RO advice

[AlexT]

I have read around over the course of the week and had a look on RO Man website. I've got a 110 L that I am currently running on 80% RO and 20% Tap. At the most, over the next month or so, I might upgrade it to a 180 L.

I'm currently buying my RO from a fish store. It is affordable but it's a 30 minute drive away, and 30 minutes home. To maintain 50% weekly water change, it will cost me approx. £30 per month plus petrol money for a 110 L and about £45 per month plus petrol money for a 180 L.

I've no experience in RO set up and plumbing.

Is it possible to get something small that I can just attach to a tap, rather than mess about under my sink? The Max RO I will probably need is 70 litres per week (not counting emergency or unplanned water changes).

 

[seangee]

No actual plumbing needed: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/ro-di-tap-water-mix.458618/#post-3885626 - description in post #9 on the same thread.
You will also need a power socket if you go for a pumped system (recommended).
FWIW producing the RO is sloooow. Go for the highest throughput system you can afford or justify. Today I am using a 400gpd flow through (tankless) system. YMMV but that takes me 13 minutes to produce 10 litres of water. With the 50gpd systems they are flogging on Amazon that means almost 2 hours for 10 litres!!!
P.S. after the first time you replace your filters I can guarantee you will never drink tap water again

 

[AlexT]

No actual plumbing needed: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/ro-di-tap-water-mix.458618/#post-3885626 - description in post #9 on the same thread.
You will also need a power socket if you go for a pumped system (recommended).
FWIW producing the RO is sloooow. Go for the highest throughput system you can afford or justify. Today I am using a 400gpd flow through (tankless) system. YMMV but that takes me 13 minutes to produce 10 litres of water. With the 50gpd systems they are flogging on Amazon that means almost 2 hours for 10 litres!!!
P.S. after the first time you replace your filters I can guarantee you will never drink tap water again

Brilliant mate. Really appreciate your advice. Thanks for taking the time, this is perfect

 

[Colin_T]

A lot of reverse osmosis (r/o) units can be screwed onto a normal tap or attached with a rubber hose.

Before you get a r/o unit, look at the waste water ratios. All r/o units create a lot of waste water. This is water that has all the minerals in from the original water supply. The pure water comes out one hose and the waste water comes out a second hose. The waste water can go on the garden.

Good r/o units have a 1:1 ratio for waste water. Basically for every 1 gallon of pure water you get, there is 1 gallon of waste water. Cheaper units might have a 2:1, 3:1 or 4:1 ratio. These give you 1 gallon of pure water but 2, 3, 4 or sometimes more, gallons of waste water. You want to reduce the waste water so try to find a unit with a 1:1 ratio.

You should also look for a unit that has easy to get parts and the parts should be easy to swap.

 

[AlexT]

Thank you @Colin_T

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have been making my own RO/DI water for almost a decade. I am in the states so I am cannot tell you where to find stuff in the UK.

Here is what I have because it suits my situation. bear in mind that one can have a variety of modules in an system. Mine is 3 because I have my own well and I have one tank I keep at pH 6.0 and very soft water.

My unit has a carbone, a 75 gal/day RO and a DI module. It make close to pure water. I can be bough in one of two configurations. One is plumbed inline and the other uses a garden hose size connection. It is basically a prtavble unit. I have a utility sing where the faucet has be adapted to be a garden hose size connection. When I am ready to batch water I simple screw ny ubit into the faucet and the output is in a 20 gal. Rubbermaid can and the rejet line is in the sink.

I do not need a pump as the pressure from the tap is sufficient. It helps to use slightly warmer water in terms of making the poutput greater. I am not talking wash your hands or take a shower warm, think more like in the low 70sF (around 22C). I nbatch water and store it. I use about 20 gal. jugs, 3 5 gal buckets w/ lids, a 6 can for water plus a 2.5 gal can. I use the smaller sized stuff because I have two buildings with fish and I batch in one but need the water in the other. I am old and I can carry 2 one cal. cans between the two places. I ave reached an age where carrying 5 gals of water any distance is out of the question.

We actually have tww of the units as my brother uses the same water in his humidifiers. I alsotake my unit with a bag of all the Python adapters when I go rto weekend fish events where I sell the fish I breed. I pretty much mix the RO/DI water 50/50 with hotel water.

