London nitrates

If you still have the platy it won't last very long in pure RO. The 75/25 suggestion is actually not a bad one although with the platy you may want to think about 2:1, or even 3:2.

RO comes out of the tap at the same temp as tap water - which is way too cold in winter. It would also take too long. My 100GPD unit takes around 6 hours to produce 100l - which is my weekly change in a similar size tank. This weekend I had had to heat my water for the water changes - first time in a while. I store mine in 25l jerry cans for the big tank and 10l jerry cans for the smaller ones. Currently filling the last one (25l) after todays 100l change. Usually I refill immediately after the water change so I am ready for next week. No need to dechlorinate because chlorine kills RO membranes, so whatever system you have will have a dechloriation stage before the RO membrane.

Thank you, really helpful

mhancock said:

Thank you, really helpful

Click to expand...

Very old pic of my low tech solution which I have been using for over 2 years

Tap is like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0058OA27O/?tag= - make sure you get the right size for your container

I like that, presumably by using the plastic container you can let the water settle to room temperature before adding to the tank, much less temp diff than the cold tap.

Yeah. The room I store them in is actually cooler than the rest of the house (and I like the house cooler than most). In winter I line them up in front of a radiator the night before WC. If the water in the containers is more than 2 or 3 C lower than the tank I stand them in a basin of hot water - but I know lots of people just use the kettle to adjust temp.

So I've finally got my own RO system

Yesterday I filled two buckets with RO, then left overnight to adjust to room temp, 20oC.

Today I put the RO water in another bucket, about halfway full, then used the hot tap to top up the bucket and reach 26oC.

So my tank (200l) had a 20% water change today, comprised of 50:50 RO:tap, therefore only 10% chlorinated.

I think this works for me, and over time the tank will slowly (rather than a quick shock) become about 50% RO.

This is the tank with the floating plants doing well.

Two questions:
1) Would it be better to take a load out so that there's plenty of room for new growth (lower nitrates)
2) How careful do I need to be about the filter getting clogged up with all the bits of plant that fall down?




Ps I have trimmed of some of the leaves with brown algae