makes awsome ice cubes!

 

[Minh Nguyen]

In the 1960's, a study found that drinking 'soft' water - that is, water low in calcium and magnesium salts - increases your risk of heart disease. This finding continues to be validated in more recent studies: Masironi 1987 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3792502&dopt=Abstract); Pocock et al 1981 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7233165&dopt=Abstract)

....

Solf water is full of Na Cl (salt) The water solfenner relaease Na Cl to exchange for Mg an Bicarb. I have not heard the solf water is bad for your heart, but I can guess why. It is recommended that one do not drink slof water.

....Further, if you drink a lot of water, particularly after exercise, I imagine the gut would be exposed to a big osmotic difference - cells lining the gut might be subject to shock, rupture or loss of salts/sugars. The effect probably wouldn't be noticeable most of the time, but I personally avoid drinking RO/DI water

The mucosa linning see very little different in RO water with impurities of 15 ppm versus RO/DI with impurities of 1-2 ppm because the impurities in our cell is in the order of 9000ppm. (Iso-osmotic saline we use in our IV fluid is .9% NaCl)

The best explaination the I heard why we should not drink some DI water is that for certain resin, which have not being approved for human consumtion may be release into the filtered water and end up in our stomach. I drink RO water. The DI is not needed and is a waste of money for human consumption. I used to use RO/DI water for my reef, but not anymore. I just use RO.
Minh

 

[spoonhandler]

tainkonaut wrote:

The logics here sounds fishy to me. Dissolved solid and ion is dissolved solid. There is no way to find out rather a hard water is naturally hard, or artifically hardened with chemical.

I was referring to the argument that if calcium and magnesium salts in 'hard' water are protective against heart disease, people drinking 'soft' water could gain the same benefit by means of other dietary sources (eg. dairy food) or supplements. At this time, cardiologists recommend 'hard' water over other dietary sources based on countless studies of the association between risk of heart disease and drinking water supply.

I'm not sure what you mean by artificially hardened water. Artificially softened water as Minh Nguyen describes is not the only type of 'soft' water: natural water sources vary in mineral content dependent on local geology of the catchment or the manner in which water is collected (rainwater tanks, for example, provide 'soft' water, unless the tank is made of something than can leach minerals into the reservoir). Naturally 'soft' water or water produced by RO/DI systems, is low in Ca and Mg levels and does not have high sodium levels as produced by salt softeners.

Minh Nguyen wrote:

The best explaination the I heard why we should not drink some DI water is that for certain resin, which have not being approved for human consumtion may be release into the filtered water and end up in our stomach.

As I understand it, the resins used in DI columns are rated for production of water for dialysis in renal failure patients. Keeping in mind that the water is balanced osmotically/electrolytically prior to introduction into the blood stream of dialysis patients, if the resin is good enough for injectable water, it's good enough for drinking. Most set-ups should not permit release of beads in the produced water - at least the RO units we have at work have never done so. These resins are commonly used in water purifiers sold for home use (production of drinking water) and so must be compliant with standards for human consumption (in Australia anyway).

The only other concern remains inadequate maintenance of RO/DI systems to prevent bacterial overgrowth.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Minh Nguyen wrote:

The best explaination the I heard why we should not drink some DI water is that for certain resin, which have not being approved for human consumtion may be release into the filtered water and end up in our stomach.

As I understand it, the resins used in DI columns are rated for production of water for dialysis in renal failure patients. Keeping in mind that the water is balanced osmotically/electrolytically prior to introduction into the blood stream of dialysis patients, if the resin is good enough for injectable water, it's good enough for drinking. Most set-ups should not permit release of beads in the produced water - at least the RO units we have at work have never done so. These resins are commonly used in water purifiers sold for home use (production of drinking water) and so must be compliant with standards for human consumption (in Australia anyway).

The only other concern remains inadequate maintenance of RO/DI systems to prevent bacterial overgrowth.

I pull up the abstract that you quote, It is true that the study looking into natural solf water, not water from the water solftener.
Regarding the DI resin, noted that I said some DI water and certain DI resin
There are many DI resins. Also I don't mean that the beads were released into the filtered water. It is some of the resin leaked into the filtered water.
I just want to point out the fact that there is absolutly nothing wrong with drinking absolutly pure water. I did it pleyty of time, many people drink them without problem. It is true that we do need certain minerals, but essentially all of these enter our body via food, not water.
mInh

 

[Minh Nguyen]

.......
The only other concern remains inadequate maintenance of RO/DI systems to prevent bacterial overgrowth.

It is good to know that bacterial need nutrients also to grow also. RO membrane that are adequatly set-up and maintain to produce good water do not have significant bacterial contamination because thewater is too poor in nutrinents to allow the bacterial population to grow significantly. Certaily we buy lots of these units for drinking water, in addition to buying RO water in bottle for drinking. I guess there are people drinked contaminated RO water, but I have never heard of even one case where people got sick from driking RO water.
Minh

 

[jbpig]

Well correct me if I am wrong, but the 'drinking water kits that RO/DI manufactors sell have a storage unit that takes its supply off the RO/DI corect? So wouldnt these DI cart's be safe?

