Is RO necessary ?

M

mpomfret

New member
I am in the throes of setting up a 75 gal reef tank and hope to someday have some SPS. If all goes smoothly, I should be putting H20 in the tank in the next few weeks so I am thinking about water purification.

I live in Houston, TX and have city water. The water is chlorinated and is fairly hard (I don't remember the numbers). Due to limited space, plumbing an RO system, storing the water, and dealing responsibly with the waste water looks like it will be a pain. So I am wondering if RO is really necessary or if a good carbon filter would be sufficient (perhaps a DIY filter). Does NOT having an RO filter invite disaster ?

Thanks for the help.

Matt
 
Maybe not an "invitation", but you are definately leaving the door ajar.....

Even if you do choose to use tap, you are still going to have buckets of water sitting around because you will need to age it, etc..

Fish only? You might get by with it. Softies - maybe, but risky. SPS? I really don't think so.

I personally wouldn't even attempt to start a reef w/out a RO/DI unit. I think the use of tap water is probably the #1 reasons people leave the hobby after a short period of time. Their tanks don't look good, and they think it's "too hard". It's the basis of your tank, and if you start with something less than ideal, that's what you are gonna end up with.

And I know there are people on this board who use nothing but tap water. They are in the extreme minority. And the reason for that is it simply usually doesn't work well in the long run.

Good luck on your new tank!
 
think about it like this. You add top-off water with "junk" in it. Over time, PURE water evaporates....

You add more water with junk in it. The Junk concentration goes up and up and up as long as you have evaporation (which you ALWAYS will)....

So even if your carbon filtered tap water itself might be alright (which it probably isn't) over time the condition is going to get worse and worse.

Now of course, water changes will help. But you are still not refilling with 100% pure water.

Essentially, without RO at least your phosphate & silicate (and whatever other nasties are in Houston water) are going to build up over time to a level where algae will love your tank

I'd get the unit
 
If you were setting up for FO I would say that RO is definately not required, and that you would be fine using conditioned tap water. In a reef tank I would be a lot more skeptical about using plain tap water considering the amount of phosphates and silicates present.

I have no LPS or SPS in my tank, but I noticed a drastic difference in my polyps, xenia, and corraline growth when I moved them from my previous 55 gallon conditioned tap water setup into my current 10 gallon RO/DI nano. The colors really came alive, the coralline is really starting to take off, my polyps are actually starting to multiply, and the xenia are much healthier and are growing nicely. All of this in just the last month.

Here is a shot of one of the xenia after first being placed into the new RO tank:

NewArr2005.jpg


And here are a couple of them as they are currently, one month later:

OfficeNano4001.jpg

OfficeNano4002.jpg


I am not saying that you can't successfully keep corals in your tank w/o RO water (although some of the vets here may chime in with better evidence to support such a claim) but I am saying that you will not see the best potential growth of your specimens (or any at all) without properly filtered water.

Good Luck, and Happy reefing!
 
WooHoo! 100 posts! :cool:

Also, I use the Kent Marine Deluxe Hi-S Maxxima 4-stage RO/DI 35gpd unit to produce my water. There are pumps and other things available that you can incorporate to increase the efficiency of your RO unit and make it produce more filtered water while producing less waste water. It all depends on how much you are willing to spend on the hobby.

You could also try sitting down and thinking about creative uses for your waste water, or discussing with others to find out what they do with theirs. I had an idea to build a stand the hold up a 100 gallon rubbermaid drum that I could attach a spout with a shut-off valve to and have my waste water collect in there, then when it gets full I would just connect a hose and a sprinkler to it and use the waste to water the lawn. :D I'm sure other people have better ideas, but that's my 2 cents.
 
I agree. It really bites to think that you want to get into a hobby that is so rewarding when the cost is so high. For smaller tanks you can get away with filling up with RO water from wal-mart/safeway/wherever, but you just can't survive on tap-water for the aforementioned reasons. It's been tried, and it just doesn't work. You *could* get away with fish only, as has been said, but the main reason is the junk analogy given above. If you want to get big storage tanks (10 gallon or more) and fill them with RO water from a supermarket, then you'll be paying roughly $3.50 per 10 gallons. You'll want to do around 25% water changes per month, or 10% per week, so either way you'll have to lug around a lot of heavy water. In the long run you'll more than pay for an RO unit.

Good luck, though.
 
Thanks everyone. It looks like I will spring for an RO unit. I found one at this site the other day: http://www.h2ofilter.net $144 incl shipping for a 50gpd unit doesn't seem too bad.

Now if I can figure out what to do with the waste water.....I have a sprinkler system, so I don't think watering the yard with the RO waste would work too well. I had considered a large tank next to the washer and seeing if I could rig up a way for the washer to draw water from it. With a family of 5, there's plenty of H20 going to laundry. I also thought of plumbing the RO waste to the water heater. The heater is in the attic, though and that would be a major undertaking.

My wife is working on a 125 gal goldfish pond in the back yard. Maybe if I can get her to up it to 500gal there would be enough evaporation from that to use up the RO waste out there. Fresh water fish will live in pretty much anything.

If anyone has other suggestions, I would be glad to hear them.
Thanks again.

Matt
 
The washer idea has been pitched to me before. Apparently other people have been successful in setting it up. It would be a great idea if you can get the specifics on how to do it. I would suggest that you search the DIY forum to see if you can turn anything up and post a question if you can't. Someone there is bound to have some idea of what to do. Again, good luck!
 
Sure Reef Lunatic, they are often sold for that purpose. Most people just use the straight RO and not RO/DI for drinking. It is pure enough for consumption without DI and it usually tastes better than RO/DI which has a decidedly flat taste.

As for the tank RO/DI is much better than just RO. In answer to the orginal question posed in this thread. You plan to keep pets whose whole environment is centered on WATER !!! It is so important that it is the last thing you want to skimp on. See [rodifaq]
 
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