Reverse Osmosis Units

[jim from sydney]

Hi All

i am interested to find out who has an reverse osmosis unit on their tank, and if a comparison has been made between the results of breeding discus by"using or not using" of these units........Jim

[Nathan]

yea im actually really interested in know what this unit does aswel!

come on im sure someone on this forum knows!! :lol:

nathan

[jim from sydney]

Hi Nathan

Sydney's water is supposed to be soft water, meaning little or no minerals are present. Discus hate them and i feel that it hampers the breeding cycle.
I found this on a web site earlier.

Unique Amazon River Water.
Because of the massive amounts of rainwater that flow through the Amazon, the water contains very few minerals. The tap water coming from the faucets in most aquarists homes contains too many dissolved minerals for the fish that naturally live in Amazon River water.

Many fish from the Amazon River basin do better and are much more likely to breed in aquariums with water that is a mixture of tap water and water that has passed through a Reverse Osmosis (R/O) filter. Why an R/O filter? Because an R/O filter is the most economical way to remove almost all of the minerals from tap water.

But before i endulge in buying one of these monsters, i wanted to find out if this is correct.

So i want to find out from our forum=friends what they do....
regards....Jim

[Nathan]

oh ok, yea ive seen em around didnt know what they did though!

anyway hope you get one for a bragain, cya round

nathan

[Ben]

Jim,

I own and use a RO system.

I find they work very well but as you mentioned the water is soft most places in Australia.

The unit I have has an adjustable membrane by-pass needle valve that allows me to adjust what percent of RO water I use. All water that goes through the unit is filtered though a sediment and carbon cartridge.

I also use mine to fill bottle for drinking water.

In your circumstance, I would recommend you use a good water filtering system, not necessary an RO unit.

I also use a 2-stage water filter, which I find almost as good.

Since using these water filters I never have had sick discus the only downfall is changing the cartridges does cost a little more than if you use a de -chlorinator liquid like prime.

If you have any more questions let me know.

Cheers
Ben

[FishLover]

I wonder what do you do with the 90%+ water rejected by the RO unit?

Do you have a holding tank for the water too? I hear it is really slow(40G in a day or so) to get the amount needed for fish tank.

[DarrenJThomas]

in Adelaide our water is **it.

I use a mixture of RO and normal water. For breeding i think it is essential to ensure that the eggs get fertilised.

The rate is very slow if you want good quality RO without damaging your filter. The waste water i put on the garden as it is high in minerals not required for the aquarium. Cost about $300.

[Bad Inferno]

I am yet to get an RO unit however I do want to control the conductivity (TDS) of my talk

this is what I know:

1. Melbourne water (Endeavour Hills) is about ~220 micro siemens (as measured in tank), which I think is ideal for adult fish. The only problem is if you use plant ferts you will push it up..

2. I was also told RO water is NOT good for you...unless you install a mineral element to put back essential minerals. Apparently if you drink RO water minerals are sucked out of your body into the water and you end up loosing minerals.

rob

[jim from sydney]

this is getting to be a very interesting topic....
thanks guys for all the input so far.... :blob
Jim

[Bad Inferno]

This taken from simply discus

The hardness of the water has to do with how many minerals are in the water. This is an important parameter for raising and breeding discus. Some minerals are needed for proper discus growth and development. Usually a conductivity of about 100 microsiemens or less (3 GH) is recommended for breeding and a conductivity of 200 or more for growing discus. This provides enough calcium and magnesium for skeletal growth. Lowering the hardness can be accomplished by mixing in water than has gone through and RO (reverse osmosis) unit to remove the minerals, or water from a DI unit, distilled water, or rain water with tap water. Raising the hardness by the addition of minerals may be necessary if the water does not have enough minerals (water is too "soft"). Use a TDS or Conductivity meter or a test kit for measuring hardness.

