Please help me select a RO Unit

[RC-Fish-Fan]

I am thinking of purchasing a Reverse Osmosis (RO), water softner, or ion exchange unit but I am not sure which one to buy. Since this is a major expense I decided to reach out to all the experts on our site for advice. Here are some details pertaining my situation:

1. I have the following tanks: One 55G, One 46G, two 10G, one 5.5G, and one 2.5G
2. I need to make a total of 37 gallons of fresh new water every weekend.
3. My objective is to produce water that is semi soft and my tap water is HARD and leaves lot's of white residue on the tank frames and tops. I primarily have soft water fish types like Angels and Severums. I don't need extra soft water but approximately 90 degrees softer than my tap water.

I want something practical. Until recently I was using a product from Mardel called Soft Tank but it got discontinued. I don't want to spend hours filling buckets with a tiny stream of water. I know that the Seachem Pinnacle units come with an automatic shut off valve (This is attractive to me). I also know that I will need a container for the water (I am thinking that a New Clean 40 gallon solid plastic (No metal parts touching the water) garbage container (with wheels) will probably do the trick. Then I can attach a heater to the container and sink a water pump in it.
This seems to be a practical approach and in the long term less expensive than buying 4 OZ size of Tank Soft.

Please let me know if one brand or unit type is easier to operate (or considerably less expensive to maintain). I also saw an Ion exchange unit called KATI that may do the trick for me but I don't know if it has a shut off valve. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks

 

[RC-Fish-Fan]

It seems that there is little interest in the subject. Please, if you had exoerience with any device for softning the water (Reverse osmosis, Ion Exchange, etc), I am interested in your opinion and advice.
Thanks

*celebrate

 

[dgodwin]

I personally get my RO water from a friend. I'm not sure what he uses. I've heard good things about the Typhoon II RO/DI unit, from http://www.airwaterice.com They also have good prices on replacement membranes (filters) for RO/DI water makers.

The only thing I would be worried about using the garbage cans is that certain plastics *might* leach chemicals into the water, defeating the purpose of having a RO/DI unit. There are discussions about this on the 'net, and no definitive answer is available at this time. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Somonas]

I have no experience with RO. If I were you I would compare different models, prices, and features, and try to find the best deal.

With RO I believe you have to add minerals or something before you put the water in your aquarium. Do a google search, for Aquarium Reverse Osmosis, you are bound to find some articles.

 

[RC-Fish-Fan]

Thanks Dgodwin and Somonas!!

I have had researched Google and it finds so many hits that it is tough to sort through. This is the source I have used so far to gain the bit of knowledge needed to post my question on our Forum.

I visited the airwaterice.com site and yes, these are good products are reasonable prices. The units with 75 gallons and 100 gallons of output capacity per day (GPD) are powerful.

I am sending them an e-mail to learn more from "Walter the water Guru." I will run the question about the container to see what he suggests.
Thank you. I will post more info to let you know how it goes.

Note for Dgodwin: I visited your web site. Your 30G FW Tank is beautiful. You have it nicely planted.

 

[dgodwin]

Thanks for the compliment on my tank. Eventually I'll get my new 40 gallon reef tank up there as well. I only use RO water for that. It's still tapwater for my water changes in the 30. I hope you get a reply soon from airwaterice.

 

[RC-Fish-Fan]

This is an update about my quest for an R/O unit:
I contacted Walter the H20 Guru at http://www.airwaterice.com as Dgodwin suggested. Walter really know his stuff, I explained that I needed the water for a Fresh Water tank not for a Reef tank and Walter configured a 4 stage 75GPD R/O unit with automatic shut off valve and all high quality parts for $ 99. Any similar unit at any of the WEB Aquarium stores would have been in the $ 250 range.

I am in the process of installing the unit to fill a 44 Gallon Plastic container sitting on a dolly. I needed some help and Walter was glad to give me a few pointers. I will give you guys an update once I have the whole thing automated.
*celebrate

 

[RedTurquoise]

Let me know how it works out! I have a RO unit but no auto shutoff. I need one though to fill up a 50G barrel.

 

[RC-Fish-Fan]

Yes RedTurquoise I'll be glad to share the experience.
The 75 GPD that I have will fill your 50 G barrel in 16 hours. To automate the whole thing you need to purchase a Float Shut off valve (similar to the one in a toilet tank) specially designed for aquarium water (Bigalsonline has a Kent one for $ 14.99 that has no metal parts). The float shut off is installed at the top of the barrel (it is very small).

You connect the unit in take (I can give you details on this step) to the cold water (I can give you details of this step) and the unit out goes to the Float shutoff. Once the barrel is full, the float shutoff valve closes the exit at the barrel and this triggers the automatic shutt off valve of the R/O unit.

I'll be glad to give you more details when I finish. I plan to do what you told me: put a heater and a water pump on the barrel and let the new water reach a stable ph level (for me is 7).

Have a great weekend.
*celebrate

 

[RC-Fish-Fan]

O.K. here is the final part of the RO Unit install:

I have been using it now for 2 weeks in an automatic shut off mode. Here are the details:

I purchase for $ 99 an RO unit 4 stage filtration of 75Gallon per day from Walter The H2o Guro at airwaterice.com. Excellent unit at a great price.

