30G Softie Reef Idea

[carb850]

Anyhow, I cannot believe I'm saying this but I'm considering another reef again (I'm blaming Matt and Amy on this). My wife isn't on board yet so this might take a little while such as early next year but never to early to put together a plan. When I decided to tear down, my reasons all pretty much went back to finances and time. I haven't seen any real change in either, but I think I can start backup doing a 30G softy tank with only moderate use of both. My current leftover equipment includes

30G Drilled Oceanic Tank drilled with overflow
Custom Stand
40W Current Satellite PC light with night LED
Eheim 1250 return pump
10G baffle-less sump

I want to keep my investment to a minimum. If it gets too costly I will just go planted FW instead. So pretty much I think I can reuse all the above. I'm thinking about adding a Tunze 9002.

My controversial idea is my water supply. I don't want another RO/DI with waste water. I'm thinking about doing a DI only or a DI with prefilters but no RO membrane so I have zero waste water. I'm thinking I might have 1G a week evaporation with such a small system and light, then maybe 5G a month water change. So how long do you think a DI water filter would last filtering 10G a month? How much would such a filter cost?

Any thoughts on this possible setup? Sufficient for a successful softie tank with a light fish load?

 

[coralreefer]

Don't blame us we're just evil devils sitting on you shoulder. :lolspin:

Random thoughts on your water supply questions. Do you know what the TDS of you tap is? That will dictate how well, long etc. the system you're talking about will last. Remember the RO membrane removes like 95% or so of the contaminants so with out that you might blow through di carts quickly. If you have a low TDS why not try to...I know...gasp...just use tap? You're talking about corals that don't need pristine water and as long as your source water isn't loaded in PO4 you should be OK as far as algae goes. Then again TDS only tells you how many desolved solids are in the water not what they are.
FWIW the TDS last time I checked of our tap was ~200-240 have been using it for years with no problems but then again it's my tap and I do plan to get a new RO membrane sometime.
There is a zero waste unit kol--steri or something like that it's pricey but might be worth looking into if you don't want waste.

 

[carb850]

I had a meter and I did check my tap, but I honestly cannot recall what it was. Seems like maybe I have seen between 180-280? But that is a sheer guess. My fear of starting with tap is in the case I do have troubles. I hate to have an issue then be confronted with the cost of some filter and the problems that can arrise. Giving it a shot with straight tap is probably the smart thing, but in this case I rather figure on worst case into my cost calc's. If the cost of the filter is more than I'm willing to go then maybe I'm better off not going down that road.

 

[odoprelude]

Bah.. any tank bigger than 10g that's not salt is a waste, lol.. what was the problem with the RO you had? Too much waste water? How much did you have?

 

[carb850]

It was working fine, I just had no use for it was I sold out of all my reef equipment. When I had the 120G and 30G running I estimate I was running around 250 gallons a month. Now our water bill is running roughly $70 a month. So, the less I run the better and all waste was... well waste.

If I would setup this 30G, I prefer not to spend the amount on a full RO/DI and I just hate wasting the water. I don't know how many times I started the water running into a bucket in the garage, come back later after forgetting about it and just having water overflowing onto the floor. So the idea of the DI only, with maybe prefilters will have me using significantly less water and faster.

Who knows, I might take Amy's recommendation for a try but I want to know the cost of a filter system in case I have to use one later.

 

[coralreefer]

I'm thinking I might have 1G a week evaporation with such a small system and light, then maybe 5G a month water change.

Mike fyi with a 175mh, open top etc. I'm evaporating about 2G a week.

My fear of starting with tap is in the case I do have troubles. I hate to have an issue then be confronted with the cost of some filter and the problems that can arrise. Giving it a shot with straight tap is probably the smart thing, but in this case I rather figure on worst case into my cost calc's. If the cost of the filter is more than I'm willing to go then maybe I'm better off not going down that road.

Can't you buy ro/di water at Walmart or Kroger? Of course you're dependent on how they maintain the water dispensers but I remember people going this route on a small tank.
I know this will be way to expensive but I checked the Kol-Steri units at Berts' last week $350. For a 30G tank the cartridges should last several years. :spin3:

Hi Chris :wave:
Glad to see you're back in again. Hope you start stopping in sometimes.
Congrats on the newest "frag" btw.:hb2:

 

[Nathan4Wvu]

If your only thinking ten gallons a month just get distiled water at walmart or kroger. That's what we used when we started. You could even get the ones you refill at the station outside kroger.

 

[LtPiper]

Ummmm Fuji has RO/DI water too available. Bring your own container. I've gone that route when I was too lazy to drag the filter out.

 

[package]

If you only have soft corals, i would just use tap water.
I did that for years, did not kill any more than I did with my RO/DI.

 

[odoprelude]

Phil also has RO Water. I get mine there.

Thanks Amy, got the one frag and the next one will be here in Feb! Yeah, caught the fever again, but am limited by space this time.

 

[carb850]

Early on, back when I just had my smaller tanks I was buying DI water from Fuji. The price wasn't bad but it wasn't convenient at all. I could see myself delaying water changes or resulting to tap (whether I wanted to or not) if my only source of 'pure' water was from a LFS.