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Well correct me if I am wrong, but the 'drinking water kits that RO/DI manufactors sell have a storage unit that takes its supply off the RO/DI corect? So wouldnt these DI cart's be safe?

Usually the water storage container just fet RO water. I 'T' the output from RO to the storange container or to the DI colum. The water from the DI colum only go to the reef tank.
I drink RO water, not DI (it is a waste of money). My wife give me grief to no end here.
"The water to the reef tank is better than the water that we drink."
Minh

 

[shawn114]

would the RO water from Wal-Mart be ok to put in the tank?

 

[Nathan1]

Just drink it. I do, and I enjoy RO/DI water. It tastes fresh.

-Nathan

 

[taikonaut]

>... At this time, cardiologists recommend 'hard' water over other dietary sources based on countless studies of the association between risk of heart disease and drinking water supply....

You can artifically harden water by adding chemicals to it. Many reefers use an aragonite "filter" to add a little Ca and carbonate to the RO/DI water as topoffs. Anyway, back to your point. The amount of Ca and Mg in drinking water usually is not the main source of these minerals. Given the three choices (tap, RO, RO/DI), it is easy to eliminate out the RO/DI as the best type of drinking water due to the economic and marginal benefits. Rather tap or RO is a difficult issue, and it main depends on the quality of your local water supply. Here in So. Cal., the tap is around 100-300 ppm TDS. My city use 50% water from local well. The amount of contaminates in the tap outweight the benefit of the water as a source of Ca and Mg. In my case, RO is definitely the best choice. FWIW, that is.

With that said, I am not contradicting any medical study by saying that RO/DI is good for you. If you read some of my earlier posts on this matter, you will realized that I was trying to point out the wrong reason that were used to convince people that drinking RO/DI is bad.

Minh and I are on the same page. The main reason that DI is not recommanded for human consumption is due to the type of resin used. Organic solvent is used during manufacture process to dissolve the resin so that tiny plastic beads can be coated evenly. The solvent is then evaporated off. Depends on the intended application of the resin, the DI resin may be not suitable for processing water for human consumption (usually the case if you get your DI resin from majority of the reef hardware place).

You can drink DI all you want, but the fact of the matter is 1, you are wasting the resouce to give you very little benefit over regular RO water. 2, you are drinking something that otherwise need to be NSF-certified for human consumption. Don't want to be to harsh in my statements, but it is like paying $5 for a 10 oz can of tuna labelled as cat food. Won't kill you if that's what you eat sometimes.

 

[shawn114]

I think we got off the point, is the RO water that a person could purchase from a store like Wal-Mart be ok to put into a reef aquarium, to save themselves a little money on an RO device?

 

[taikonaut]

>... I think we got off the point,...

We pretty much talked about DI and I don't feel we got off too much... any particular reply that you are thinking of?

>... is the RO water that a person could purchase from a store like Wal-Mart be ok to put into a reef aquarium, to save themselves a little money on an RO device?

Nevermind about my previous question....
Seriously, most RO from vending machine is fine. But the main issue is that at 25cents/gal, you will be better off in the long run if you have your own filter. Unless you have a small tank that does not need much use of the water...

 

[shawn114]

Thank you, I only have a 20 gal, and instead of buy a $200 RO I can get 5 gal of RO from Wally World for 1.65. Plus i'm sure it is good to drink.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

I think we got off the point, is the RO water that a person could purchase from a store like Wal-Mart be ok to put into a reef aquarium, to save themselves a little money on an RO device?

We are right on the point. Reread the title of the thread again.
You can get a RO system very cheap with water storage tank at Costco or Sam's Club. I am sure in 1 year, you will save money if you use one gallon per day for drinking and for the reef (more if you include gas money, and your time to go get the water). It also very convenience to just get drinking water from this system without have to go to the market to buy them. Think of it as the price of a few corals or a few fish.
Minh

 

[mooner]

Thank you, I only have a 20 gal, and instead of buy a $200 RO I can get 5 gal of RO from Wally World for 1.65. Plus i'm sure it is good to drink.

Good point. For a smaller aquarium you could do this but I would strongly recommend a TDS unit to make sure that the water from your store is pure. They might get a bit lax on the filter changes if you know what I mean.

Honestly, I think you'd be better off searching around on the web (ebay is great) for a RO/DI unit for around $80 - $100 and a cheap TDS unit. Reason I say this is that if you keep your system healthy and do the proper amount of water changes you will go thru a lot of water and salt. That's a lot of trips to the store. But I did just what you are for a while. I bought my water. I did get some phosphates tho in a bad batch or two...I thrn bought my own unit.

Good luck.

 

[taikonaut]

>... They might get a bit lax on the filter changes if you know what I mean.

Hey, this is a trade secret, and you should never say this out loud in a public forum!