# Yes i was wrong, RO water is the way to go.



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Time to admit I was wrong and may have given some bad advice to other members.
I've used tap water treated with prime for years without issue but my tap water has gone south and I paid the price for it. I had a bad cyano outbreak and used red slime remover. Everything looked great but as directed by the package I did a 25% water change and things suddenly started going downhill. I blamed it on the red slime remover and did a 40% water change. Well I came home to an rtn acro and Monti. I tested my water in my tank and I had high levels of everything, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I was mixing more water to do a change and my wife stopped me and said she thought our tap water may be the problem as she has had to clean our toilet 3 times a week because we keep getting a ring of slime in it. So I test the tap water and its got .50 ppm ammonia  so off to big also I go to buy ro water and have been doing this for two weeks and my tank has made a complete turn around. So now I have to find a cheap used ro unit because buying 10 gallons of ro water a week is killing my back and its costing me $36.00 a month at this rate. So I'm sorry to those I may have pissed off promoting tap water and I guess I had this lesson coming. Thankfully I didn't have a fully stocked tank , could have been worse.


----------



## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

WOW. you have my respect Mike. 
When I had small cube I was running magnum filter on the back with GFO from BRS. it really helps to remove phosphates from the water. It should work well since Solana has open chambers.
The phosban reactor is more efficient. I got huge outbreak of cyono after one week in all new tanks, but it was gone in a few days when using GFO from BRS

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## Shoryureppa (Jul 1, 2011)

I love seeing people who admit they are wrong about something. It really takes a real man/woman to admit to things. Truly respect that!


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I had gfo and two other products in the middle chamber but it didn't help. The return is 400gph which to too fast so I think the media wasn't very effective. I'm gonna get a phosban reactor or a canister filter as they have much slower flow rates and I'm sure it will be more effective. But as it stands my tank is recovering slowly but surely. My Monti didn't completely rtn so it will survive and my hammers and torch bleached but they are recovering, but my torch was brown with purple tips and now its pink with green tips  but I will just buy another brown/ purple one down the road. I think I'm actually gonna stay away from sps for a while, I jumped in way to early because I was at sea u marine and they had a huge blow out of sps for 10 dollars but I knew the tank wasn't stable enough but the bargain hunter in me couldn't resist and the poor acro died because of it. In a few months I may try again. Until then I get to watch my Monti and base the tanks stability on its recovery.


----------



## Greg_o (Mar 4, 2010)

Shoryureppa said:


> I love seeing people who admit they are wrong about something. It really takes a real man/woman to admit to things. Truly respect that!


Agreed - cheers to not only changing your view but to also publicly document it as an opportunity for the community to gain from. Cool stuff.


----------



## 50seven (Feb 14, 2010)

Shoryureppa said:


> I love seeing people who admit they are wrong about something. It really takes a real man/woman to admit to things. Truly respect that!


+20 Experience in humility 

Hopefully things will improve well enough soon.

eBay has RO units for under $150 including shipping, might even be cheaper but I can't remember.


----------



## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

but using RO water produce a lot of waste water

in my case, instant + $50 to the water bill


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

As someone that just finished overhauling an ro unit.... Spend the money up front. Look for a booster pump. It increases the good water speed, and reduces waste water.

Refillable di is pretty much a must! As is clear chambers so you can see whats going on in the unit. A pressure gauge helps too (lets you fine tune the booster, and will show you when the filters need changing) 

And I tip my hat to you for the post.

I am certain that you could bring the tank back the way you used to do it. However, ro will eliminate the issue altogether.

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

Oh, a good flow restricter. When I swapped mine out, the water production jumped atleast 20%. No kidding! That was before adding a booster pump.

Also, you need to be able to flush the unit.

Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


----------



## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

J_T said:


> Oh, a good flow restricter. When I swapped mine out, the water production jumped atleast 20%. No kidding! That was before adding a booster pump.
> 
> Also, you need to be able to flush the unit.
> 
> Posted with my Xperia, using Tapatalk 2


Yes, With flow restrictor from Mops, I have 1:2 ratio. I would not believe it, but this is a true

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## Shoryureppa (Jul 1, 2011)

how do i go about putting all these parts on my r/o unit? i got an aquaripure 90gpd. help please?


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

If you're spending an extra 50 bucks just from an R/O unit for a single tank then i'd say your unit is broken. 

Also, this hobby isn't about who's the cheapest and barely keeping your pets alive (I call em pets because that's what they are) 

Mike if you need water and you can make it to the scarborough area you can have as much as you want dude! I also work at Scarboro golf course so you could pick up there until you can get yourself a affordable r/o unit.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

Could the 150watt Phoenix 20k halide I have be to powerful? Since the bleaching I switched to my coralife 2x 65w power compact unit and the corals look happier. More open and extended. Is 130watts sufficient in a tank this deep? Its a 20 inch tall tank but I have about 3 inches of gravel so the corals are maximum 17 inches below water line. I don't know if I should go back to the halide or just leave it this way for a while and see how thing do. Are they extended because they are reaching for light or because its tolerable? My mushroom have always been small and now they are huge. My frogspawn and torch are so puffy, my Xenia are multiplying at a crazy rate ( at least two new colonies a day. My green start polyps are multiplying daily. All since my tank crashed. Is this due to the light? Oh also have an aptasia breakout and bought aptasia x tonight and will get em this weekend. I went from like 5-6 aptasia to around 25 in two weeks. So far they are on the same two rocks all packed together. I hate killing things but its them or my tank. I've seen tanks where aptasia is the dominant species and it ain't pretty.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

altcharacter said:


> If you're spending an extra 50 bucks just from an R/O unit for a single tank then i'd say your unit is broken.
> 
> Also, this hobby isn't about who's the cheapest and barely keeping your pets alive (I call em pets because that's what they are)
> 
> Mike if you need water and you can make it to the scarborough area you can have as much as you want dude! I also work at Scarboro golf course so you could pick up there until you can get yourself a affordable r/o unit.


