Do I need to add Water Conditioner to RO Water?

[Chris918]

Hey guys.

Probably a dumb question, but do I need to add water conditioner to my RO water? My tap water is normally around 248 TDS, but my RO unit brings it down to anywhere from 7-11 TDS in most scenarios. I'll add that my RO unit does not have the resin to make it a full RO/DI setup. I'm hoping to add that in the future. My tank is cycled and the rock's cure is almost complete. Just wanting to make sure I don't throw any fish in there if I was supposed to add conditioner.

Thanks guys

Chris

 

[BigBlueTang]

Hey guys.

Probably a dumb question, but do I need to add water conditioner to my RO water? My tap water is normally around 248 TDS, but my RO unit brings it down to anywhere from 7-11 TDS in most scenarios. I'll add that my RO unit does not have the resin to make it a full RO/DI setup. I'm hoping to add that in the future. My tank is cycled and the rock's cure is almost complete. Just wanting to make sure I don't throw any fish in there if I was supposed to add conditioner.

Thanks guys

Chris

I would. It's not going to hurt anything. And it's a safeguard in case something did slip by..

However, I would get that DI stage ASAP. ~40$ from BRS, and it's worth it's weight in gold. That's what I did.

 

[Chris918]

Thanks! How long would you guess the DI stage lasts before it needs replacing?

 

[nereefpat]

Thanks! How long would you guess the DI stage lasts before it needs replacing?

Usually the cartridges are good for a certain amount of tds. A year, give or take, would be normal.

I don't see a reason to add conditioner to RO water. It will be free of chlorine, heavy metals, and most other pollutants .

 

[Greybeard]

An RO membrane won't remove chorine, but they don't really need to. Virtually every RO filter has a carbon block before the RO membrane, and the carbon filter does an excellent job of removing chlorine (and chloramine). If it didn't, these oxidizing chemicals would eat the membrane in no time.

Water conditioners list all sorts of benefits... removing chlorine and chloramine are the big ones, but many say they'll balance pH, provide a 'slime coat', heck, I saw one that said it contained aloe You'll have to decide for yourself if you want any of these things... but they're _not_ going to reduce TDS, and if you've already run the water through a carbon block filter, it doesn't have any chlorine or chloramine in it.

 

[Sk8r]

I definitely would not. Having unused chemical floating about your tank is not a good thing.