Top off water buffering?

[fadeintoblue]

I'm int he process of building up a 72 gal and get differing opinions on this one.
Is it ok to use pure RO/DI water for top off or do I need to to use a ph buffer.

 

[KillerReef]

it's fine to use pure ro/di, no need to buffer

 

[bertoni]

I agree. I use pure RO-DI all the time. The pH of RO-DI is pretty much irrelevant since it has no buffers and small volume compared to the tank.

 

[PatMayo]

I agree with both guys. RO/DI with nothng else is great.

Regards,

Pat

 

[ister98]

Don't you need to put chlorine removers into the RO water before adding the water into the aquarium?

 

[bertoni]

There had better not be any chlorine in your RO water, or your filter is in sad shape.

 

[dchao]

You should put chlorine remover into RO water to remove any trace of chloramines. No need for RO/DI as the DI resins would have cleaned them up. You can easily find out if your water company puts chloramines into your water.

 

[Entropy]

If you have chlorine or chloramine after your RO, you have serious problems in your filter. You should have a prefilter that removes chlorine before it hits the RO membrane, or your membrane will not last very long.

I use RO straight from the bucket with no buffers or additives.

 

[dchao]

If you have just a one-stage carbon filter, you have a very little chance of removing chloramines, which are much harder to remove than chlorine and it takes more carbon and longer contact time. I have a two-stage carbon filter, and the chloramines are still measurable at the RO output, and after two month, the chloramines removal rate drastically deteriorates (well before the carbon is fully exhausted).

Life of the RO membrane will be shorter because of chloramines, but as long as our water companies want our water to be safe, this is the price we have to pay.

If you can't measure chloramines at the RO output, that's because your source water doesn't have chloramines, not because your RO filter has removed it completely.

 

[Entropy]

Hmm, I hadn't thought of that. I didn't even know they made one stage filters. I am using a 5 stage RO unit and there is no measurable chlorine or chlorimine. My silly little test kit goes down to .02ppm or so it says, but who knows.

 

[bertoni]

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.php

I read this article, and if the carbon stage of the RO filter is old, the filter might pass a fair amount of chlorine. Otherwise, you should be okay, I think. I guess it's worth checking if you don't have DI.