Thanks for the offer bud , I think it would cost me more then the 4 dollars for 5 gallons on the gas alone. Thanks though. I can get a used culligan 35 Gpd for 60 used with new filters and two year old membrane. The guy says its still showing 7ppm tds so if I add a di unit it should hit 0ppm tds.


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

7ppm is better than the 180ppm that it's probably reading now!


----------



## sig (Dec 13, 2010)

cablemike said:


> Thanks for the offer bud , I think it would cost me more then the 4 dollars for 5 gallons on the gas alone. Thanks though. I can get a used culligan 35 Gpd for 60 used with new filters and two year old membrane. The guy says its still showing 7ppm tds so if I add a di unit it should hit 0ppm tds.


Just make sure unit was staying under pressure all the time even he did not use it.

I read somewhere that if no water in the unit filters/membrane became useless

*100% free webcam site! | Awesome chicks and it is absolutely free! | Watch free live sex cam - easy as 1-2-3*


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

I think that's a myth Greg. I got my coralife r/o from a basement that hadn't been used in a few years and the unit was completely dry and it's reading 0 TDI. Although this could just be with mine, I think it's still alright


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I got an aquafx dolphin 3 stage ro unit used but included new carbon block and one micron filter for 40 dollars. The guy had it eight months and says he was making one bucket a week so the membrane should be quite good.


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

I have a TDS meter if you ever want to check it.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

If an ro unit is rated at 50 gpd how long should it take to fill a 5 gallon bucket? I filled one in a hour which seems too fast. My psi is showing 80 but I turned the tap down to 75psi as its rated at. Seems the waste water is commingle out about the same rate as ro water.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

ok so i found a video from aquafx regarding this ro unit. and quickly realized the guy had it set up all wrong. he had the waste and filtered water line reversed and was actually using the waste water for his aquarium. i emaled him and he insisted it was correct but after switching them around and removing the restrictor from the filtered line (yes he has a restrictor on both waste and filtered water lines) the levels balanced out and now i would say its a 4-1 ratio of waste to production. i hope the restrictor didnt damage the membrane due to increased back pressure. i cant believe he was using the waste water all this time. i think the second flow restrictor would have made it run like it was in flush mode the whole time so maybe the membrane is like new. but to be honest the supplied instructions are a joke and if i didnt find the video i would still be scratching my head.


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

+10 karma points for me!! Good to hear you got it fixed and now you're ready to go! I would still put a TDS on it to see how you stand but as long as it's under 20ppm I would say it would have to be better than your tap water. I know a few people had said they wait until it gets even higher than that but by then I think it's somewhat of a waste to even filter the water.

I hope everything works out for you Mike, good luck and keep the pictures coming


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

ill be adding a di unit in a few weeks. and im ordering a tds meter from ebay..


----------



## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/kl-139-tds-tester-2-x-cr2032-58462?item=1


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

cablemike said:


> If an ro unit is rated at 50 gpd how long should it take to fill a 5 gallon bucket? I filled one in a hour which seems too fast. My psi is showing 80 but I turned the tap down to 75psi as its rated at. Seems the waste water is commingle out about the same rate as ro water.


That isn't bad! 1:1 ration is ideal. With 80 PSI, you would be able to get max performance from it. I get 1:2, sometimes 1:3 (live in an apartment, and don't have a booster pump yet, only 40 PSI)

If you got that unit used, you should let it run a few hours to flush it out good.


----------



## J_T (Mar 25, 2011)

altcharacter said:


> +10 karma points for me!! Good to hear you got it fixed and now you're ready to go! I would still put a TDS on it to see how you stand but as long as it's under 20ppm I would say it would have to be better than your tap water. I know a few people had said they wait until it gets even higher than that but by then I think it's somewhat of a waste to even filter the water.
> 
> I hope everything works out for you Mike, good luck and keep the pictures coming


If the water coming out is 10ppm or more, I replace the RO membrane. The cost of DI is going to start adding up! Membranes used to be 100+ now they are down to 60-70 last I looked.


----------



## Kooka (Feb 8, 2011)

Would it be possible for someone to sustain a healthy reef on regular tapwater in the Mississauga or Hamilton areas? (treated for chlorine/chloramine of course).

I use RO/DI water at the moment, but I have personally seen clownfish breed successfully in a tank that used regular tapwater treated with prime. I would love to set up another tank and try it out on a reef tank and see the differences in environmental responses for myself.


----------



## cablemike (Jan 7, 2009)

I had reef tanks that were very successful with tap water and prime water conditioner but as I've learned recently the tap.water can go downhill suddenly and it can be disastrous.


----------