I installed the RO on the wall of my laundry room and connected it to my Washing Machine's Cold water pipe using a piercing valve. Note: I called a friend who installed a similar valve for his ice maker. For him it was a piece of cake. For me it was nerve raking to make a hole into a pipe but these piercing valves are very reliable bla! bla! etc. My friend had no problem, it took him 5 minutes.

The RO unit has two exits: One for the water with impurities (discarded water output) and the other for the RO water. The discarded water output I just placed over the laundry sink.

The RO water exit, I connected to a RubberMade 44 gallon trash container that I purchased brand new. The trash container sits into a dolly with six wheels designed specially for the container. The trask container and the dolly were a $ 60 expense at a store like Home Depo or Lowe's.

I also purchase a Kent all plastic floater shutoff valve and placed it on the trash container (The cost was $ 15 at Bigalsonline). I placed the floater shutoff valve so that the water level is approximately 5 to 6 inches bellow the rim of the container. This way, I am able to move the container full of water to the diffrent places where the aquariums are without splasing the water. Note: The 1/4' water pipe can be detached from the floater shutoff valve and the container can be moved. There is a special Nut for this and it is perfectly fine to detach it. The floater valve is shut so no water can come out. I also use the container cover to avoid water splashing out.

I also purchased a water pump and a fully submersible heater at a cost of $ 33 at BigAlsonline.

This is the process: On Monday I start filling the container which fills out in 12 to 14 hours. I collect approximately 38 gallons of water. When the container is half full I get the heater and water pump going. I use the RO Write and PH stable products from Kent to restore the water. I also use the Alkaline and Acid buffer products from Seachem. I also use a product called Amplium Expectrum Water Tonic (From Aquatronix)at 1/2 the recommeded dosis to avoid bad bacteria growing in the container. By Thursday I have a very stable PH on a pure water with the desired hardness (My desired hardness is 85 with a PH = 7, and temp is 78 Celsius approximately 25 centigrades).

Once the water level reaches the float shut off valve, no more water enters the container. This raises the water pressure on the water line between the container and the RO unit, which in turn causes the RO unit's automatic shut off to close the water entry into the RO unit. So everything shuts off. No more water comes out of the unit at either the RO unit or the discarded water exit.

The heater and water pump keep the water moving and at the desired temperature. The pump helps disolve the additives for restituting the water to the desired hardness, alkalinity, and PH.

When I am ready to do my water changes, I disconnect the water pump, heater, and 1/4' RO water pipe, roll the container next to the aquariums. I pump the water from the container into the aquarium using the water pump and a hose (The pump brought all kinds of connectors for all types of hoses).

It is working great. I made a breakeven point analysis of this versus using the Tank Soft product (using the price for the 4 OZ package which is the only one in the market these days). I breakeven in 8 months. After that, this method of preparing the water saves me approximately $ 300 per year. In addition, it is much easier to trolly the container next to the aquarium and pump the water into it instead of having to use a container and manually fill up the aquarium.

Everything is working great and I am saving effort, time and money. I hope this helps anyone who needs an RO unit.

Thanks to Dgodwin for referring airwaterice.com. I was able to buy a great unit saving approximately $ 100 to $ 150. Walter was also very helpful explaining how I could accomplish the automatic shut off etc.

Thanks to everyone that made suggestions and demonstrated aninterest on the subject. I hope I gave enough details to help RedTurquoise understand how I made it all work.

*celebrate

 

[RedTurquoise]

Thanks! I appreciate it! Im getting an autoshut valve hopefully at the end of this month. Then I can start using my RO unit! Btw, my unit is 200gpd so filling my 50G barrel with take hopefully only around 8 hours!

Anys pics btw?

 

[dgodwin]

Glad to hear everything went ok with airwaterice.com I'll be purchasing from them soon, as I'm moving 2 hours away from my free RO water source. I wonder if they give any referal discounts! J/K

I couldn't imagine wheeling a 44 gallon garbage can full of water through my living room. And how would I get water upstairs?
I think I would drill a hole in the garbage can, and put in a faucet. Move the water in 5 gallon buckets (what I do now basically).

 

[RC-Fish-Fan]

Hey Dgodwin, you don't need to put a faucet on the container. Buy a water pump that comes with diferent hose connectors (mine cost approximately $ 17). Connect the water pump to a surge protector that has a on/off switch. Make sure the switch is off, put the pump in the container with a clear hose already attached, once you have the other end of the hose inside the 5 G bucket, turn the switch to ON, and then to off. Easy control and you don't have to bend over. Once you don't have enough water in the container to run the water pump, it is very easy to just grab the container and pour the 2 gallons of water left in the container.

FYI: wheeling the container with 40 gallons of water it is real easy because the dolly is designed to carry that much weight. The wheels are large and made of soft rubber. However, you do bring up a good point, all my aquariums are on the same level as the container. Your idea of using buckets is perfect to transport the water to another floor level.
*celebrate