food for thought on drip system.

[nfored]

I ran a drip system for about a year before taking down the tank to repair the stand. I never put it back up because imho its less effective then normal water changes. However I have been thinking about setting it back up as i am getting short on time and its getting harder to do weekly 50%

So I bought new lighting for my reef tank and got a free 4 stage RO unit. This is good since I can use the housing for my drip system, but what are you thoughts on running it through the ro membrane and dripping both the product water and waste water into the tank to create slightly cleaner tap.

At first I thought it couldn't hurt but then I thought it likely is the same as dripping just tap. I mean if the product water is pure and the waste water is everything from the product water then when I mix them both I am getting the same as just tap. The only way I could think it would be better is if say the mix of product water and waste water produced water that was lets say 25% more pure then just tap alone.

 

[bassguy]

I wouldn't use a RO system for freshwater drip. It takes all the good as well as the bad stuff out, and replacement cartridges cost more. Carbon block kits are the way to go for fresh IMO. THREE STAGE CHLORINE FILTRATION CARBON BLOCK DRIP SYSTEM http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ro_systems.htm I used this one.

 

[nfored]

the question is really about the water that would result from the waste/production mix do you think it would be cleaner then just tap.

but to answer your post

yes i know to use the carbon blocks as i said i have used this before. as far as taking all the good stuff out that's why i said mix with waste water to add back the trace. As cost since ro is like 1:2 product to waste and dripping 25 gallons a day i would only be using 8 gallons of product water or so a day so the ro membrane itself should last at least a year or a year and a half provided i keep the sediment and carbon changed normally.

so 1 years cost would be 1 membrane 40 bucks and two sets of carbon 70 bucks. 110 a year, i bet i would spend 40 a year on prime so now we are talking 70 a year. so if i get 25% cleaner water for 70.00 a year i am fine with that. i doubt any one here says lets feed our fish walmart brand fish flakes so we can save 70 a year.

Edit:
setting up my first reef tank to house sps has taught me to view cost of fish keeping different. my 75 gallon reef is far from complete but has already cost me as much as my 220 fresh.

 

[bassguy]

the question is really about the water that would result from the waste/production mix do you think it would be cleaner then just tap.

but to answer your post

yes i know to use the carbon blocks as i said i have used this before. as far as taking all the good stuff out that's why i said mix with waste water to add back the trace. As cost since ro is like 1:2 product to waste and dripping 25 gallons a day i would only be using 8 gallons of product water or so a day so the ro membrane itself should last at least a year or a year and a half provided i keep the sediment and carbon changed normally.

so 1 years cost would be 1 membrane 40 bucks and two sets of carbon 70 bucks. 110 a year, i bet i would spend 40 a year on prime so now we are talking 70 a year. so if i get 25% cleaner water for 70.00 a year i am fine with that. i doubt any one here says lets feed our fish walmart brand fish flakes so we can save 70 a year.

Edit:
setting up my first reef tank to house sps has taught me to view cost of fish keeping different. my 75 gallon reef is far from complete but has already cost me as much as my 220 fresh.

I have heard of Saltys doing this, using the wastewater from RO for their fresh tanks and I would think it would be ok because it has already had the chlorine and some other stuff removed before it's been rejected. And it still has some minerals in it.


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[Oughtsix]

If you are dumping water from both sides of the RO membrane into the tank why use the RO membrane at all? Seems to me it would be akin to back flushing your filter into your tank to clean the filter. Why bother running the filter at all?

 

[nfored]

Thanks for the feed back

oughtsix: thats what i was wondering if it would end up just the same as using tap and not any cleaner, the only real thought was if it would be cleaner then tap, then I would be willing to pay for it. 20ppm nitrate out of my tap sucks.

bassguy: I have been doing that now actually but as my reef is small 75 i dont make much water.

I guess I will just keep with the three stage carbon setup. I just noticed a difference in algae when I switched my fowlr from tap to rodi. I know my phosphates are really high in my fresh 2ppm and nitrates i struggle to get them to stay at 40. When I ran drip for that year i got nitrates to like 30ppm. Its a real shame bio pellets dont work in fresh.

 

[Oughtsix]

My RO unit has sediment and carbon prefilters before the water reaches the RO membrane. I can see how the Carbon prefilter would be useful but it would seem like a waste of money to purchase a RO setup and only use the carbon prefilter.

My RO filter came with my house when I bought it. I only use it for making ice cubes in the freezer. Since I am on well water I just pipe water into my tanks straight from the kitchen sink (No filtering at all).

 

[nfored]

i have 3 complete ro units only using 1 so the cost would be a new membrane. There is a fish store around me whom only deals in cash so there is very little overhead as uncle sam doesn't have his greedy numbs in the profit. I bought my first 6 stage ro when i got my first fish tank then never used it, then i got a culligan 3 stage ro unit from my old job, and i just last week got a free 4 stage unit with my lights i bought. i am currently using the 6 stage for my water for my reef. i know my water has lots of silicates and phosphates thus algae. if it would not cost a small fortune to reconstitute the water i would us rodi in all my tanks.