[jim from sydney]

Hi Rob

i am confused about these values

3GH in what units are these measurements????
my water tested as GH=40mg/liter and that is soft water according to the booklet
whereas the KH measured as KH=20mg/liter

do you know the relationships between the unit you mentioned ????

[jim from sydney]

Rob
i just found this a good table.

Most test kits measure gH or general hardness in German degrees hardness or OdH, which is equal to 17.9 mg/L. Since mg/L is equal to ppm (parts per million) simply multiply the degrees OdH times 17.9 if you prefer to work with ppm. The following table will give an idea of how hard your water may be after reading the test results.

General Hardness Table
0 to 4 dH 0 to 70 ppm Very Soft
4 to 8 dH 70 to 140 ppm Soft
8 to 12 dH 140 to 210 ppm Medium Hard
12 to 18 dH 210 to 320 ppm Fairly Hard
18 to 30 dH 320 to 530 ppm Hard
Higher Very Hard

this is the site


http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/chemistry.html


now we are getting somewhere.....Jim

[Bad Inferno]

Conductivity in Micro Siemens
TDS in ppm
General hardness in degrees

wow it does get complicated.
I have installed an online conductivity meter a couple of weeks ago and now monitor conductivity. Thats why I want an ROunit so I can control my conductivity by mixing aged water and RO water and some plant ferts to get it around 200

[jim from sydney]

Rob
this is also interesting. it sure gets complex....Jim

Conductive Spawning
As I mentioned before, many fish are capable of withstanding a broad range of conductivity levels. These fish are also more resistant to changes in conductivity. Many of these fish actually require changes in conductivity in order to come into breeding condition. Two fish species, whose breeding behavior is very elusive, exemplify two extremes. Monodactylus sebae, which can live in fresh as well as marine water, was recently reported only breeding in seawater where its microscopic, larval progeny can enter the planktonic drifts in the ocean. Once a larva reaches the free-swimming, fry stage, it is able to swim further into fresher waters, as it grows.

Botia macracanthus (the Clown Loach) has been reported spawning, accidentally, after its aquarium is “neglected” (i.e. not fed often, not topped off, and not cleaned), then pumping the aquarium full of distilled water after a large water change. By not performing water changes, nitrates and phosphates build up and increase the conductivity. Moreover, ceasing to top-off any evaporated water decreases the amount of water dissolving the solutes in the water, once again increasing conductivity. When a water change is performed, and the aquarium is topped-off with distilled water, the conductivity drops drastically, and the clown loach begins its elusive spawning behavior. This method replicates the dynamic between the dry season and the rain season (when the clown loach breeds)

[Brilliant]

I think ro is the only sure way to go with Discus.
See my website I think it speaks for itself.
Its got pictures and video. My site is there for everyone to view.
Thank you! I hope to be a part of this forum.

If anyone has more questions about my RO/DI I would be happy to anwer.

[petros]

Guys when they say to flush the mebrane for maitanance what does it mean? Im sorry if thats a stupid question, but i cannot figure out the procedure. Is it to wash them only with water?

[Brad]

petros

im not sure what RO unit you have but most unit that have flushing system have a tap to turn that bypasses the cartridges and puts it all thru the membrane.You need to leave the water on for 15 mins or so.

http://www.psifilters.com.au/PSI-020-B_small.jpg

if you look at that pic there is a red handled tap in the centre top of the unit.


RO units are by far the best for treating water and are cheap when you add the long term cost of only treatments that cant not compare no matter what they say.

The waste water from RO unit is no problem.
I just flow mine into the washing machine or use it to water the garden.
No water is wasted at all.

Mine unit takes the TDS of the tap water from 280ppm to 0ppm

[jim from sydney]

I think ro is the only sure way to go with Discus.
See my website I think it speaks for itself.
Its got pictures and video. My site is there for everyone to view.
Thank you! I hope to be a part of this forum.

If anyone has more questions about my RO/DI I would be happy to anwer.

Brilliant.....we talked about this a little before......but where is your website????