No more tap water for me

[Jstadler]

Thats right I finally bit the bullet and got myself and RO unit. Brand spanking new BRS 5 stage unit, this thing is great. Hopefully this will help me in my small battle with Cyano and Algae outbreaks. The tank officially gets better water than my family now.

[AZDesertRat]

RO/DI is the best thing you can do for your reef!
Water is the single largest ingredient in a reef system by far so provide only the best.
Its cheap insurance.

[cbau45]

Sometimes it's easier to thinking of the reefkeeping / aquarium hobby as one in which we keep water. The better you are keeping your water stable the better your inhabitants do within the aquarium. Just a different way of looking at it I guess.

[CableGuy]

What is the first filter? With the blue lines? I have a 5 stage but it is with a deionizing filter and not the "prefilter" or what ever you have on yours.

[AZDesertRat]

Left to right his is sediment of prefilter, carbon block, useless second carbon block, RO membrane on top then DI filter on the right.

Two carbons are not needed if you use a good prefilter and 0.5 or 0.6 micron carbon block. you could easily eliminate the second unneeded carbon or better yet replumb it into a second DI chamber for the most bang for your buck.

Forget the word "stages" even exist and concentrate on what the stages contain and not how many of them there are. A good reef quality system consists or 4 "stages". A 1 micron or less prefilter and absolute rated is better than nominal rated with 0.5 microns being preferred, a single 0.6 micron 20,000 gallon carbon block, a 75 GPD Dow or 100 GPD GE RO membrane and a vertical 20 oz refillable DI. Thats all you need unless you have special conditions where maybe a dual DI might be warranted such as chloramines or CO2.

[Jstadler]

Originally Posted by CableGuy

What is the first filter? With the blue lines? I have a 5 stage but it is with a deionizing filter and not the "prefilter" or what ever you have on yours.

The first is a sediment filter second and third are carbon blocks, the membrane and Di. It dosen't have blue lines in real life those are just the raised spots for the canister wrench to grab.

[Paulo]

Originally Posted by Jstadler

The tank officially gets better water than my family now.

If you get a storage bladder tank and tee off before DI, you can get your family some ro water. It does taste pretty good. And cheaper than buying bottled water. Plus with a bladder tank you can get a gallon or 2 of water quickly. Go thru RO then t into bladder tank. then tee off drinking water then go thru DI. DI water taste yucky because DT removes the "junk" that gives water it's taste.

[Jstadler]

Originally Posted by Paulo

If you get a storage bladder tank and tee off before DI, you can get your family some ro water. It does taste pretty good. And cheaper than buying bottled water. Plus with a bladder tank you can get a gallon or 2 of water quickly. Go thru RO then t into bladder tank. then tee off drinking water then go thru DI. DI water taste yucky because DT removes the "junk" that gives water it's taste.

Yea I know, they prefer their "natural spring water" better anyway. Good for them, more for the fishes.

[Heidi]

Originally Posted by Jstadler

Thats right I finally bit the bullet and got myself and RO unit. Brand spanking new BRS 5 stage unit, this thing is great. Hopefully this will help me in my small battle with Cyano and Algae outbreaks. The tank officially gets better water than my family now.

Haha yeah and really test the tds on your tap water, its sad sometimes we give our fish better water then our kids, but the kids are less sinsitive to it Or at least thats what I tell myself!

[AZDesertRat]

DO NOT feed your DI with pressurized RO water from a bladder tank or drinking water system. Pressure or bladder tanks suffer from TDS creep and will exhaust DI resin quickly. You should always install a check valve so the DI is fed directly from the RO membrane, yes its slower but it is much more pure since it does not suffer the effects of TDS creep.