RO-DI & ATO

[unbeatablebonz]

I am very new to this hobby. So new that I haven t set up my RSM yet. BY spending much time in these forums, I purchased a tunze skimmer, kor. powerhead and a new heater. Now, I have an RO system for drinking water in my home. My LFS "expert" says that it is will provide a water quality not suitable for a reef set up. He wasn t trying to sell me an RO, But, recommended I purchase one. I was planning on filling a bunch of bottles and always keeping them on hand. Is that ok? Does the local "expert" know what he's talking about?

[Urchinhead]

Yes. He does.

 

I was going to my LFS for water and suddenly had a *MAJOR* diatom outbreak. At first I thought it was caused by over feeding my corals (my bad for not reading the directions) but it persisted so I picked up a TDS meter and low and behold my supposedly RO water came in at a whopping 265 PPM!

 

I have been selling off corals to pay for an RO/DI and am looking at a typhoon unit because of the hardness of my water. On an RSM and depending on your water hardness you could get by with a mighty mite unit. As to ATO I would recommend the JBJ. Take a look at StevieT's RSM thread to see how he has his setup.

 

Lastly, throw out the RSM skimmer and spend the $150 on a Tunze 9002. I loved my RSM but hated the skimmer as do most people here.

[HankB]

I would find out what the water coming out of your RO reads for TDS. There are different membranes and I think they range from 90% rejection and up. Depending on what membrane you are using and what the initial TDS is and how well it is maintained (*) you might only need to add a DI cartridge to your system.

 

The Watergeneral (bought on ebay) that I have is a drinking water system that has a tank which stores RO water. There is a tap for drinking water that goes from the tank through a carbon filter and a tap for DI water that goes through a cartridge with DI resin. I can't see why a tap can't be installed between your tank and charcoal filter (if yours is like mine) to run a DI cartridge for tank water. I like the convenience of the tank because I can tap a gallon of DI water in less than a minute. It would take about 15 minutes on the RO/DI flow alone.

 

Looks like Air, Water and Ice has a kit to add a DI cartridge:

http://www.airwaterice.com/product/ADDVERT..._Adder_Kit.html

 

(*) UH, The dealer's system had to be malfunctioning if their TDS was that high. EPA limits for TDS in drinking water to something around 500 ppm so an RO system should produce something with 50 ppm or less, worst case. Whether you have your own system or buy water, it probably pays to own a TDS meter so system performance can be checked.

 

-hank