Atm's 5.5 Gallon Tank (reef In Progress)

And here's a plug for marinedepot.com for test kits/hardware/etc

While I'm new, I think Ski's plug is excellent! I've found MarineDepot the best place to start looking for anything.

As far as fridge water is concerned, I believe fridge units are simple carbon filters. R/O units are 4 to 6 (or more) stage units that include an R/O membrane usually as stage 4. This stage produces a significant amount of wastwater while removing solids from your tap water. I managed to save money by buying one on eBay for ~$80, but am not sure that is the best approach as my unit required a new membrane housing immediately. Tests with a TDS meter showed it only brought the water from 140PPM to 45PPM. After replacing the housing, it did get down to 7PPM which is acceptable (to me anyways). More pricier units are supposed to get near 0. Don't know if near 0 is true, but suggest a TDS meter to check that whatever unit you buy works ok.

Thanks Ski, I'v been checking them out, looking into some lighting from them and Bigals.

Thanks for that gigmeyer, I'm researching them a bit, maybe convince my parents to help me buy it and let them drink some water it can clean since my mom says she likes filtered water.

Tonight I'v started cleaning my tank and getting it ready, been busy will update later.

If she likes filtered water, she'll love RO water. Its as pure as you can get. And remind her, RO water makes thousands of gallons of drinking water too... Doesnt have to be replaced like those stinkin brita filters

If you're interested in getting it for drinking too, I think you'll want a unit with a separate holding tank and possibly a carbon stage as the last stage. The tank is pressurized and allows you to pour off water quickly for drinking purposes rather than wait for it to trickle feed. Sounds like a great plan to get mom to buy in if she doesn't get sticker shock Anyone investing in bottled water or even Brita or Pure filters should be able to justify it for absolutely pure water.

I put my unit in the basement and only the tank gets the good stuff. Not as convenient as it could be, but if I go off and forget I was making R/O it limits the possibility of flood damage. If you go through R/O posts, you'd be surprised how common overflows are when filling containers that aren't in a sink or a bath tub.

just wondering, is it healthy to drink the waste?

If you're referring to the waste water from an R/O filter, I suppose if you like the taste of your tap water because of the dissolved solids, you might love the waste water from the filter with roughly twice the amount of dissolved solids. You might get a similar effect by letting a glass of drinking water evaporate to half its volume (though some substances like chlorine dissipate naturally).
Probably a better question for your local board of health.

If you really don't want to waste it, try using it on your garden or house plants

Thanks guys, I'm thinking that if she does like the taste of it that she may not like the cost of it though since it costs a lot to get a unit, though when you say the filters don't have to be replaced, do they not have to ever be replaced? Does it have a different taste than distilled water, because she doesn't like distilled water?

I drained the tank today and got it all cleaned up and moved it, going to put the equipment in later. Will post some pics but I'm not on the computer with the program on it now. My mom said she'l take me to the SW store to get LR on March 10 or so. Will post an update later, been busy with school.

Thanks for the help.

R/O units need to be flushed periodically and eventually the filters do need replacing. As Ski mentioned, you'll get thousands of gallons out of a unit though. Monitoring with a TDS meter can be used to determine when flushing is needed. Flushing is an easy process as it usually involves opening a valve and letting all the water run out the wastewater line for a specific amount of time (15-20 minutes I think). When flushing no longer brings the water quality back or the unit isn't producing water fast enough, it's filter change time. From past reading, this could be years depending on use.

In the interim, you may want to check with your LFS to see if they sell marine or R/O water. I hear that many do. It's probably good to get extra R/O water for topping off the tank to replace water lost to evaporation. My 24g tank loses ~20 oz. water a day as I don't cover it.

Ok I'll have to do a little more research online and talk to them about it, though I know it won't happen any time soon. I went with my dad to Home depot and Wal-mart and I couldn't find any RO water at Wal-mart but they sell distilled water for .64cents a gallon which is probably what I'll use since I don't think the lfs near me sells RO water, the ones that do are far and out of the way so my parents can't take me to them consistently. I'v read distilled water is ok so that's what I'll probably have to get....for now

Ya since our house wasn't designed well, along with all the other ones in our neighborhood were having moisture problems in one of our attics so my dad requires me to have lids on my tanks so I have a glass versa-top on this one so hopefully I won't have to top off that much since I don't know how my parents wiill like me running water in a bucket all week long for fresh water. What I'll probably do is tues. or wed. night get the water running, do a top off on thurs. then leave it running and then do a water change on sat.

While at wal-mart I picked up another thermometer and at Home depot I got a 5 gallon bucket with lid.

Pics to follow soon today, once my brother is off the other computer


Approx. 3 weeks till live rock Maybe 5-6 weeks till fish

Ok, talked to my mom she doesn't want me getting a re-loadable visa card but I might I need to talk to my dad about buying some stuff online such as test kit+submergible heater....so anybody know of a reliable SW test kits and where I can buy it since I don't know what brands are good and not in SW, cheaper the better but not so cheap it isn't good quality and anybody know of a fully submergible 25w heater for 10-15$ online? I'm thinking of this heater and this test kit There both on sale now . Please let me know what you think whether to get different types or if there are just as good cheaper items out there. O and would this be good refractometer ? Will borrow a little money for that if it's ok to buy it all at once.

Thanks a lot

Progress:

Messy tank, stirred up the gravel last night


Cleaner this morning


preparing to drain tank


draining tank


Rooms really messy as you can see, doing this between doing some homework that's why

I'm pretty sure both the heater and test kit are good, someone might wanna back that up though. Nice camera

LOL it takes good pictures when there's light but no zoom so I can't take shots of fish well.

I know the heater is good and I'v used the FW test kit by this brand but I'm not sure if the SW is the same. and the refractometer I don't know if the "portable one" is good enough?

More progress from today, tomorrow I'm putting in the equipment then will be more or less done until I get LR and some more equipment

tank clean (window shouldn't be a problem right?


closeup


bucket to prepare SW and water change bucket next to tank (convient)



So I'v gone to Drs. foster and smith and calculated and it will cost me 80$ for that test kit, refractometer, and heater (including shipping) I'm going to talk to my dad tonight and either try to do a mail order or online order as long as he doesn't object to the cost he may not like that. Any objections to the equipment?

The equipment all looks good to me.

Are you planning on using that gravel or have I missed something?