StillSmart

Forgive my ignorance on this, but do you think you would get the same effect using distilled water in the wash?

Yes my system has a resin cartridge as well plus the usual 5 micron pre-filters. I store in a 100 litre tank and use it in the kitchen as well. Out of curiosity we put some on a Refractometer today and the reading was 0 Brix. Our tap water read 4 Brix.

I use water filtered through a basic filter that is in a small 5 litre water chiller (scaled down version of office style drinking water cooler) I have for my beer, wine and \'vodka\'. Question.. Is RO noticeably different? I mean better than my method? If it really is I might think about splashing out on a system.. I have no fish so it would only be for booze and drinking.. All comments welcome please

RO water is pure H2o, it contains no minerals, salts nor any other compounds. It is odourless and tasteless here lies the problem.
There is a debate about its safety for drinking. It is well known that RO water acts like a sponge drawing contaminates toward it, these contaminants can be the minerals in your body, thus depriving you of them.
In some countries you have to re-mineralise RO water before it can be used for drinking. In our fish tanks (marine) we use it to make sure we aren’t introducing contaminants into our fish tanks.
Its well known that yeasts need nutrients to ferment well, and that water usually has a taste, that’s why some breweries are famous for their products.
I use RO because the water where I live is crap and is supplied to us via lead pipes (I know LEAD), and I can add the minerals I need, and using a turbo contains everything in a pack and ferments perfect.
I have a RO domestic water filter system that is just a pump RO machine with a tank and tap assembly, and in the two years I have had it have not had any health issues. I like the fact that it filters out all the heavy metals nitrates and pesticides out. My own feeling is that if your worried about it taking minerals out of you - take a vitamin tablet - lol

Hum? well I\'ve also heard about a \"possible\" health issue - but that was about the drinking of distilled water.
Now logic dictates that if you relied purely on water (no pun intended) for the trace minerals that water in some areas can provide then there possibly could be an issue, but that\'s never likely to be the case is it!
The whole idea of using for fish, as umpa points out, is that he\'s keeping marine fish in an artificial environment, and that the whole ideas is as has already been pointed out.
Now the basic technique that we mostly use here is to making of \"clean, tasteless, neutral spirit\" (not forgetting that some do other things etc). The general method is that the yeast, is provided with it\'s \"essential\" minerals/nutrients - so you wouldn\'t want to have anything else that might affect the taste/smell of the wash. Certainly not chlorine or chloramine that are ever present in tap water (in the UK at any rate), however tiny the quantity. Yes, I fully appreciate that it\'s in small enough quantities to be safe to drink, but my fish (freshwater tropicals and fancy goldfish) don\'t like it. I usually use treated tap water for one change and RO water that I add the \"minerals\" to for the next, and then start again.
As for RO water being a sponge for contaminants, well I don\'t know about that, but I\'d suspect that if you took some distillate and washed your hands in it (when they\'re already clean) then after a while there\'d be a noticeable taint/colour/contamination of it. It would seem that that might also be the case for RO water.
Hence if you\'re using it (RO) for making sugar/turbo wash, then the yeast should have all the stuff it needs, but when it\'s being run, your less likely to have anything else in the distillate other than the % alcohol and water.
Here, I tend to have to be careful during the summer particularly, when I use tap water (treated) I still get extra algal growth in my tanks. This, it seems (and yes I\'ve tested for it), is to do with higher than normal levels of phosphate in the water. Which in turn, is connected with the levels of fertiliser used locally in agri business, which ends up as surface run off and subsequently in the water system. Again, it\'s not enough to be hazardous, but it\'s still an issue.
So I\'m sure you can see why, I for one, think that the spend of the money on a cheap RO system, would, if you can stretch to it, seem like a good move.....
Just my 2 pence worth (again ;-D)

Phantom, That\'s a pretty good summary on the use of RO water. on the issue of essential minerals for us humans I spoke to the manufacturers when I first bought my system to determine its suitability for human consumption. Their response was, \"The system was originaly introduced in the USA for domestic use for cooking and beverages. Providing you eat a healthy diet you will obtain all the minerals required\".
Opus 27

Ha ha! it just so happens, that my partner noticed that one of our fancy goldfish is showing signs of \"swim bladder\" problems.........
Which gives me the excuse I\'ve been looking for to get one of the small RO filters (greater control over water quality etc)...
Apart from the filter, what\'m I gonna need to get, kit/supplies wise

Depending on what your initial filter consists of. A normal kit will include a Pre filter, a carbon block and a cartridge for de-ionising resin.

You will need a vessel for collection and a TDS meter.

I assume you already use a RE-Mineralising product for your fish. I use several depending on habitat I,m trying to replicate. A good general one is TROPIC MARIN (Re-mineral Tropic.)

I use one for Lake Malawi I wonder if there\'s an African Spirit to that could be copied with lake water?
Opus 27

Depending on what your initial filter consists of. A normal kit will include a Pre filter, a carbon block and a cartridge for de-ionising resin.

You will need a vessel for collection and a TDS meter.

I assume you already use a RE-Mineralising product for your fish. I use several depending on habitat I,m trying to replicate. A good general one is TROPIC MARIN (Re-mineral Tropic.)

I use one for Lake Malawi I wonder if there\'s an African Spirit to that could be copied with lake water?

Yes, it\'s the Tropic Marin (Re-Mineral Tropic) ones I\'ve already got.
I\'ve got a couple of PET 25 litre can\'s for collecting which will be more than enough for the fish - I\'ll have to run it over the weekend to get enough for making wash though...
Not sure what a "TDS meter" is though, I\'ll have to google for that......
As for "African Spirit"?????? I understood, that distillation never got that far south - well traditionally speaking. Of the traditional alcoholic drinks, they were all various types of ferment......... though that\'s not to say that they don\'t have some local copies or clones of something that\'s been brewed and distilled elsewhere..... I\'d think that you\'d have to do some serious tourist type research about Malawi for that kind of info...

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)......

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.....

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 that’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.

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 that’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).......

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.

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 !