imagitarium water, Reverse Osmosis (RO), Distilled Water

[ejawitz]

I have been using Imagitarium water from Petco and adding distilled water to replace evaporation. All of my numbers check out perfectly, but my corals are not thriving.

I read somewhere that distilled water may contain copper. Should I stop using it?

I also hear that RO water has had all of the good minerals removed. If I use RO instead of distilled, that might be good, but if I use RO + salt (thinking of using Instant Ocean) am I missing out on good minerals?

 

[thegrun]

Imagitarium water is just natural saltwater pulled out of the ocean, it's difficult t say where exactly they get the water and how polluted it is, you are better off making your own saltwater from RO/DI water.
It is possible that your distilled water may have trace amounts of copper, again make your own saltwater from RO/DI water.
Yes, the RO/DI membrane/filter removes almost everything from the water, that's the whole idea! Your salt mix will have all the necessary minerals in it, you don't want any in the base water.

 

[disc1]

I also hear that RO water has had all of the good minerals removed. If I use RO instead of distilled, that might be good, but if I use RO + salt (thinking of using Instant Ocean) am I missing out on good minerals?

The minerals you need come from the salt mix. That thing you heard about minerals pertains to freshwater tanks where they aren't adding a salt mix. In freshwater tanks it's not good to use straight RODI without adding minerals to it. But for saltwater we've got the salt mix adding everything we need.

 

[ejawitz]

In the first response above, thegrun says RO/DI water. I am thinking of getting a 5 stage Reverse Osmosis filter. Is that sufficient? I dont think it is DI.

 

[disc1]

In the first response above, thegrun says RO/DI water. I am thinking of getting a 5 stage Reverse Osmosis filter. Is that sufficient? I dont think it is DI.

You really want the DI. A 5 stage should have it. If not it's pretty simple to add one.

 

[hkgar]

Five stage would probably be two sediment, 1 carbon, RO membrane and a final DI resin. In most cases you only need sediment, carbon RO and DI - 4 stage. JMHO

 

[ejawitz]

Thanks. Do you also use the RO/DI water for drinking? Or do you need to add back minerals for that as well?

 

[NeilFox]

Not a good idea to drink it. The RO units that we used for desalination on Offshore installations came with warnings. We had to add chemicals back in otherwise the very pure water was quite corrosive. I think drinking it causes electrolyte imbalance.

 

[fishchef]

Five stage would probably be two sediment, 1 carbon, RO membrane and a final DI resin. In most cases you only need sediment, carbon RO and DI - 4 stage. JMHO

Many 5-stage have 2 DI resin in order to rotate when one is delpeted. That's what you want.

 

[billdogg]

As for drinking RO/DI water - Can you? sure. In the quantities a normal human would drink it shouldn't cause any real issues, but it will taste a bit odd because all the minerals we are used to are gone.

A better choice is to Tee off between the RO and DI cartridges for drinking water. There is a simple kit available that many manufacturers sell them as a add-on to a basic unit.

 

[Scurvy Dawg]

I have been using Imagitarium water from Petco and adding distilled water to replace evaporation. All of my numbers check out perfectly, but my corals are not thriving.

I read somewhere that distilled water may contain copper. Should I stop using it?

I also hear that RO water has had all of the good minerals removed. If I use RO instead of distilled, that might be good, but if I use RO + salt (thinking of using Instant Ocean) am I missing out on good minerals?

I have read in several spots that modern distillation processes do not use copper pipes anymore.

I have tested for copper in distilled water from Walmart and it comes up clear.

 

[ejawitz]

I had my copper tested and it is fine. So distilled water was not the problem. I changed my carbon and all of the corals are doing fine. I just can't figure out what happend to my beautiful Torch. It appears completely dead.