How important is RO water?

[knugenx]

I'm asking only because last night, I decided to change all my filters on my ro/di unit (after 14 months) and when I opened the RO chamber there was no membrane! I went to search for my original box and what did I see...the membrane. I thought the units come plug and play?!? All this time I was just purifying my water with the filters plus di. Well, at least it's better than tap I suppose.

 

[KathyC]

lol, wow, well your membrane will last an extra year!

Were you getting 0 TDS all along?

 

[knugenx]

honestly, I don't check..."knock on wood" I don;t have much of a algae problem

 

[KathyC]

You might want to! Depending on how much water you make, you could be adding sort sorts of yuckies to the tank after 14 months. I'd venture that you probably need some new filters.

Basically what you were getting from the unit - even without the membrane installed - was good water, but you were wearing out the other cartridges by making them do all of the work.

 

[knugenx]

I replaced it all last night...that's when I found out the membrane was not installed.
I was making 5gals every about three times a week for top off and some occasional w/c.

 

[Audi0s]

Ive been using...dare I say it....treated tap for topoffs only, and I havent seen much of a problem yet. My RO unit stripped the threads off my sink, and I havent found a better way to hook it up yet (live in an apt, bare pipes are hard to find) I use maybe 2.5 gals a week between both my tanks, so far so good. Please note I use distilled for 10% WC a week, and this is only temporary.

 

[jaa1456]

You can buy a new faucet pretty cheap, I used treated tap water on a tank for almost 3 years with no affects. It was not heavily stocked with corals though.

 

[reseter5]

wow... must be some good town water.... i know when i used tap years ago in my town my tank looked like a putting green in a few weeks... some tap water is suprisingly low in minerals... not mine ...

 

[Imbarrie]

My nano went through a lot of blooms when I started out with tap. My 75 is fine and I use rodi. Guess my town has high nutrient water.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[mcnuggget]

u can use tap with limited success on easy to keep corals n other ways on limiting nutrients input.(i.e. no colorful sticks)

 

[SevTT]

I'm asking only because last night, I decided to change all my filters on my ro/di unit (after 14 months) and when I opened the RO chamber there was no membrane! I went to search for my original box and what did I see...the membrane. I thought the units come plug and play?!? All this time I was just purifying my water with the filters plus di. Well, at least it's better than tap I suppose.

DI'll completely eliminate the dissolved stuff in the water, but it'll exhaust quick, unless you have very good water. You may have lucked out and simply have very good water.

 

[knugenx]

Nevertheless, I have the unit running with all the filters for a week. I don't see a difference in the water. I guess time will tell. The only thing that bothers me now is...IT TAKES ME TEN TIMES THE AMOUNT OF TIME TO FILL A 5GAL BUCKET!!!

 

[bizarrecorals]

it'll be better to have, but there are also other methods to do w/o.

 

[SevTT]

Nevertheless, I have the unit running with all the filters for a week. I don't see a difference in the water. I guess time will tell. The only thing that bothers me now is...IT TAKES ME TEN TIMES THE AMOUNT OF TIME TO FILL A 5GAL BUCKET!!!

Yeah, basically. But it's a nice piece of insurance to have. Sometimes the municipalities will dose the water system with something to dix a problem, and all of a sudden your DI resin's exhausted and the fish in your tank are dying for no reason you can understand. (I recall reading an account of another reefer who had this problem with a zinc compound.) The RO membrane doesn't exhaust nearly as quickly as the DI resin, so provides a buffer against such incidents.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

what coral do you have???
Most soft coral can handle it