Ro Unit Advice Needed

[Whitey_144]

HI,

I'm 1 or 2 weeks from ending my cycle, and i've given my lighting to a friend to sort out the wiring, so now its time to think about plants and fish.

For the fish im looking to get Angelfish, cardinals and apistos...basically SA fish. But my PH is around 7.8/8 so i've been looking into getting an RO option as i'm not on a water meter. I've kept all sorts of fish in my tap water, but this time want to get things perfect and hopefully get a breeding pair of angels.

I've found these 2types so far:

http/www.aquaessen...day-p-2438.html

has a pressure gauge
http/www.aquaessen...day-p-4858.html

same as above - but with inline TDS meter - also definately has quick connect plumbing
http/www.aquaessen...day-p-4862.html

I believe there as seperate DI units you can add onto any of these if required?

I've been advised to get one from a well known brand, as i know someone who got a cheap one then when they stopped making them couldnt get replacement membranes etc.

So does anyone have an RO unit they recommend or any advice for me? DD seem to be well known, but the TMC one at least has a pressure gauge. is the TMC one a good make and shouldn't stop producing the spares?

thanks!

 

[always4lora]

I've got quite high ph and my angels that i had at the time started to breeed.
personally i'd stay away from ro unit's , you'd have to add stuff back to the water as it takes everything from the water.

what i would do if you want good water is get a HMA filter. i have mine running 24/7 , it just filters the water but not so much that you need to add anything back to the water.

 

[Whitey_144]

I've got quite high ph and my angels that i had at the time started to breeed.
personally i'd stay away from ro unit's , you'd have to add stuff back to the water as it takes everything from the water.

what i would do if you want good water is get a HMA filter. i have mine running 24/7 , it just filters the water but not so much that you need to add anything back to the water.

what is your PH? is your water hard too?

i was planning to mix the RO water with dechlorinated tap water, once i work out the formula it shouldn' be too tricky adding the right amount of KH back in...i hope.

what is a HMA filter? is it just carbon?

thanks,

 

[always4lora]

not sure on the hardness as i've never botherd checking, generally it is harder up north.

http/www.devotedly-discus.co.uk/acatalog/DD_HMA_80-C.html <- hma filter. saves you messing about with the water which will be an #14### if you are not doing tank matainence (away or something) and you'd have to get someone else to do it.
HMA filterd water you do nothing just put it straight in the tank

 

[Whitey_144]

not sure on the hardness as i've never botherd checking, generally it is harder up north.

http/www.devotedly...D_HMA_80-C.html <- hma filter. saves you messing about with the water which will be an #14### if you are not doing tank matainence (away or something) and you'd have to get someone else to do it.
HMA filterd water you do nothing just put it straight in the tank

thanks, looks like i need to do more research! that link says it filters sediment to 1 micron, whereas the RO is 5micron. But it doesn't soften the water, so i doubt it would bring the KH and PH down to where i want it.

I did see somewhere though, that you can still get HMA water from a RO unit, by letting the water out before the RO membrane filter, by this point it's gone through a sediment filter and carbon filter. so i may be able to get both types of water and see what's best for me, even mix the two. Or at least use the HMA water for my tiny shrimp tank.

cheers,
adam

 

[BigC]

Hi,
I recommend RO-Man
I'm using a 75 gpd 3 stage model with DI pod.
RO-Man are excellent for service and they stock all the parts you'll ever need.
I wouldn't go spiking and saddling the mains pipe though.
better to do as I did
You do not need to mess around with the plumbing as long as you have a washing machine (cold water) mains connection.
You can purchase the following and have an RO unit without spiking and saddling mains pipes.

A "Y" connector to fit onto the cold inlet at your washing machine point.

An adaptor which connects to one of the branches on the "Y" connector the other branch is for the washing machine.

Finally a tap to shut off the mains to the RO unit.


I breed mainly softwater killifish (Rivulus sp.)
I use and have always used permutations of RO with DI and rainwater mixes.
Depending on species I utilise water as soft as 1dkh (TDS 17.9) I then lower my pH with drops of diluted HC1.

You may not need to be as drastic for Pt scalare. but do keep an eye on your water parameters.
Regards
C

 

[craig855s]

When using RO you need to use Tropic Marin remineral tropic powder. It costs pittence, is available from ebay, and if you add x scoops of it per 25L water butt then you'll get your required PH/KH and minerals in the water for the kind of tank you want (Soft, hard)

 

[raptorrex]

[font="arial][size="2"]HI,

I'm 1 or 2 weeks from ending my cycle, and i've given my lighting to a friend to sort out the wiring, so now its time to think about plants and fish.

For the fish im looking to get Angelfish, cardinals and apistos...basically SA fish. But my PH is around 7.8/8 so i've been looking into getting an RO option as i'm not on a water meter. I've kept all sorts of fish in my tap water, but this time want to get things perfect and hopefully get a breeding pair of angels.

I've found these 2types so far:

http/www.aquaessen...day-p-2438.html

has a pressure gauge
http/www.aquaessen...day-p-4858.html

same as above - but with inline TDS meter - also definately has quick connect plumbing
http/www.aquaessen...day-p-4862.html

I believe there as seperate DI units you can add onto any of these if required?

I've been advised to get one from a well known brand, as i know someone who got a cheap one then when they stopped making them couldnt get replacement membranes etc.

So does anyone have an RO unit they recommend or any advice for me? DD seem to be well known, but the TMC one at least has a pressure gauge. is the TMC one a good make and shouldn't stop producing the spares?

thanks![/size][/font]

question would be. why use ro at all? there is no real reason to do so on a tropical tank. you can of course do as you wish, but, there is no "necessity", just a, "wish" to do so.

 

[OldMan47]

Let me expand a bit on Craig's post. All RO water, and I do use it, is devoid of minerals that your fish need. The way that I solve it does not require that I buy anything special. Rather than buy something like RO Right, a US product, I mix some of my tap water back in with my RO water. In the end, all water used needs to have the right mineral content for the particular fish that you have. In my most extreme case, my fish need a mix of 1 part tap water and 3 parts RO water. I also keep some fish that use a 50/50 mix of tap water and RO.
I never worry too much about pH because the evidence is fairly good that fish really are not much affected by pH. What we assume is related to a specific pH turns out to be mainly a result of what we find easy to measure. It is a breeze to measure pH in water so we find that specific fish thrive in certain pH regimes. What our parents and grandparents failed to realize is that the feature of pH that they associated with particular fish were really a secondary effect of what mineral content was reflected by various pH levels in a natural environment. High pH water in the environment is almost always associated with water high in minerals and in GH. Lower pH water in the environment is almost always associated with water low in mineral content and having a low GH.
By simply matching mineral content estimates with the reputed pH preference of fish, I have found that my fish thrive regardless of their natural range of pH. All of my water mixes of RO and tap end up with a pH of around 7.8.
I must conclude that my fish are reflecting a more basic need for a particular mineral content. By doing my best to match their needs, I find that my hard to keep fish are not only surviving but thriving. The main difficulty I have is deciding what mineral content to give my fish. For the "low pH" fish of the Amazon basin, I try to keep the water at about 100 ppm of TDS or a bit less. For hard water fish like African cichlids, I simply avoid them since my native water only reads about 12 degrees of hardness and those fish need much more. For things like mollies that do best with fairly hard water, my tap water at around 325 ppm of TDS works fine. I am sure that other factors are involved in deciding the ideal water chemistry for fish, but mineral content seems to be a far larger factor than pH in my own experiences.