RO System

[Jon M]

So I recently was introduced to a system a local fish keeper was using for his small shop. Essentially, it appears to be a RO system as far as I understand them to be, but it seemed to function differently than the ones I see online.

He had it hooked up to a water supply, then to a utility sink, and he would use the water from the sink for his tanks, stating it was ready to go for the aquariums without any chemicals conditioning the water since it had run threw the multiple canisters that remove the unwanted things from the water. So, an RO system right? So here's the thing though. He was going to order me the equipment to set one up at my house. It was explained to me that I could simply mount it wherever I wanted, hook a hose up to one end, and another hose or tube to the other end and feed that into the tank when I was returning water to my aquarium. Seemed simple enough...

Now while looking these things up online I see they have GPD of like 100 gallons. So it doesn't appear to me to be unlimited water like the way it was explained to me. I mean if I drained half my 560, as far as I understand, it would take like 3 days for a system of 100GPD to fill the tank?.... So what am I not getting?

The simplest solution would be to just ask for more details on the exact equipment from said individual, but he's been incredibly flaky and I haven't had the best of business interactions with him recent, and would prefer to not deal with 'em anymore. So I'm trying to figure this out on my own. I mean, was his system not doing what he claims it was, or am I looking into the wrong equipment?...

 

[Midwater]

You are not going to get great flow with RO, so it might be suitable for a constant drip system rather than water changes.

Be careful with RO water, you can get very fast fluctuations in PH.

 

[Jon M]

You are not going to get great flow with RO, so it might be suitable for a constant drip system rather than water changes.

Be careful with RO water, you can get very fast fluctuations in PH.

Thanks for the input. Yes, I'm only seeing very low GPD flows on everything I research. I understand drip systems but my biggest tank is a peninsula and I'm not currently taking on a remodeling job to accommodate something of that magnitude. So I will be sticking with my weekly wc. That being said, is there such a system that exist to what I was explained? Essentially, a RO system but one that can produce the flow of a say, standard 3/4" hose?.... I mean, I literally saw the one I'm referring to in action, and the utility sink had full flow?...

 

[Logan487]

Not sure which one he has but the one I used after searching around still only handles 100 GPD which for RO is pretty decent. I know we had a DI system we used in high school that had flow like your describing but I know it was thousands of dollars and had its own dedicated system so not sure the viability for a home setup, tbh sounds like if it is RO he went the over-engineering route with his setup.

That all said, the only reason I still use RO with mine is because its a holdover from my reefing days, Also note there is a difference between just RO and RODI, the latter is what most including myself use as it's pretty much completely pure water. Now for the simple part...Most Freshwater fish won't care too heavily about their TDS in the water like reef tanks will. The only reason I run RODI on mine is because my local municipal water is pumping out at 2.5ppm ammonia. If your looking at running RO though I would recommend some type of stabilizer in your setup for PH. (For high PH a sock with crushed coral in the sump works great, low you can add driftwood which also add the tannins to the water that many lower ph fish love)

 

[duanes]

What kind of fish are you keeping that would seem to require RO.
If you are keeping very soft water Amazonian species, like Altum Angels, Uaru fernadensepyzi, or certain soft water Anabanoids from remote Borneo, it would seem reasonable,
but if you are keeping Central American, Rift lake African, or even certain Asian stream fish, RO is waste money and water..

 

[Jon M]

Not sure which one he has but the one I used after searching around still only handles 100 GPD which for RO is pretty decent. I know we had a DI system we used in high school that had flow like your describing but I know it was thousands of dollars and had its own dedicated system so not sure the viability for a home setup, tbh sounds like if it is RO he went the over-engineering route with his setup.

That all said, the only reason I still use RO with mine is because its a holdover from my reefing days, Also note there is a difference between just RO and RODI, the latter is what most including myself use as it's pretty much completely pure water. Now for the simple part...Most Freshwater fish won't care too heavily about their TDS in the water like reef tanks will. The only reason I run RODI on mine is because my local municipal water is pumping out at 2.5ppm ammonia. If your looking at running RO though I would recommend some type of stabilizer in your setup for PH. (For high PH a sock with crushed coral in the sump works great, low you can add driftwood which also add the tannins to the water that many lower ph fish love)

So he told me he literally has a couple hundred dollars invested in his total and the cartridges are rated for X amount of water, so you just do the math for the amt of wc you typically do and replace them early. Which when I did the math equated to having to replace them like every 12 months or something. Which sounds extremely promising. I don't think it's a RODI setup because he mentioned some of the stuff that a RODI will remove you want for freshwater cichlids, etc. I know he said it did have a part in the front that removed TDS, then the next stage like 97% or so removed, chlorine, chloramine, etc, and then a final one. I'm 100% sure his had 3 canisters.

