StillSmart

RO Water

2010-04-19T09:21:10+00:00

Hi Phantom,

I got mine last year & think I payed around the $330.00 AUD mark. Things have shot up in price though & they are now on $400.00 AUD I believe. I got mine from a company here in Australia called PSI Water Filters. They were definately the best price & quality in OZ. A normal RO will still leave you with a tiny amount of TDS measureable solids & to obtain a zero TDS reading, you must opt for a DI cartridge, ( De-ionizer )

Check with your supplier though.

I found using the simple tap timer works great as you can hook it up, set your time & go away & it will shut off for you. Works really well. I am going to definately use mine for the wash & cutting the spirits as well.
Brian

Statistics: Posted by Crusty — Mon Apr 19, 2010 9:21 am

RO Water

2010-04-18T18:54:34+00:00

Nice bit of kit there Brian, how much did it set you back, if that's not being too nosey ?
I'm just still trying to get the pennies together for a smaller less than 100gpd filter, so it makes just enough for making wash, letting the spirit down and also for the meads that I make.....
I\'ll probably get something from Ro-Man as they have a 50gpd small version.......

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:54 pm

RO Water

2010-04-16T09:06:50+00:00

Hi guys,

I use a 100gpd RO / DI filter for my salt water coral aquarium where no traceable compounds should be found. I have mine hooked up to my outside tap & use a simple tap timer when I want to collect the RO water. Never leave these hooked up to mains tap pressure as they will continually drip. They are meant to be a manual system used only when you require the RO water. I have an inbuilt TDS meter & my tap water measures around 55-60ppm solids into the filter & absolute 0ppm at the collection point. I will be looking at using this for my T500 when it arrives in a couple of weeks.
Here\'s mine,

Brian

Statistics: Posted by Crusty — Fri Apr 16, 2010 9:06 am

RO Water

2009-05-02T23:42:22+00:00

Tropic Marin\'s Minerals are specificaly for re-mineralising RO water not tap water.

Which is exactly what I use it for.......
but only every now and again......
I\'m probably using it for 1 water change (25%) in 4 at the moment, but I\'m getting more algae build up as well, hence my thinking about getting an RO filter.
That way, it will stabilise the water more, than the phosphate fluctuations that seems to occur - and the knock on of the sometimes baffling variations of the tanks water chemistry that I experience from time to time...

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sat May 02, 2009 11:42 pm

RO Water

2009-05-02T20:13:35+00:00

Tropic Marin\'s Minerals are specificaly for re-mineralising RO water not tap water.
Opus 27

Statistics: Posted by Opus 27 — Sat May 02, 2009 8:13 pm

RO Water

2009-05-02T18:38:28+00:00

From my experiance, the idea V\'s the practicality is a major issue. I have never stored RO water for consumption for any length of time, so I don\'t know what the helth risks are. Who knows what might enter the water if it\'s left long enough. I use food grade tubs with snap fit tops to store my sea water, not sure I would store drinking water in them tho, pop bottles is what I use for that, as I use ro in my SodaStream.
When I asked about ro for fresh water trops, the Aquatic centre said unless your going to match the exact water conditions for the fish it\'s a bad idea, as all the buffering compounds are missing, that will give rise to acidic water. They also said that the majority of buffering agents and additives are formulated with tap water in mind, that said so are some of the synthetic salts for marine, only a few are formulated for RO.
I have done and used both and can report that my FW trops survied ok, and whilst the sea water was lacking a little it was still ok. So if you can stand the long filter times you should be good to go.

I won\'t be storing it for any length of time, just for a day or two i.e. fire the filter up over night and then use the RO within a day or so.
I appreciate that it will take too long for an "on demand" thing, but so I can basically use it like that, or close too.
As for the fish, it would be used with the appropriate minerals, but as every other water change - so it would minimise the amount of phosphates etc that seem to appear at this time of year.
Plus it also means that I can use it for wash and other wine/mead batches. I keep an eye on the pH levels of the wine/mead batches anyway, because, particularly meads, they can show funny pH results because of the gluconic acid levels fluctuating during the ferment, so it will probably ferment fine without any acid additions up front and I can just add a bit for taste after the ferment has finished.....
Or at least that\'s the basic plan......

Sorry if I have waffled on but I am posting on an iPhone and it\'s not easy to see or edit what you have typed.

Yup! know where you\'re comin\' from there, I have a G1/"googlephone" and that can also be a bit of a PITA when inputting longer sections of text...

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sat May 02, 2009 6:38 pm

RO Water

2009-05-01T11:28:38+00:00

From my experiance, the idea V\'s the practicality is a major issue. I have never stored RO water for consumption for any length of time, so I don\'t know what the helth risks are. Who knows what might enter the water if it\'s left long enough. I use food grade tubs with snap fit tops to store my sea water, not sure I would store drinking water in them tho, pop bottles is what I use for that, as I use ro in my SodaStream.
When I asked about ro for fresh water trops, the Aquatic centre said unless your going to match the exact water conditions for the fish it\'s a bad idea, as all the buffering compounds are missing, that will give rise to acidic water. They also said that the majority of buffering agents and additives are formulated with tap water in mind, that said so are some of the synthetic salts for marine, only a few are formulated for RO.
I have done and used both and can report that my FW trops survied ok, and whilst the sea water was lacking a little it was still ok. So if you can stand the long filter times you should be good to go.
Sorry if I have waffeled on but I am posting on an iPhone and it\'s not easy to see or edit what you have typed.

