There’s a lot of excess water used when ROing. Get the RO plumbed in so that the excess goes into a water butt for the garden or even for your tank. Don’t get a salt type water softener which is what I nearly did as it adds sodium into the mix.Asda's 17p per 2 litre bottled water seems to be the best option right now,
Funny thing is that we (my wife and I) are at the start of choosing a new kitchen. RO will definitely be brought into the equation.
What I'm wondering though is the use of it in the kitchen. I would prefer to only channel water through the system that needs it, ie for the fish tanks and drinking water. I suppose there's an option to close off filtration when it's not needed for things like the dishwasher.
I was also looking at an addition of one of those Qooker taps but hey - super expensive. Nothing to do with fish-keeping though. Just a mention
Just FWIW the TDS out of my RO unit is typically < 10. Out of the tap its around 400 - also a hard water area. Since I switched to RO I no longer have to de-scale the kettle, coffee machine or iron, and also drink the RO water .I also have a TDS 3 meter. Checking the water in my large tank that is untreated, I get a reading of 501 PPM. 530 PPM straight from the tap as well. The small shrimp and rasbora tank is at 220. I guess the reading is a combination of all particulates such as sodium, bicarbonates etc and way less of the calcium and magnesium. As my normal calcium was at 300ish PPM this speaks for itself.
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Just as a conversation piece, when I went to Asda's checkout the assistant asked why I was buying so much water. When I told her, and mentioned the crazy figures for calcium content in our local tap-water she said that this particular store sells more new kettles than any other in the UK. I empathise with that. I have to vinegar clean mine every couple weeks to remove the build up on the heater element.
The only problem I have in heating the bottles is that I just can;t get a reliable thermometer. All of the ones I have are up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit in difference. They don't even match the temperature setting on the heaters, I checked the tank I'm in the process of setting up for the arrival of the chili rasboras tomorrow morning and it was at 74F which is about right for the heater. However the TDS shows it to be 30C - 86F. That frightened the hell out of me. Given the professional nature of the TDS 3 I suspect that this the more reliable one to use.Just FWIW the TDS out of my RO unit is typically < 10. Out of the tap its around 400 - also a hard water area. Since I switched to RO I no longer have to de-scale the kettle, coffee machine or iron, and also drink the RO water .
I also use the "stand the bottle in a sink of hot water" method for temperature. Its not as critical as some people think as long as it is somewhere close. I just have several cheap digital thermometers to go in the bottles - but my bottles are all 10 or 25 litres.
You need to verify this - but in general if a heater and thermometer show different temps its the heater that is incorrect. Heaters are notorious for this. When I get a new heater I always test it in a bucket with a known good thermometer and adjust the heater to the setting I want rather than what the heater says.I checked the tank I'm in the process of setting up for the arrival of the chili rasboras tomorrow morning and it was at 74F which is about right for the heater. However the TDS shows it to be 30C - 86F. That frightened the hell out of me.