Reverse Osmosis Water

[piper]

What is RO water and when should it be used?

I see it a my LFS and was thinking of starting to use it for my water changes (I have to bucket water up the staris any way). But what sort of tank is it suitable for ?

 

[tenxiong]

It's a water filter that filters out hard metals that are harmful for fish. I don't think you have to worry about it unless your setting up a Marine tank.

 

[breezer40]

Reverse Osmosis is seperates contaminants from water by forcing the water through a membrane. Most often used in Marine set ups but can be used in a tropical set up if you keep certain fish such as discus or when trying to breed some plecos that would only normally breed when the rains come. Unless you intend to specialise in any of these types of fish then I would forget using it for general community.

 

[andywg]

It can also be of use when the tap water is particularly high in nitrates or phosphates. It actually filters out dissolved solids to try and get water as close as possible to 100% pure water by passing the water through fine membranes and carbon style filters. This can be checked through the use of a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Meter.

You can buy the essential minerals that you need to put back into RO water for FW and in doing so you would know you have the best quality water. However it is unnecessary for the vast majority of FW fishkeepers.

 

[Teelie]

You can buy the essential minerals that you need to put back into RO water for FW and in doing so you would know you have the best quality water. However it is unnecessary for the vast majority of FW fishkeepers.

I do this as using only tap water seems to be a curse. It's not that expensive for me luckily but I have been looking for some cheaper method of doing it. The benefit of R/O water is it allows easier conditioning of it. You pretty much know what the parameters will be every time so mixing solutions is a breeze.

 

[chishnfips]

my mate spent a load of money on a RO unit but turned out to be a waste of time and money cause he never used it.....as said above its only for marine and specialized stuff, plus it took 4 days to fill his tank

 

[annka5]

IMO, depends on your water and what you keep. If you have sensitive species, and high nitrate, phosphate, and heavy metals out of your tap, then it would be worth considering.
They do waste loads and loads of water, so they are not very environmentally freindly.
You get them in different sizes for different outputs.

 

[piper]

I was wanting to use it as I can buy it by the gallon at my LFS and the way water restricions are going it could be a good option for my water changes.

So if I did make the swicth to RO water there would be no harm to my gernal comunity (I would make the complete switch over a few months).

BTW thanks for your replies and sorry for my slooooooooooooow reply

 

[Bignose]

If the shop there makes its own RO water, you could be doing more harm via the water restrictions than good. RO water usually takes at least 5 gallons of tap water to make 1 gallon of RO water, sometimes a lot more. If that non-RO water is not recycled or reused, and just goes down the drain, it really is defeating the purpose of the water restrictions in the first place.

 

[piper]

I was more thinking of the restictings on myself, not generally saving water as a whole

 

[@ombomb]

The water out of my tap is complete junk so I use a 50/50 mix, having said that, I've just bought a new RO unit and will be going 100% shortly.

 

[Bignose]

Well, I'm not going to push ethics on anyone, but if the area is under water restrictions, shouldn't saving water as a whole be a pretty good idea?

 

[@ombomb]

The majority of the problem with water shortages in the UK is caused by poor infrastructure which loses more in a day than I will use in several life times. Besides, we use a fair bit of waste water on the garden.

 

[andywg]

Thames Water lost 915,000,000 litres of water per day in the year 2004 to 2005. That's 100 litres per person it serves per day.

This gives some idea to the reasons most people are not too keen on water restrictions, the companies just don't seem to care about the leakages:

http/www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/display...isy_exposed.php

http/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/...26&in_page_id=5

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=144200&hl=

 

[Bignose]

Color me unsurprised. Its still not a great idea to waste water, but sounds like there are probably larger issues than a few shops making their own RO water.