Questions about RO systems

[gwand]

An RO can be a side thing. Mine is under my kitchen sink and has it's own small faucet next to the normal one, where I have normal access to all the minerals I like. You can spend a lot more of course, but an RO system good enough for a few aquariums starts around $200.

Did you install the system yourself?

 

[Magnum Man]

I did on mine, it’s all poly line an push connections

 

[FishyD]

Did you install the system yourself?

Yes and that can be varying degrees of difficulty, but generally not too difficult for most. You can look at the instructions while you are shopping for a unit. Mine was not push connections, but I have some plumbing skills so that didn't bother me. Any handyman should be able to install one if you wish to hire it out. I will emphasize again the water choices are nice. I have well water which is hard but clean. Softened water that keeps the appliances clean. RO water for my fish, and any combination of the above.

 

[FishyD]

I am about to put my 60G back in service after years af sitting there not drained. My well water is about off the charts hard with a TDS usually around 300. I used a mostly well water because that just cycles better for me. The past week + I have walked the TDS down to about 100 and my KH is about 7. Just by doing some large water changes using RO. I actually need to do a more controlled test in a jug so I can see how much RO and well to use so I am not swing parameters all over the place. I highly doubt the fish are going to care if I move the TDS 10 pts with a WC, but it seems prudent to not cause wild swings that are easily avoided.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Many fish live in places which have seasonal changes in water parameters. If there are rainy and dry seasons, then the fish are likely able to handle some big parameter changes fast. I know this from personal experience. Yo do a dry/rainy for plecos takes months building up the dry which is steadily and slowly changing parameters. And then the rainy hits. The parameters change substantially and rapidly.

To trigger reluctant plecos I build up from my tap which is 7.0 pH and about 83 ppm TDS. At the peak of the dry season the water will have the tds at about 175 ppm, the temp. at about 92F and the pH maybe 7.3 or 4. And then the rainy hits. If I can I time the onset of the rainy season to the arrival of a storm whose approach is heralded by a fairly decent drop in the barometric pressure.

On day one I do at least a 50% water change and likely close to 60%. The new water is TDS 83, pG 7.0 and the temperature is in the low 70s. I also turn the heater down to about 78F. Within the next 24-36 hours I repeat this and the tank tempt hits about 74. I then turn the heater to about 80F.

I had a tank where I had a discus pair, about 10 rummy nose tetras and 6 L450 Hypancistrus plecos. One of the heaters got stuck full on and when I found out the temp was 104F in the tank, The disuc were dead and the tetras were balls of mush. But the plecos were hunkered down in their caves. In a mater of 30 minutes I did a massive water change (having removed the corpses) and then I put in new water cold enough to drop the temp back into the low 80s quickly.

The plecos spawned for the first time several weeks later.

Next, when I got interested in keeping Altum angels I took a trip to get a group from a home based seller who imported them. While there in his fish room, I watched the following. He put his portable battery operated digital monitor for PH on a tank and then he added acid to drop the pH. I watched the monitor showing the dropin the pH by 1.1 points in under 5 minutes. The fish never even seemed to notice. Some time later I did the same thing in my tank, but my pH drop was only 1.0.

And these two episodes taught me that there are very few universals in keeping fish. I changed the temp. by almost 15 degrees F in a few minutes in a pleco tank and, it not only did no harm, but it triggered spawning. I have changed the pH rapidly for my Altums and, by more than most consider to be safe, and it was fine. However, it is important to understand that this is fine for some fish but could be deadly for others. And this is why it is so important to know as much as we can about the speices we keep. And we need to know this before we get the fish, not after we do so.

My Hypancistrus from the Big Bend of the Rio Xingu thrive on change. Other fish thrive on stability. It is up to us to know which is which.

 

[FishyD]

Many fish live in places which have seasonal changes in water parameters. If there are rainy and dry seasons, then the fish are likely able to handle some big parameter changes fast. I know this from personal experience. Yo do a dry/rainy for plecos takes months building up the dry which is steadily and slowly changing parameters. And then the rainy hits. The parameters change substantially and rapidly.

To trigger reluctant plecos I build up from my tap which is 7.0 pH and about 83 ppm TDS. At the peak of the dry season the water will have the tds at about 175 ppm, the temp. at about 92F and the pH maybe 7.3 or 4. And then the rainy hits. If I can I time the onset of the rainy season to the arrival of a storm whose approach is heralded by a fairly decent drop in the barometric pressure.

On day one I do at least a 50% water change and likely close to 60%. The new water is TDS 83, pG 7.0 and the temperature is in the low 70s. I also turn the heater down to about 78F. Within the next 24-36 hours I repeat this and the tank tempt hits about 74. I then turn the heater to about 80F.

I had a tank where I had a discus pair, about 10 rummy nose tetras and 6 L450 Hypancistrus plecos. One of the heaters got stuck full on and when I found out the temp was 104F in the tank, The disuc were dead and the tetras were balls of mush. But the plecos were hunkered down in their caves. In a mater of 30 minutes I did a massive water change (having removed the corpses) and then I put in new water cold enough to drop the temp back into the low 80s quickly.

The plecos spawned for the first time several weeks later.

