Fridge Filtration!

[Shuggie]

Hello,
At the moment I have a 24*18*12 aquarium with external eheim filter. At the moment I have some neon tetras and white cloud's and 4 kribs, ive only had the tank for a 2 months and am waiting for the kribs to pair up and start breeding. However, i know in the future I`ll probably be buying some South American Dwarf Cichlids, ive tried keeping these fish in the past but have had trouble due to kh gh and ph being a little too high in my opinion. I have a large LG manufactured fridge at home which has a water filter and dispenser, does anyone know wether this filtered water would be suitable to use in an aquarium? Ive tried contacting the fridge manufacturer but they dont seem to be very helpful. Just wondering if anyone else has tried this method or not or wether i should just shell out for a R/O unit? Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Kind regards

Shuggie.

 

[simonbrown403]

I think the water that comes through your fridge is filtered through a resin with removes minerals not sure on the percentage, the problem is the more you use it the more you will have to replace the cartridges.

You can buy small r/o units for a little as £80 give or take (that's in the UK where everything is expansive) there easy to plum in, as they come with a self tapping valve, which just clamps in to a pipe near or as close to the main supply, and then cut through it.

I have a similar unit and i supply five discus tanks without a problem, i run a pipe to a shed, i piped up a overflow to a large water storage butt, so i can leave it running all the time.
I also have a heater in the butt to get the water to temp, its been the best thing i ever did, as the waters ready when i need it, for water changes and emergencies.

 

[Shuggie]

Thanks for the reply Simon,
Guess Id be best just buying an R/O unit then. If I was setting one of these up is it not possible to run one without plumbing it in to the main water supply i.e. just add tap water, leave it overnight and hey presto you have filtered water in the morning? Do these R/O units have a power supply or do they just work by gravity? You see the problem is im still staying with my Mother up here in Glasgow and a few months back my 4ft tank sprung a leak and the water started leaking through my ceiling into the living room so as you can guess im still on thin ice with my old dear with regards to my fish keeping so if I start cutting holes into the plumbing I dont think she'd be best pleased. An ideal solution would be for me to setup this R/O unit in my garage would this be possible?

Kind Regards

Shuggie.

 

[simonbrown403]

Thanks for the reply Simon,
Guess Id be best just buying an R/O unit then. If I was setting one of these up is it not possible to run one without plumbing it in to the main water supply i.e. just add tap water, leave it overnight and hey presto you have filtered water in the morning? Do these R/O units have a power supply or do they just work by gravity? You see the problem is im still staying with my Mother up here in Glasgow and a few months back my 4ft tank sprung a leak and the water started leaking through my ceiling into the living room so as you can guess im still on thin ice with my old dear with regards to my fish keeping so if I start cutting holes into the plumbing I dont think she'd be best pleased. An ideal solution would be for me to setup this R/O unit in my garage would this be possible?

Kind Regards

Shuggie.

No they don't need power, the just need main's pressure, over about 1.5bar i think ( the higher the pressure the more water it will kick out and vicer versa)
The fitting that screws onto the self tapping valve it supplied with, is the same size as a standard compression fitting.
All if you don't want to cut a hole into the pipe is a compression "T" and service valve fitting.
Simply turn the water off at the main's and cut the cold as close to the supply as you can get, under the sink will do.
Fit in the "T" use PTFE tape on the treads to seal the joints just to be safe, then a short length of pipe and repeat with the service valve.
The service valve is to =turn the unit on and off without messing with the rest of the water, try and get one with tap instead of the ones with the slotted screw.

mines fixed was fixed under the sink using the valve supplied, the only problem is you have to watch the bucket to make sure hey don't overflow, unless you bodge some sort of float switch.