A reverse osmosis question

[leanne31]

Hi all I have a reverse osmosis system sitting in my shed in a box which is quite silly as I could be using it but dont have a clue how. Im not sure on the ro water to tap water ratio. I have a 200litre drum I use for aging my water in, if I fill it half with straight ro water and half with tap water is that going to be ok and if so do i need to do any tests on it like hardness etc to get it right if so what should that be I know my hardness coming out my tap is 120ppm gh and 40 ppm kh some help would be appreciated as I read a lot of posts on adelaide water and quite frankly have started to get a bit worried. Thanks guys :lol:

Leanne

[leanne31]

anybody :?: :?: I'd hate it to continue to sit in the shed with out using it.

Leanne

[Merrilyn]

Leanne, I was hoping some of the guys who actually use RO might jump in here. My knowledge of RO is basic at the least, but I'll share what I know.

Reverse Osmosis strips everything from the water, and leaves you with an end product similar to distilled water. No minerals, no calcium, no chlorine - nothing. On it's own, it's not suitable for fish, so it has to be mixed back with tap water. I'd start with with a 50-50 mix and then do all your usual tests.

In theory that should halve your hardness reading, and reduce your pH. which should work quite nicely. If it's still too hard, and your pH still too high, you may need to adjust the mix to 60-40. I also believe you can use all RO water and add minerals and salts in crystal form, to bring it back to where you want it.

Sorry, that's the limit of my knowledge.

Hopefully one of the guys will give us some more info.

[leanne31]

Thanks Merrilyn well thats a start anyway :lol:

Leanne

[Kaza]

Leanne the problem you have is Adelaide tap water is s***,. With my RO unit it allows me to add some RO and the rested is filtered through carbon etc.

Your unit does not allow you to add filtered water at the same time. So even if you use half RO water you have still got to add tap water. Back to square one, as you know if you only use RO it is going to take a LONG time to fill up your barrel and then you have to add things to it.

If I was you I would save up and buy an RO unit, I got mine through the forum, a guy in Tasmina. He gives discount for DF members.

My TDF sits on 350 (very high) as Adelaide water has a lot of salt in it, this gives me water with a GH of 6 and a KH of 2. My fish breed and are happy in this. The water I use is not that different from the tap water, it has just been filtered, aged, alerated and I still add Prime to it. The beauty of it, is the filtering system takes most of the nasties out of the water, including pollution, and gives me peace of mind.
I cant understand anyone drinking Adelaide water. I filter the water for my family and of course the discus are just like the kids (actually better, they dont scream).

[leanne31]

can I use pure tap just tested it and it has a gh of 6 and a kh of 4

Leanne