Next, when I got interested in keeping Altum angels I took a trip to get a group from a home based seller who imported them. While there in his fish room, I watched the following. He put his portable battery operated digital monitor for PH on a tank and then he added acid to drop the pH. I watched the monitor showing the dropin the pH by 1.1 points in under 5 minutes. The fish never even seemed to notice. Some time later I did the same thing in my tank, but my pH drop was only 1.0.

And these two episodes taught me that there are very few universals in keeping fish. I changed the temp. by almost 15 degrees F in a few minutes in a pleco tank and, it not only did no harm, but it triggered spawning. I have changed the pH rapidly for my Altums and, by more than most consider to be safe, and it was fine. However, it is important to understand that this is fine for some fish but could be deadly for others. And this is why it is so important to know as much as we can about the speices we keep. And we need to know this before we get the fish, not after we do so.

My Hypancistrus from the Big Bend of the Rio Xingu thrive on change. Other fish thrive on stability. It is up to us to know which is which.

Thanks for sharing an interesting story. I definitely agree there are few absolutes in the hobby, other than maybe at some point there will be some equipment failures along the way. My water is wildly different than some of my suppliers. Even some that are nearby. I will continue to try to make the transitions slowly when possible.

 

[Hilltop_Dave]

My well Water has a persistent nitrate level of around 30 ppm. So far my fish, shrimp, crayfish, and African dwarf frogs seem to farewell despite the nitrate level. We are talking 17 months. However, I would like to eliminate it if possible. I was told a reverse osmosis system would eliminate most of the nitrate. If this is true, how often do you have to change the filter or whatever the material is that extracts the nitrate? What is the approximate annual cost of such a system once it’s been purchased and installed? Does the RO Water need to have minerals added back to it to have hard water? Lastly can I attach a python system to the RO faucet? Thanks for your help.

I have that issue also, we decided on a whole house nitrate filter from US Water Systems because we drink that water too. More that 10ppm in unhealthy, especially for children. https://uswatersystems.com/products...-integration?_pos=2&_psq=nitrate&_ss=e&_v=1.0

 

[gwand]

I have that issue also, we decided on a whole house nitrate filter from US Water Systems because we drink that water too. More that 10ppm in unhealthy, especially for children. https://uswatersystems.com/products...-integration?_pos=2&_psq=nitrate&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Thanks for the info. Did you install it yourself?

 

[Ceez]

An RO can be a side thing. Mine is under my kitchen sink and has it's own small faucet next to the normal one, where I have normal access to all the minerals I like. You can spend a lot more of course, but an RO system good enough for a few aquariums starts around $200.

I got mine for $70 and I linked it in this thread

 

[FishyD]

I got mine for $70 and I linked it in this thread

They have gotten cheaper since I bought mine maybe 6yrs ago. "On paper", the one I bought for about $160 then had notably better specs. In the real world, I learned that output rate is highly dependent on the home's water pressure. My well pump is mediocre so RO production is slow.

 

[Ceez]

They have gotten cheaper since I bought mine maybe 6yrs ago. "On paper", the one I bought for about $160 then had notably better specs. In the real world, I learned that output rate is highly dependent on the home's water pressure. My well pump is mediocre so RO production is slow.

Agreed. I know a few people who are using boosters to get the gallons per day that the specs on their rodi units claim. I have great water pressure so I'm getting quite a bit more than what I'm supposed to get. My TDS ranges from about 1-3. I would guess I'm producing 125-150g a day

 

[Back in the fold]

I have two reverse osmosis units which I installed myself . I am not mechanically inclined or gifted at all so it must be easy . If you have the space to store water you should have an R/O unit . It opens up the ability to have so many more varieties of fish successfully and you really should be drinking this good water too . I’m lucky because my city tap water is chlorinated only and I don’t use dechlorinator . I age my water under heavy aeration before use and I see the difference in the health of my fish .

 

[FishyD]

Agreed. I know a few people who are using boosters to get the gallons per day that the specs on their rodi units claim. I have great water pressure so I'm getting quite a bit more than what I'm supposed to get. My TDS ranges from about 1-3. I would guess I'm producing 125-150g a day

Dang that's a lot of RO in a day. It would take me a over a week to get 150. I have some plumbing skills so maybe I will add a booster this year. Upstairs shower might work better too lol.

 

[FishyD]

I have two reverse osmosis units which I installed myself . I am not mechanically inclined or gifted at all so it must be easy . If you have the space to store water you should have an R/O unit . It opens up the ability to have so many more varieties of fish successfully and you really should be drinking this good water too . I’m lucky because my city tap water is chlorinated only and I don’t use dechlorinator . I age my water under heavy aeration before use and I see the difference in the health of my fish .

100% agree. With some time you can dial in abut anything you want. I could run a rock hard livebearer tank next to a very soft tetra tank. As long as your base water supply has just a little mineralization so you aren't fighting that, you are set with an RO addition.

 

[Ceez]

Dang that's a lot of RO in a day. It would take me a over a week to get 150. I have some plumbing skills so maybe I will add a booster this year. Upstairs shower might work better too lol.

If you ran a booster you could buy a 200g per day unit and you'd be set. I store my water in 5 55g drums. I started out with 3 but it wasn't enough and I had to essentially run my rodi unit everyday. Now I'm looking into 2 400g storage tanks plumbed together with a valve between and autowater. I'm tired of manually changing water every couple days