R/O unit?
- Thread starter jiminy_crime
- Start date
A decent book should have an RO unit and what it does in there.. May be worth getting your paws on a book or two to give some rough guides, though I know they are not great, I have three and they still don't answer half my questions !
Off the top of my head it is basically a filter. A very good one. It removes nitrates, phosphates, metals etc.. from the tap water, returning it to almost pure water, which you then need to add marine suppliments to, in order to make it viable for tank usage. Have you run tests on your tap water to see how bad it is?
My LFS guy said they are a waste of time, as you remove loads of things, then buy a bottle of them to put back in.. However many people swear by them...
Off the top of my head it is basically a filter. A very good one. It removes nitrates, phosphates, metals etc.. from the tap water, returning it to almost pure water, which you then need to add marine suppliments to, in order to make it viable for tank usage. Have you run tests on your tap water to see how bad it is?
My LFS guy said they are a waste of time, as you remove loads of things, then buy a bottle of them to put back in.. However many people swear by them...
I recommend the Typhoon model from airwaterice . It is "rated" at 100 gpd at a very low price. I say "rated" because RO/DI filters will only actually produce up to their rated capacity if the water pressure & temperature are optimum. In my experience and what I hear from other boards, you can expect to only get about 50%of a units rating. Therefore a 100gpd unit will usually produce 50gpd in actual home use.
If you plan on having a reef tank, I would strongly suggest getting a RO/DI filter. IF your plannin, a fish only tank, it is not as important, but, the main advantage of the filter is providing pure water without the nutrients that fuel algae growth.
Brian
If you plan on having a reef tank, I would strongly suggest getting a RO/DI filter. IF your plannin, a fish only tank, it is not as important, but, the main advantage of the filter is providing pure water without the nutrients that fuel algae growth.
Brian
RO stands for reverse ossmosis. Ossmosis is the movement of water through a semi-permiable membrane from an area of greater water concentration to an area of less water concentration. A good chemistry text can explain to you a lot better than I can. But in essesesnce, water attempts to dilute everything down a concentration gradient. The membrane keeps particulate matter (such as salt) from crossing it, but allows water through. Water will move from an area of less salt to an area of higher salt if left to its own devices.
Reverse ossmosis basically uses an immense amount of pressure to "squeeze" water up its concentration gradient, forcing it through a semi-permiable membrane that traps all the particulate matter down to micron size (IE: salt molecules) behind it. The result is water without particulates in it, without anything in it, except H2O. It taste rather bland. The by-product is a super concentrated sludge of gunk. As you can imagin this process requires a whole lot of energry, which is why RO pumps and filters cost so much to operate and purchase.
The reason a lot of people use RO units, especially on reef tanks, is because normal tap water contains a whole mess of impurities that could harm sensitive corals and inverts. RO is the only way to get garunteed pure water without nasty junk. But be careful. Even if you use an RO unit to remove nutrients, you must replace what you take out before putting the water in your tank. Make sure you buy =sea salts= to mix with your RO water, never add strait RO water to your tank unless you're doing a dilution. Nutrients in water is a =good= thing, and there are lots of essential elements in water that fish and invertebrate life need to survive that they can get no where else. That's why sea-salts and other vitamin additives are important when keeping corals.
~~Colesea
Reverse ossmosis basically uses an immense amount of pressure to "squeeze" water up its concentration gradient, forcing it through a semi-permiable membrane that traps all the particulate matter down to micron size (IE: salt molecules) behind it. The result is water without particulates in it, without anything in it, except H2O. It taste rather bland. The by-product is a super concentrated sludge of gunk. As you can imagin this process requires a whole lot of energry, which is why RO pumps and filters cost so much to operate and purchase.
The reason a lot of people use RO units, especially on reef tanks, is because normal tap water contains a whole mess of impurities that could harm sensitive corals and inverts. RO is the only way to get garunteed pure water without nasty junk. But be careful. Even if you use an RO unit to remove nutrients, you must replace what you take out before putting the water in your tank. Make sure you buy =sea salts= to mix with your RO water, never add strait RO water to your tank unless you're doing a dilution. Nutrients in water is a =good= thing, and there are lots of essential elements in water that fish and invertebrate life need to survive that they can get no where else. That's why sea-salts and other vitamin additives are important when keeping corals.
~~Colesea
Thanks for all of the responses everyone. I am planning on keeping a fish only tank for quite awhile before I endeavor into a reef tank. So, being that this is the situation, would I need something like this?
My lfs told me that I should by deionized water from them at about $0.37 cents a gallon. I thought that this was to much for water and wanted to know if I can use treated tap water as an alternative? Any thought or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Basically, if someone could tell me exactly what would be the best plan to achieve a FO tank, it would help a great bit.
Thanks
My lfs told me that I should by deionized water from them at about $0.37 cents a gallon. I thought that this was to much for water and wanted to know if I can use treated tap water as an alternative? Any thought or ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Basically, if someone could tell me exactly what would be the best plan to achieve a FO tank, it would help a great bit.
Thanks