What is RO/DI water?

[DustinKeating]

I'm slowly learning in this world of marine aquariums, and mainly because i have to in order to kill the algae that's attacking my tank. otherwise i'd just much rather stare at the tank, and be oblivious to the scientific side.

I think my algae may be the product of my tap water, so i think it's time to use deionized....RO? water. But what is that, can it only be acheived by purchasing a 2-5 stage unit that does it? or can you just buy it in jugs?

For example, is Evian RO/DI water? is it as beneficial? what do i look at on the package to know that it's RO/DI (in the event it doesn't say RO/DI). If the package says "Natural Spring Water" is that what i want?

Help?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

no it's source water. Params are different..like you can have 30 ppm of calcium in those bottles vs 350 in my tap.

Info about water : http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/makeupwater/

 

[KahluaZzZ]

yeah you can buy purified water at your LFS hopefully. Only one in my city selling that.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

some wrote that you can even buy water in grocery stores...not here but maybe at yours

 

[DustinKeating]

Nutrition Information
per 1 cup serving (250 mL)
%DV
Sodium 0.45 mg
Potassium 0 mg
Calcium 81
Magnesium 28
Zinc 0
Manganese 28

is that alright? It's this product
http://www.presidentschoice.ca/Food...x/id/10053/name/PCNaturalSpringWater/catid/72

 

[KahluaZzZ]

hey you're in canada..where ?

http://www.aquarecifal.com/magasin/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=118
I have this..man it's even cheaper than before. On the long run i think it costs less. It comes with all the stuff. When you need to change the cartridge, it's 40 bucks for all the membranes etc.
5 stages.
It's a canadian brand..so we pay less.
Check it out

 

[1979camaro]

bottled water is not what you want to use...not only is it too expensive in the long run, but it has a bunch of other stuff in it. the RO (reverse osmosis)/DI (de-ionization) process basically reduces your water down to nothing but H2O through a variety of filters...from there you add your salt mix and it adds all the required elements, etc

 

[DustinKeating]

I have bottled water right now, would it hurt to use what i have?

 

[wayne]

Depends on what's in the bottled water.... it's probably much the same as tap

 

[DustinKeating]

i bought a large container of RO/DI water from my supermarket. how do i go about switching my system over? just water changes?

 

[KahluaZzZ]

i would be worried about a huge water change. Params drastically changed = not so good.

But, some people do it..

 

[DustinKeating]

how about 25% or so every 2 or so days?

 

[1979camaro]

25% every two days should be fine as long as youve got live rock in there...your biological filtration is in there anyway and if the water you mix is the same salinity as the qater you remove it shouldn't matter

 

[DustinKeating]

Question, will 25% water change every couple days eventually replace all the bad tap water in 4 changes. or is it compounded every couple changes?

 

[1979camaro]

you will never get rid of all of it but it will get infinitely closer to zero. its like the old math thing, if you keep cutting something in half (or in your case, taking 1/4 off) will you ever reach the end?

 

[dbacksrat]

you will never get rid of all of it but it will get infinitely closer to zero. its like the old math thing, if you keep cutting something in half (or in your case, taking 1/4 off) will you ever reach the end?

don't you hate it how math ruins everything?

 

[DustinKeating]

ahah that's what i was thinking when i changing the water. "If i'm adding some water one day, and then taking it out the next day...DAMNIT!". Either way, i guess infinitely closer to zero will have to surfice, so far the introduction of RO/DI water had worked perfectly and i'm only going to do the third water change today.