A Question For Those With Ro Units.

[Shelster]

My hubby purchased an RO unit as we have ridiculously high nitrates in our water >200 most of the time

Anyhow when I purchased from our local MA I used to add 1/3 of a scoop of tropic Marin to buffer and bring my ph up to about 7.

I have noticed I am having to add 4, 5, sometimes 6 scoops to my 25 litre container to get the ph correct.

I have tried adding to warm RO sometimes recently boiled RO to see if this makes a difference, and also leaving it stand overnight to see if this increases it.

I have spoke to my lfs and when a certain person goes in again I'm taking a big 1 litre sample in so they can run some more intricate tests on my RO.

The lady I spoke to said that our machine could be producing much purer water than theirs and that this could be why it requires so much buffering.

Just wondered what your thoughts are in the mean time.

Let me add that although I find it stressful getting the balance right, I have had no fish deaths so it must be ok, just concerns me seeing the cloudy water when I replace the siphoned water with my buffered RO.

 

[techen]

RO water should set your ph to 7.5. It's strange to hear it having anything different. What kind is it. 3 stage? 4 stage?

 

[DrRob]

Some of the buffering salts that are used in RO are calcium based and are a beast to dissolve. They do get there though. Only really worth testing once the cloud has gone, otherwise you'll get false readings.
 
I tend to make up my RO, throw in the chemicals and put the lid on until and leave it for a few days, but then I'm lazy. Ideally I'd put in a heater and a pump to get it to dissolve quickly, but I haven't bothered as yet.
 
As for being more pure, ideally all RO water should be as near as possible to being pure, so the differences should, in theory, be pretty slim.

 

[Shelster]

Ok, husband ordered RO unit and got fitted so therefore I don't know a great deal about what he ordered.

Have been trying to find instructions but they aren't where he said

I do know its the RO and two filters so ?three stage

Techen our water down here is 6-6.5 from the tap, so RO unit wouldn't make it any higher.

Think I will collect in my container, treat by half scoops at a time and then check the following day etc.

Shall get a sample into the lfs either tomorrow or Monday and let you know the outcome.

Thanks for the replies - and when I find out more about the unit I will give better specifics

 

[CezzaXV]

RO water should be completely pure water, with nothing in it whatsoever. However, in shops they can get lazy changing the filters, meaning that they end up with a higher TDS than they really should be. Now you've got your own brand new unit, you're probably getting much purer water than they were previously selling you. One thing I would do is test the TDS of the water you were buying before and the water you're now making, as I expect there's quite a big difference.

Are you sure that your tap nitrates are ~200ppm? The legal limit in the UK is 50ppm, so you'd definitely want to be complaining to your local water board if that's the case.

 

[Livewire88]

To make the remin mix faster fill up one of those protein shakers with your RO water, then add your remin mix and give it a good old shake, let it all settle then repeat till the mix has dissolved. Then pour it in with the rest of your RO water.

Works for me.

 

[DrRob]

Do you ever get the feeling that the RO users in the UK are largely in the South West. I like the protein drink shaker idea. I may have to get one.

 

[Shelster]

Cezza- we have a bore hole as we live on a farm so ill be complaining to the in laws!! However they have bought the RO unit for us as my toddlers have been drinking from the tap and I was whilst pregnant

Protein shaker a good idea! Thanks for that, I'm sure when it fizzes when I add not water is not helping at all

So I took a sample in but there tds hadn't been calibrated for two years so have come home with 250g of JBL stabilopond basic water care. I have already added 1/3rd of a scoop so shall test tomorrow.

I hope it has raised my ph else water changes are going to be rather costly at the rate I'm getting through the tropic Marin!

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Nitrates in farm runoff- no surprise there. Definitely do not let your children drink the tap water.
 
it is extremely difficult to remove nitrates from water. What you are doing is about the best way. I have an ro/di unit, but not because of anything "bad" in my tap but because I need to manage TDS and pH in some tanks. So I am not remineralizing instead I am mixing the ro/di with my tap.
 
If nitrate is the only reason you are using the ro unit, you may be able to to mix in some percent of your tap in order to reduce how much additive you need to use. 15% tap would give you about 7.5 ppm of nitrate which would not be extreme. Depending on how much your tank creates between water changes you may be able yo go a bit higher.
 
Also, have you tried adding more live plants or even using a veggie filter?

 

[Shelster]

Thanks for the reply two tank

Disheartened that I have already added 3 full scoops of this new pond buffer to find my PH is still 6 in 25 litres! *sigh*
I am going to leave it a while to see if the PH changes at all.
There was some sediment present also when we sent off a water sample.
I suppose I could check the nitrate from the tap on day of testing to see how bad it is and dilute accordingly. I do have a few plants so that is on my side. Then I guess add a bit of additive to it and maybe just buy a PH buffer?