RO Unit

[Broken]

Well I am still looking to buy a RO Unit. The one I was looking at is no longer made. Has anyone seen the ones on ebay that do like 85 to 110gpd and they are like 100 bucks or less. Any thoughts on these unit. All I know is I am tired spending 15 bucks every other week at my lfs on water.

[Momotaro]

I am not sure about those units Broken. Not sure about the membranes they use.

How much RO do you need?

What are your water parameters without RO?

Mike

[Rex Grigg]

85-100 gpd is a LOT of RO water. Figure with a 50 gpd unit you will be running around 200-400 gallons of water down the drain to get the 50 gallons of RO water.

[Broken]

I have 2 tanks 45 gal and 75 gal, that I am doing changes in every 2 weeks. I have tried to use my tap water, but that turned into a nightmare. Even treated it with prime and my fish did not like it. Anything out there that works better than prime?

[Rex Grigg]

Not really. Where do you live? Is it possible that it's the hardness of the water the fish do not like?

[Broken]

Current water using RO
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 20 (time for a water change)
Nitrite 0
PH 7
KH between 4 and 5

Tap water after sitting out 24 hours with airstone
Ammonia .25 might been closer .50
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
ph 7
kh 2

[ninoboy]

Your tap doesn't look bad at all. Mine is :
ammonia 0.25 (because of the chloramine)
pH 7.8
GH 24
KH 7

I have to use RO for my discus tanks because of the hardness and high pH.

[Rex Grigg]

Broken,

What did you treat the water with? And what makes you think the fish did not like it? Also you really need to get a better pH test kit as the one you have is not giving very good readings. With a kH of 2 your tap water should have a pH of around 7.6

[cruizer]

As for the RO units on Ebay, they are pretty good. One friend has had one for about a year, and with his recommendation, another friend of mine bought one. They both are extremely happy with them. The both use them for their reef tanks.

Keep in mind, though, that those RO units have rated their gallons per day at like 60psi. You're not going to get 60 psi out of any of the faucets in your house. So doing 80-100 gal a day isn't in your future. Took one of my friends 4 days to fill his 75 gallon.

[Broken]

Thanks for the info so far. I think I am going to give the tap water a try again. The fish are just community fish. I have used Prime in the tank.

[unirdna]

Hi Broken,

I bought my RO unit off eBay from these guys http://www.stores.ebay.com/theaquasa...otimedisplay=2. My tap is 17GH and 17KH, so I definitely had the need. [As others have noted], your tap looks fine. I would hold off buying an RO unit until you trouble-shoot this further.

Anyway, my RO system is a 6 stage (deionizer). It's rated for 75gal/day....I get about 50. Water is 0-1 TDS. A very good investment (for me). Keep in mind that [if you do get one of these units] installation can be tricky. You're probably going to wrestle with small leaks for an hour or two. They don't ship them with teflon tape, so go to home depot and buy a roll before it shows up (it will be the best $1 you ever spent). I didn't want to use the 'pierce pipe' method, so I ran to the hardware store and assembled a faucet inlet (also, required 'leak wrestling' ).

Ted