I doubt they sell across the pond but here is the site where I got my units. http://www.abundantflowwatersystems.com/ and this is the unit i described above. It is in the portable RO section of the site. http://www.abundantflowwatersystems.com/

DI = deionizing. RO alone will get you down to about 10 ppm TDS, add the DI and you get almost 0- i.e. pure water. There are a fair number of ions in most water.

 

[AlexT]

I have been making my own RO/DI water for almost a decade. I am in the states so I am cannot tell you where to find stuff in the UK.

Here is what I have because it suits my situation. bear in mind that one can have a variety of modules in an system. Mine is 3 because I have my own well and I have one tank I keep at pH 6.0 and very soft water.

My unit has a carbone, a 75 gal/day RO and a DI module. It make close to pure water. I can be bough in one of two configurations. One is plumbed inline and the other uses a garden hose size connection. It is basically a prtavble unit. I have a utility sing where the faucet has be adapted to be a garden hose size connection. When I am ready to batch water I simple screw ny ubit into the faucet and the output is in a 20 gal. Rubbermaid can and the rejet line is in the sink.

I do not need a pump as the pressure from the tap is sufficient. It helps to use slightly warmer water in terms of making the poutput greater. I am not talking wash your hands or take a shower warm, think more like in the low 70sF (around 22C). I nbatch water and store it. I use about 20 gal. jugs, 3 5 gal buckets w/ lids, a 6 can for water plus a 2.5 gal can. I use the smaller sized stuff because I have two buildings with fish and I batch in one but need the water in the other. I am old and I can carry 2 one cal. cans between the two places. I ave reached an age where carrying 5 gals of water any distance is out of the question.

We actually have tww of the units as my brother uses the same water in his humidifiers. I alsotake my unit with a bag of all the Python adapters when I go rto weekend fish events where I sell the fish I breed. I pretty much mix the RO/DI water 50/50 with hotel water.

I doubt they sell across the pond but here is the site where I got my units. http://www.abundantflowwatersystems.com/ and this is the unit i described above. It is in the portable RO section of the site. http://www.abundantflowwatersystems.com/

DI = deionizing. RO alone will get you down to about 10 ppm TDS, add the DI and you get almost 0- i.e. pure water. There are a fair number of ions in most water.

Brilliant, thanks for taking the time

 

[AlexT]

I have a tap in my back garden attached to a hose. Pretty decent water pressure. Can I hook this up to a simple RO machine and just use it in my garden? To remind... the average amount of RO water I will need is about 10 litres per day which is 2.64 US gallons.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I hook my unit to the output of the utility sink I had installed in my fish space. I get enough pressure from that to make all the pure water I need. I normally fill about 27 x 1 gal. jugs, 3 x 5 gal. Home Depot buckets, a 6 gal. water can and a 2.5 gal. gas can only ever used for water. So that adds up to about 50 gals. I use about 12 gal. a weeks so, I batch water about once a month.

As long as you have a unit that has a gareden hose connection for the input, you can hook up to any standard outdoor faucet. You can also put that sort of connection on almost any indoor faucet as well. If one needs to get maximum output from a unit in terms of making the water as fast as possible or one has large scale needs, then a pump would be a good idea. But for what you need there is no point.

I could make about 40-50 gals a day with my system if I needed that much. My biggest risk is that if I forget I am batcing water, it will overflow the 20 gal. Rubbermaid garbage can used to collect to RO/DI water. I have a small pump connected to a piece of clear hose I use to fill the various storage containers from the big can.

 

[AlexT]

I hook my unit to the output of the utility sink I had installed in my fish space. I get enough pressure from that to make all the pure water I need. I normally fill about 27 x 1 gal. jugs, 3 x 5 gal. Home Depot buckets, a 6 gal. water can and a 2.5 gal. gas can only ever used for water. So that adds up to about 50 gals. I use about 12 gal. a weeks so, I batch water about once a month.

As long as you have a unit that has a gareden hose connection for the input, you can hook up to any standard outdoor faucet. You can also put that sort of connection on almost any indoor faucet as well. If one needs to get maximum output from a unit in terms of making the water as fast as possible or one has large scale needs, then a pump would be a good idea. But for what you need there is no point.

I could make about 40-50 gals a day with my system if I needed that much. My biggest risk is that if I forget I am batcing water, it will overflow the 20 gal. Rubbermaid garbage can used to collect to RO/DI water. I have a small pump connected to a piece of clear hose I use to fill the various storage containers from the big can.

Thanks mate, appreciate all your input into my threads