Is RO twice as good as tap water ?

[Bad Inferno]

Hi,

Its been awhile since I've posted however still have my discus display tank, been too occupied with a small nano reef. However after salt water I have now purchased a RO/DI unit.

The question I have is could I half my water changes if I used RO water.

Pls don't tell me I should increase the water changes as its been running ok as a display tank for 2-3 years.

Tank is 450 litres and I change ~150litres per week. I simply airate storage water for 48 hrs prior to changing. Now If I used RO water would changing 80litres per week be better than 150 litres of tap water.

This question is raised because producing 80 litres of RO/DI, I end up using 160 litres (80 litres to drain.)

cheers

rob

[ILLUSN]

i wouldn't bother with ro if i were you for a discus display tank, thye job of water changes it to remove waste from the water, ro will not have that much a higher waste holding capacity then tap water.

save the ro for the reef or for a discus breeding tank.

[Hollowman]

No,

that is the very simple answer.

RO water is basically raw H2O nothing else is in it, all the minerals and additives have now been removed. For a healthy setup, fish need some trace minerals, these minerals also buffer the water and make it stable. It is not twice as good as tap water, in fact it will take more monitoring to start with until you understand your water requirements. I use RO and buffer with pre-membrane water. This has been through the partical filter and carbon block, so all the heavy metals and chlorine have been removed, but it still has the mineral content to buffer the water to the levels that I permit for my fish.

If you piggy-back membranes (I use 3 on my system) you can end up with a 1 to 1 product to waste. The waste waters the garden. Using a pressure pump also helps efficiency.

So, at the end of the day, RO is not a miracle cure to allow you to reduce volume or frequency of water changes, but it allows you to suit your water parameters more to your fish.

hth
H

[Bad Inferno]

thanks

[goodoo]

No.