Reverse Osmosis...

[New Boy]

I've always wanted to keep soft water fish and know I would need an RO unit to achieve this as the water where I live is hard and alkaline. My neighbour had an RO unit for 6 months and had a reject/waste water rate of 70% and this always put me off RO....however a colleague at work reckons only between 5 and 10% of the water is wasted by his RO unit.....which is more typical - was either my neighbour or colleague doing something wrong??

Thanks for any advice

 

[Schmill]

I had a colleague at work who was keeping a marine tank and as such he also had an RO unit fitted. The wastage on this was 70%, (thats right, you only get to keep 30% of the water!), but the mnuafacturer of that unit apparently recommended running the 'waste' water through one more time, and that allowed a wastage rate closer to 50%, but in either respect I don't think it is very good

 

[backtotropical]

I'm no expert on RO units, but i'd say with reasonable certainty that an RO system which only wastes 10% of the water is an RO unit which isn't working properly.

RO is very good at purifying water, but unfortunately is really quite bad for waste.

 

[n3ont3tra]

I'm pretty sure it's more like 70% that is 'wasted' but you can always use it on your plants or something.

 

[S6TGP]

if you have got a pets at home near you pop down to there they sell RO water, i get mine from there and it is 10p a litre so cheap as chips lol

 

[angelmouse]

i get alot of waste from mine, not recommended if your on a water meter. i run my waste pipe into a water barrel outside and use it for watering plants in summer so i don't feel i,m wasting all of it.
regards Angel

 

[tenohfive]

What sorts of soft water fish are you talking about?

I keep german blue rams (which are very keen on soft water-pH of 5-6) in a pH of around 8 - I live in Herts as well. They're perfectly happy. Before you go down the RO route think about if its required - because forgive me if I'm being patronising but you know you have to mess about adding certain minerals back to the water once you've got the RO water, right?

I've always been told that a high but steady pH is better than a low, fluctuating one - pH shifts do more harm. Good quality water with a steady pH makes all the difference.