What kind of fish are you keeping that would seem to require RO.
If you are keeping very soft water Amazonian species, like Altum Angels, Uaru fernadensepyzi, or certain soft water Anabanoids from remote Borneo, it would seem reasonable,
but if you are keeping Central American, Rift lake African, or even certain Asian stream fish, RO is waste money and water..

This thread has my full stock for just the 560 thread, but that is not the only take I would use the water for. Ideally I would use it for all my tanks. Ensuring the water going into all my tanks is 100% safe for my fish at all times, and no longer purchasing any chemical conditioners. I respectfully disagree that that would be a waste of money.

 

[Ulu]

What you have to do is run the hundred gallon per day system 24/7/365 into big drums. You make the water in advance of the time you change it.

BTW RODI takes 4 cans. Filter, carbon, resin, & RO.

I don’t put RODI water into my systems, Except when I am topping off smaller tanks that get a lot of evaporation. That evaporation hardens the water, but adding RODI neutralizes it a bit.

My cichlids get tap water, and there is so little chlorine and crap in our water system here, I don’t even retreat it anymore.

But it varies everywhere. If you put a fish, into a glass of Long Beach tapwater, chlorine poisoning immediately.

Some waiter in a fancy Long beach restaurant brought me a glass of that crap, and I almost spit it on his shoes.

I don’t remember ever tasting that much chlorine in a public swimming pool.

 

[Ulu]

My 100 gpd RODI filters:

I added a fourth filter to the front end, which is the leftmost one that says 3M. This only reduces the flow slightly but it saves the more expensive paper filter cartridge in the RO system. The reverse osmosis can is the one laid horizontal on top.

 

[Logan487]

So he told me he literally has a couple hundred dollars invested in his total and the cartridges are rated for X amount of water, so you just do the math for the amt of wc you typically do and replace them early. Which when I did the math equated to having to replace them like every 12 months or something. Which sounds extremely promising. I don't think it's a RODI setup because he mentioned some of the stuff that a RODI will remove you want for freshwater cichlids, etc. I know he said it did have a part in the front that removed TDS, then the next stage like 97% or so removed, chlorine, chloramine, etc, and then a final one. I'm 100% sure his had 3 canisters.

I would guess regular RO then like you can get at Home Depot, although as Ulu pointed out you can get more life out of RODI by adding an additional pre filter. I had completely blitzed the fact I had mine hooked up at one point to a 100 gallon stock tank, does he have some sort of storage system it is pumped into then? If he did this he could easily have something pumping water from RO storage to his output that would give him the output of a faucet so long as the storage doesn't run out. This would be a cheap way to have that same volume on demand and would build up provided you don't have 100 gallons of evaporation per day.

I think my storage tank was right around 200 for it and the PVC tap I threw on it. Honestly though with your stock list I wouldn't stress too heavily on anything as unless you got funky tap water standard dechlorinated should be fine, We've actually been considering converting our old tank into more a disaster prep style storage as we live in an area that seasonal storms can cause outages. Typically with most of my established tanks I just run the garden hose to them and treat the total tank volume with prime.

 

[duanes]

I was looking at your list, and especially for the Central American cichlids, I consider RO to" be just the opposite of a healthy situaition for them.
The cichlids like argentea, melanura, fenestrata, and even the Madagascan, do not come from the mineral poor conditions , liket RO provides, but instead come from osmotically dense, mineral rich, hard, and high pH water.
I live in Panama now and collect cichlids here, and when I do, I test the natural parameters (mostly because Ia am a retired chemist, and anal about these things), and the waters here are just the opposite of the water that comes from an RO unit.
In fact the water they have evolved to live in here, is closer to the waste water that comes from an RO unit
I have kept all the cichlids you mention above, and also tested waters in Mexico where some are found, and they are just the opposite of RO water, with the only exception being nitrate, which usually results as undetectable in the non-polluted river waters here in Central America.
Trying to remove mineral content from water for these fish, is not doing them any favors.