r/o water

[lynxie]

how necessary is it to use r/o water for a reef system? are there viable alternatives to r/o (britta? bottled water? additives to make tap water use-able (like how chlorine remover commonly used to make tap-water safe(r) for freshwater tanks)?

[hng]

Welcome to TRT! You could use ro water or distilled water without any problems. One of the main reasons that hobbyists like to have thier own ro/di filter is because of the convenience and cost. Bottled water gets expensive after a while and it's a pain in the neck to have to transport it from the store to your home. It's also very wasteful if you consider all of the plastic jugs that you'll be throwing away. Over time, having your own filter saves money and lots of time. BTW, using one of the tap water chlorine remover chemicals or a Brita water filter will not be good enough for a reef tank - it doesn't purify the water enough and does not remove phosphate. HTH

[lynxie]

we're moving within the next year or 2, and really don't want to plumb-umplumb the old house (the pipes are ancient and not well laid-out)... and despite the head-ache (and back-ache) of moving tanks, the hubby wants to set up a reef now rather than waiting, lol (and i'm not having much success in changing his mind), so i guess i'll have to buy/tote r/o from the petstore, or buy distilled until then.

[Loverotties]

Ditto! and check your water but I would say buy a RO/DI filter,not just a RO unit.

[jenglish]

bottled water marked "distilled" is actually better than most RO. Many fish stores sell RO cheaper than distilled water though. Aging, treating with chemicals or running through carbon (britta) are not going to remove some of the chemicals very harmful to a reeftank (phosphates, heavy metals and silicates etc)

[Jnicho]

Agreed...and let's clarify...bottled means distilled or RO, not mineral water or anything else...it depends on your local source of water, but only distillation or RO/DI filters will remove most of the nasty stuff you don't want...a "brita" type filter would be a waste of money for making "aquarium water" IMO...is RO an absolute nescessity for a reef tank, no...but IMO it's in the top 5 best things you can do for your tank...almost all municipalites add phosphates to the water to reduce pipe corrosion...this is probably your number one issue with tap water as excess phosphate in your tank = excess algae growth...if I was telling someone how to set up a tank, I would tell them to buy and install an RO/DI before the tank ever had water in it.

[Jnicho]

Originally Posted by lynxie

we're moving within the next year or 2, and really don't want to plumb-umplumb the old house (the pipes are ancient and not well laid-out)... and despite the head-ache (and back-ache) of moving tanks, the hubby wants to set up a reef now rather than waiting, lol (and i'm not having much success in changing his mind), so i guess i'll have to buy/tote r/o from the petstore, or buy distilled until then.

Mine is hooked up to a hose bib in my basement...do you have anywhere you could do that...or maybe even split off a washer hookup?

[jenglish]

Originally Posted by lynxie

we're moving within the next year or 2, and really don't want to plumb-umplumb the old house (the pipes are ancient and not well laid-out)... and despite the head-ache (and back-ache) of moving tanks, the hubby wants to set up a reef now rather than waiting, lol (and i'm not having much success in changing his mind), so i guess i'll have to buy/tote r/o from the petstore, or buy distilled until then.

I have mine attached ot a hookup for the kitchen sink. It sits under the sink. WHen I need it I pull out the hoses and hook it up, when I'm not the hoses go under the sink and I close the cabinet. I help off for a long time thinking I would need to hard plumb it in. It can be relatively simple and a big time and labor savings very quickly

[hng]

I agree with the posts above about the plumbing being very easy to place and remove. I have mine plumbed under a regular sink, it wouldn't take me more than 5 minutes to remove it if I wanted to. Check out this thread (scroll down to middle of page) to see how I have mine plumbed in.

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6...-70226-11.html

[lynxie]

my plumbing is all ooooold tho - there wasn't even a water shut-off to the hot water tank until we had a water-tank prob, so installed one ourself, lol
we'd literally have to cut thru metal piping and saulder in splitter-valves.... too big a headache for a house we plan to move out of in the next 4-24 months, lol, but the new house will DEF get a nice ro/di unit installed as soon as we buy, lol

[Doug1]

Welcome Lynxie, I would agree that a nice RO/DI is truly a worthwhile investment, When you consider what is in either municipal water or well water contamination, that and water is one of the few things in the hobby you really can control. FWIW I unscrewed the cold water faucet in the laundry room, added a tee then reinstalled the faucet, screwed in an 18" section of pipe with a faucet on the end for the RO hook up

[OneDummHikk]

The first RO/DI unit I got was hooked up the way Doug is describing. Disconnect the washing machine cold water, screw on a Y splitter for a water faucet, reconnect the washing machine, get a faucet adapter for the RO/DI unit.

Mount the RO/DI unit on a piece of plywood that can hang on the wall. That way, when you move, you simply remove the Y adapter, take it off the wall, go to the new house, hook it back up.

Wiskey has something similar but I believe its his commode water supply its hooked to. He lives in an apartment. You get a T to go on the supply line, disconnect it, split it and hook it back up.

Old plumbing is no excuse for not have an RO/DI unit