Brita or Pur systems?

[angelsj247]

first i used tap water just from my sink when i filled my tank.. didnt know it was a big deal. the book i got said i could use it it just wasnt recommened. now i used purified water from my tap. theres no trace of ammonia, trites or trates, so it seems fine to me.

 

[sequential]

Thanks, WaterKeeper. I appreciate the info greatly.

 

[MCary]

So Angel what are you saying?

Another question pops into my head. Does not directly reflect on your post Angel. Just curious. What does purified mean? What is the standard for "purified" water.

About contaminates. The biggest culprit in tap water is phosphate. Phosphate is an algae's bet friend. The worst form of phophate would be that from phosphate detergents or that that seeped into the ground water from agricultural fertilyzers. A chemist may want to tell me if thats organic or inorganic phos. Nitrate may also come from agricultural fertilyzers.

You should never have nitrite. Nitrite would come from fecal contamination and treatment plants take care of that.

Ammonia in the water would most likely come from Chloramines which is a mix of ammonia and chlorine that treatment plants use to treat water because it is not as volitile as chlorine and stays in solution longer. Ammonia kits can detect the ammonia in chloramines.

Or I could be completely wrong and hopefully Waterkeeper will correct me.

Mike

 

[WaterKeeper]

Angels

How about copper, chrome, cadmium, lead, silver, arsenic, aluminum, iron, manganese, and a host of other heavy metals? I can believe your water tests fine for a handful of elements or compounds but it is the unseen that can hurt you. Some of these metals will be tested and listed if you have a local water supply but even then they only test for EPA regulated materials as it can cost big bucks to run additional tests. Things that don't harm humans may be very harmful to fish or inverts. Why take that chance?

 

[sequential]

Why take that chance?

Three legitimate answers to this, which are often ignored here on RC.

1) Money. An RO/DI system costs more than some of us can afford. Should we not be in the hobby or are we just taking a risk? How do you quantify that risk?

2) Space. I'm living with three other people who love the fish tank, but who complain about how much space I already take up maintining the tank. There are limited spaces in any house where one could set up an RO/DI system. In my case, they are all locations that I am not allowed to use. (Of course, this is why I get my RO/DI from an LFS.)

3) Education. This is probably the biggest one. How many casual hobbyists even know what RO/DI means outside of message boards and hobby groups? Heck, several of my LFS have told me that tap water is the best I can hope for without chemically treating the water.

Lastly, the availability of opinions is immense. The availability of valid data minus personal bias, on the other hand, is sorely lacking or at least difficult to find and decipher. (That said, it is my personal bias that more people should accept WaterKeepers opinion as the next best thing to fact. )

 

[whiteshark]

I hear ya. Ever since I set up my tank my family has been complaining. "It makes too much noise" "The light is too bright" "There is stuff everywhere" "Why do you need so much stuff" "Why do you spend so much time and money on that thing anyway?" I just kinda ignore them. I am in college, so I know about being pressed for money. Belive me. I just set aside some money every week for things I might need for my tank. I have to get things a little at a time, but I think an RO or RO/DI is less costly in the long run anyway. I have to take mine down and put it away everytime i'm done using it. It is a pain, but less of a pain then going out to get water every day or finding a place to store 30 1 gallon jugs of walmart DI water.

 

[angelsj247]

so what are the accual harms in using tap water like mine with no ammonia and no trites or trates, with the right ph and alk?

 

[whiteshark]

There are so many things that you can't test for that may be present. See WaterKeepers post on page 1.

 

[r0bin]

I appreciate everyones response, but I am really confused now after all this stuff about testing ect. Thats my biggest prolem with the RO system, I find it confusing. I was wondering if its OK to get just an RO. Leave out the DI, to save $?

 

[angelsj247]

So would Hinckley Springs bottled water be ok? we get that stuff at work, and i would be able to take a couple of gallons.

 

[whiteshark]

some bottled waters are worse than tap. Use distilled or RO water. all I use right now is an RO, but will probably be getting a DI sooner or later. I think you will be ok with just an RO. It will be much better than nothing or even a Brita.

 

[pisomojado]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6944624#post6944624 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by angelsj247
so what are the accual harms in using tap water like mine with no ammonia and no trites or trates, with the right ph and alk?

Basically it comes down to water running through an RO/DI is just water, nothing else. If you dont have anything in your city water it would be fine to use it, but I've never seen a clean water source.

Bottom line is if you want to get a britta type filter, make sure it is DI resin. The carbon sediment filters do nothing beneficial to your tank except remove chlorine. A DI resin filter will basically be as good as a full fledged reverse osmosis filter with DI resin, only much less efficent and at a higher $ coster per gallon of water produced.

So would Hinckley Springs bottled water be ok? we get that stuff at work, and i would be able to take a couple of gallons?

Almost all bottled water that you get from a store went through a reverse osmosis filter, it will be fine just a bit expensive.

 

[brbegle]

Robin -

I've read through this post, and I have just gone through this question myself. I was running to the grocery store every week with a 5 gallon water jug to fill up at the RO dispenser outside the store for my 29G. When I upgraded to a larger size I knew I couldn't continue to do this and all signs point to tap water being a bad thing. WaterKeepers post is truly a 'catch all' and should answer any questions. However, I was still confused about which direction to take, could I hook it up, how much money would it cost, etc.

I recently puchased the system off of Melev's Reef - it was so easy to hook up, takes very little space and works wonders. Here is a pic of my simple hook up in the laundry room: http://www.geocities.com/bradbegle/5stagerodisystem.jpg --> the most difficult part about hooking this system up was taking it out of the box. Marc sends user friendly instructions and all fitings to hook it up in the laundry room, under the sink or in your garage - wherever you want. You can find and buy the system at this site: http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html --> he also has some great info on that site about the system and the benefits involved.

Good luck!

 

[bertoni]

Well, r0bin, welcome to the world of reefing, where there are loads of options.

The Brita filter would save you the trouble of using a dechlorinator, and that's about it. I'm not sure that it'd be useful for 300 gallons, and it doesn't seem to remove much.

You can get a pure DI unit (Kati and Ani are two such products), buy bulk resin, and that'll work. It will be cheaper up front than RO-DI, and might be okay long-term. The prepackaged products are going to be very expensive long-term, I think.

Plain RO might be fine. A lot depends on what is in your tapwater. You could try it. RO-DI is the best you can do. A unit will run $100-200, depending on quality.

 

[sequential]

I'm not sure that it'd be useful for 300 gallons

If it's over a long period of time, and correct me if I am wrong, I believe it won't work well. According to this WaterKeeper post:

The main thing about using carbon is not to let it be heavily populated by a biofilm. Not only does that reduce the effectiveness of the carbon but it also may cause an increase in nitrates.

I'm not exactly certain how this applies to the carbon in a tap water filter like a Brita, but I presume it means that the effectiveness of the filter is a function of time, amongst other things.

 

[WaterKeeper]

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