Reverse osmosis and 3 channel doser

[Rawhidesabi]

Ok my buddy is getting rid of a lot of fish equipment and he is willing to cut me a deal on his ro unit and 3 channel doser as well. As i am just getting into the larger tanks and attempting to step out of the complete amateur department, would these be worth it to have for my Freshwater tank?

If i run the ro unit that means i have to remineralize the water, so either way i am going to have to buy a dechlorinator or a remineralizer. I know that i can possibly auto drip dechlorinator but is this possible with minerals as well?

Also since his doser is a 3 channel and has 3 seperate pumps, is it possible to have this setup in my sump "dosing" water out and "dosing" ro unit back into it? Or would i have to keep the big 55 gallon drum method rolling? I only ask that because if i could make that work i think that could reduce my water changes to 20-% weekly instead of 30-40%. Which would be nice since big tanks take a ton of water.

Now if i can go with all of my plans for this, would it actually be a good investment or would i just have really expensive water for my fish to poop in?

Also this will not be a planted tank other than maybe some controled algae in the sump and a few hardy plants in tank just to keep parameters in check. But i could go without plants easily.

Thank you ahead of time.

 

[ragin_cajun]

You'd just have really expensive water. Now, if you wanted to create a low pH environment to keep species that come from environments like that in the wild, you might have to have RO water to start with, and then add things to drop the pH.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Saltwater tanks start with RO water, and then add specific ratios of aquarium sea salt with carefully controlled parameters to end up with a tank of water that matches sea water. Years of trial and error have gone into commercial sea salt to get a product that works right. It has to have the right pH, calcium, magnesium, alkalinity, etc.

Though not as complex, freshwater is similar. If you start with RO water, what do you add back in? How much? Are you sure? What if you make a mistake? Where do you get instructions for what to add in? How often will you have to add these things?

Just use the tap water you have, dechlorinate it if you want to do a drip. RO is more trouble than it's worth for FW tanks.

You might see if you could use chlorine/chloramine cartridges in the RO filter, though.

Or, buy your friend's stuff and set up a marine tank. HUGE head start to have a friend with experience like that when you're doing your first marine tank

 

[Rawhidesabi]

Yup no marine tank for me i like my freshwater and travel too much for salt. But those were my questions as well and the reason i posted on here. The doser for sure im grabbing since the price is right and i believe i can figure a way to dose dechlorinator and have it pump out old water and pump in new water. But that ro unit does sound like trouble for sure. Thanks.

 

[ragin_cajun]

If you have a sump, it'd be alot easier to use the RO filter housing for chlorine/chloramine filter cartridges. Change the filter cartridges out every 3-4 months. A mechanical malfunction won't flood the tank.

I considered the saltwater style Tunze ATO setup, and dose pumps for dechlor. It was expensive, and less reliable than filtration and a standpipe in the sump.