Ro Units

[mattlee]

just been looking ay ro units on ebay and i can buy one for about £60 ish for a 80 gallon per day. with one of these units does it mean i dont need to use dechlorinator in the water? if so surely its cheaper in the long run to set one up....
what i dont see is a pump or someway of getting the water through the unit! do i need to buy one seperatly?
also i will need to use storage butts of somekind, do i need 3? 1 for ro water, 1 for tap water and 1 for waste water?
also what size unit would i need? i have several tanks at the minute the biggest being 240 litres, 1 x 100 litres, 2 x 40 litres, 1 x 180 litres.

 

[rabbut]

RO does not need tap water conditioner added to it, but if you are using it for FW fish, you need to add a mineral re-topic or tap water. RO is 99.9% pure water and hence is too pure for FW fish to live in when used neat... The minerals are more expensive than water conditioner and more are used at a time, so it actually works out more expensive than using tap water. If you mix it with tap water, you'll still need to condition the water...

If you use RO, you need test kits for GH, KH and pH, and you also need to understand the link between each and how they affect each other. If you use RO neat, or without that knowledge or testing, it's only time before you kill your fish

RO units plumb directly to your house's mains water supply, and produce water using it's water pressure. You need a container to collect the use water, and if you are "re-cycling" the waste, you'll need to collect that too. RO units waste 4-8 liters of water for every liter of use water they produce and hence are very wasteful.

Unless you are breeding, or keeping certain wild caught fish, you don't need to use RO. RO is expensive and troublesome to use for FW fish if you are using it safely. In short, if you don't need to use RO for your fish, you'd be better off not using it, as it creates more cost and trouble than you'd expect.

Are these £60 units new or used? Used units are only worth £20 maximum after all costs, unless they include a full set of (still in packaging) filters, a TDS meter and two (or more if they have multiple membranes) pressure gauges, one on the feed into the unit, and one on the feed into each membrane. Ball valves on the feed, use and waste pipes are also useful.

All the best
Rabbut

 

[mattlee]

i think ill stick with dechlor...........! sounds way too complex and stressfull for me
thanks rabbut