Statistics: Posted by umpa — Fri May 01, 2009 11:28 am

RO Water

2009-04-30T02:02:03+00:00

My gut feeling is after the first few batches you won\'t bother with it, the output from that will be mega slow. The link I gave shows a small picture and says non available. Mine has a pump and I upgraded it to 100gpd and it produces a dribble rather than a drip.
Thank god for the on demand tap.
Let us know how you get on with it.

It\'s not so much a case of getting the device etc, it\'s getting the nelsons to buy the bugger in the first place.
As and when I lay my hands on one, I\'ll definitely report back though as I suspect that this might be a bit in depth for some of us, but for me, it would be a benefit to the fish as well as my batches of wash....

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Thu Apr 30, 2009 2:02 am

RO Water

2009-04-29T11:09:30+00:00

My gut feeling is after the first few batches you won\'t bother with it, the output from that will be mega slow. The link I gave shows a small picture and says non available. Mine has a pump and I upgraded it to 100gpd and it produces a dribble rather than a drip.
Thank god for the on demand tap.
Let us know how you get on with it.

Statistics: Posted by umpa — Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:09 am

RO Water

2009-04-28T01:09:14+00:00

http://www.ro-man.com/shop/product_info.php/cPath/22_95/products_id/35?osCsid=623227288b90568ce75a4051e0b9e3c6 is the link for the filter that I was thinking of using (that link you posted - I couldn\'t get too work).
Should do the trick as far as I can tell !

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Tue Apr 28, 2009 1:09 am

RO Water

2009-04-27T20:55:54+00:00

I recomend one of these :-
http://www.ro-man.com/shop/index.php/cP ... 51e0b9e3c6
You should consider that all measurements are in US Gallons, and if you forget the machine is on it will make a mess.
They are out of stock - but they are getting some more in soon.

Statistics: Posted by umpa — Mon Apr 27, 2009 8:55 pm

RO Water

2009-04-27T02:30:24+00:00

I have a portable TDS machine; water from a RO machine without DI Resin will always have a TDS reading of some sort.
Look at it this way - your tap water has a TDS of say 250 and the RO machine is working at 98% efficiency thatâ€™s RO water with a TDS of around 5.
I use it to make sure my fish water is ok, I get around 1 TDS - good for beer too
Remember Phantom - RO machines only dribble water out - drip drip drip, dont expect it like your kitchen tap.

Yeah, I figured that much, it was just some of the other acronyms etc that I just wasn\'t famililar with.
It\'s just a case that at 35 GPD, I\'d have to switch it on when I get up and it should have made at least 5 gallons by the time the fish are due for a change.....
Or I can just make 10 or 15 gallons over the weekend to make a couple of batches of wash. Either way, I can just keep 5 or 10 gallons made up as it\'ll get used one way or another.
Hell if I had the room (and money), I\'d run an "off the mains" system by filling a 500ltrchem dumpy full of mains water, and pump it to the filter and pump the waste back into the dumpy.
The only snag with that, would be that I\'d have to keep very much on the ball with TDS measurements, just to retain confidence in the performance of the filter.
Irrespective, the tap water here is very hard, high calcium, so anything I can do to reduce that and any other dissolved solids should have a beneficial effect.....
For instance, my small tank is getting limited algal blooms at the moment, that\'s with a 50% water change weekly (sometimes fortnightly). It\'s a recent thing, but it does seem to co-incide with the increase in farming activity i.e. spinning out the fertiliser etc. Of course, it\'s fine for drinking, but it does seem to create problems at certain times of the year.
In fact, if I get time tomorrow, I think I\'ll do a full set of tests (everything except iron and copper as there\'s little to no signs of that in this area).......

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:30 am

RO Water

2009-04-26T23:36:43+00:00

I have a portable TDS machine; water from a RO machine without DI Resin will always have a TDS reading of some sort.
Look at it this way - your tap water has a TDS of say 250 and the RO machine is working at 98% efficiency thatâ€™s RO water with a TDS of around 5.
I use it to make sure my fish water is ok, I get around 1 TDS - good for beer too
Remember Phantom - RO machines only dribble water out - drip drip drip, dont expect it like your kitchen tap.

Statistics: Posted by umpa — Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:36 pm

RO Water

2009-04-26T21:17:51+00:00

Ok, right, found that....
TDS = total dissolved solids
I\'m guessing that I\'d need a test meter so as to monitor the efficiency of the RO filter and make sure it\'s doing it\'s job.
Right, now I\'m off to look up those cheap 35 GPD filters to see what the site says about them.....

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:17 pm

RO Water

2009-04-26T21:11:15+00:00

Not sure what a "TDS meter" is though, I\'ll have to google for that......

Ok so I\'ve found plenty of TDS meters, but as yet I haven\'t found out what they actually test for....
Only that they\'re usually (well the cheaper models) factory calibrated with 342ppm NaCl (sodium chloride/salt if my memory serves me correctly)......

Statistics: Posted by Phantom — Sun Apr 26, 2009 9:11 pm