Ro Water Straight Into The Tank?

[always4lora]

I was wondering if it's possible to run RO water straight into a tank? it's going to be a 180g tank using a 40-50gpd ro unit , i was going to use RO water running constantly into the tank and just empty a bit of the water a day to stop any overflow then when it comes to water changes mix tap with ro water to add back in any goodness the RO unit takes out. Any idea if this would work? The heaters should really be able to keep on top of the cold water going into the tank.

 

[bricko]

Hi,

Is this salt or fresh water tank? I have used RO mixed with tap water to lower my ph in the past for certain fresh water fish. I think that running RO direct in the tank would make remineralising your water and having stable stats would be difficult but I am not an expert.

Why would you want to run RO constantly into your tank? How would you prevent potential overflow of the tank, would you use some sort of weir and sump?

 

[always4lora]

It's for fresh water, will be having rays in there and they require lower PH out of the tap it's quite high so was going to lower the ph with RO water. I've also been reading that they dont appeciate large water changes and lots of little changes will be sufficient. The water will always be below the fill line due to the Polypterus's and eel so as for it over flowing it's not really an issue.

 

[bricko]

It's for fresh water, will be having rays in there and they require lower PH out of the tap it's quite high so was going to lower the ph with RO water. I've also been reading that they dont appeciate large water changes and lots of little changes will be sufficient. The water will always be below the fill line due to the Polypterus's and eel so as for it over flowing it's not really an issue.

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Ah is see, I guess as long as you are adding the correct minerals back into the water column then it wouldn't hurt, I would still feel better adjusting the water in a seperate container first though before performing a water change. I have never kept rays though so don't know how fussy they are with big water changes.

How about doing a daily waterchange instead of running RO direct into tank 24 /7? To me this would seem to be the safest way and avoid sudden swings in water stats which is probably what rays hate most of all.

I know it is more hassle than a constant flow into the tank but at least you know the exact stats of the water you are adding back into your tank

 

[blake323]

You could add a sump to the aquarium and install a float valve/auto top-off unit. Or, is that what your talking about doing? I personally wouldn't trust an RO unit to flow freely into an aquarium; their output can fluctuate significantly depending on the temperature and pressure of the water. Also, adding a sump would increase the stability of your tanks parameters with the extra water volume.