Purer Water

[juggernuts]

Hi guys been browsing about and seen a few things on R/O units and was thinking...... The filter things you get for the brita water jugs, that you can supposedly filter water through and leave in your fridge, Would i be right in beleiving that these may give you a better quality of water for your water changes? obviously you need the facilities to use them but is my presumption correct?


I mean these things btw

Im going to be doing several water tests on the one i have in the fridge tommorow see what it comes out like!

 

[K_Hedin]

Don't know if the Brita filters take out chlorine or chloramines but it will remove other particles in the water. However I have one and it takes forever to process the water through it. It would take forever and a day to run all of my water through it when I do a 25% change on my 55g. Let alone you are going to be running so much water through it that you are going to burn through the filters on it in a hurry. RO systems aren't that expensive and can process water a lot faster and the filters need to be cleaned less often. i would recommend going with one if it really interests you. Personally I will stick with the tap and a chlorine/chloramine remover.

Will be interested to see your results though.

 

[K_Hedin]

Huh...just checked the Brita site and their filters do remove chlorine. Still think it would be a long process if you have a large tank. If you have large buckets that you can fill then I would suggest filling them and letting them sit for a few days. Chlorine will evaporate out of the water. I would say boil the water but that could get expensive.

 

[BigC]

Not to mention the cost of spent filter cartridges.
Let us know your findings in any case
Regards
C

 

[Essjay]

The website also says not to use it for aquariums "without consulting a specialist"

I've only just filled my Brita jug for today (I empty and refill every morning) so I've tested the filtered water and freshly drawn tapwater, using API liquid testers.

Tapwater:
pH 7.2
GH 9
KH 4

Brita water:
pH 6.0 - or lower, this is the lowest the tester reads
GH 6
KH 0 - it never went blue at the first drop

I wouldn't use Brita water with these results!



The cartridge
"reduces the concentration of calcium and magnesium with cation ion exchange resins, but these substances are not completely removed as in .... reverse osmosis or distillation processes" [from their website, FAQ section]

And
"The BRITA water filter cartridge is filled with cation exchangers. These replace positively charged ions such as calcium, magnesium, lead, copper with positively charged hydrogen ions" [again from their website]


So the ion exchange resin in the cartridge reduces GH and KH by removing some of the minerals that make water hard, but it replaces them with hydrogen ions which lower the pH.

 

[Mikaila31]

It appears to be filtering the chlorine/chloramines out as well as softening the water. Given the test results above this will leave you with very soft water with small buffering ability. Your tank can suffer pH changes much greater then if you used the regular tap water. If you are running planted its a double negative since reducing hardness means pulling minerals from the water. Minerals your plants would much rather prefer.

 

[§tudz]

Its an interesting idea, but as opther have said I wouldnt advise it.
My nan uses them as she has a poor immune system after a major operation a few years back and the filter removes EVERYTHING from the water, and anything too pure is bad for you you cant breathe pure Oxygen. Ok that not a good comparision.
But I would imagine there will be a lot of cash spent of filters as I dont think the brita filters last that long, and filling your long tanks from a jug like that would take days

If your looking for something to clean the water, I would suggest large water vats which filter the water through activated carbon and also a declorinator? but thats a lot of space, when Tetra Pond and Tap save do the job cheap enough.

I use pond safe as the bottles are the same price as tap safe, but the contents is just highly concentrated, so just make sure you measure it. having said that after a while measuring it, I do the cook thing instead of measuring and use guestimates. not had any issue so far doing it
Also beats storing water every where wating for the cholrine to evaporate, and then your still not sure if its gone or not

 

[OldMan47]

An interesting insight that they are using cation resin. When you remove metals from salts and replace the metal ions with hydrogen atoms, you end up with acids instead of salts.
Using some examples we will all recognize you take your calcium carbonate and make carbonic acid for instance or take your sodium chloride and make hydrochloric acid. I will not be using a simple cation resin in any part of my water system. If it used a mixed cation and anion bed to remove minerals, the the DI in an RO/DI does, at least it would not be producing acids in any quantity.