FILYERING TAP WATER FOR FRESH WATER TANKS ?

Do I need to filter tap water before putting in my fresh water tank ? If so
will reverse osmosis do it ? If so do I have to add something to the
filtered fresh filtered tap water ? Thanks.

Robert G Smith

"robert" wrote in message
...
Do I need to filter tap water before putting in my fresh water tank ? If
so
will reverse osmosis do it ? If so do I have to add something to the
filtered fresh filtered tap water ? Thanks.

Depends what you keep in the tank & what your tap water is like.

Unless you have a well it will have either Chlorine or Chloramine in it &
you'll need to get rid of that - easiest way is to use dechlorinator from
your LFS.

RO water is water that's been through very very fine filters that take
EVERYTHING out & leave you with (near as dammit) pure H2O. You actually need
to add back minerals & salts to it in order for your fish to live in it. You
can buy stuff from the LFS specifically for this. RO is not a necessity but
is nice to have. RO units for home use are quite expensive and have to be
cared for - you can not let them dry out - you almost need to run them full
time. Depending on your tap water you will get approximately one gallon of
RO water from every five gallons you filter - the rest goes to waste.

Many LFS's will sell you RO water if you take your own container in.

HTH

I.

"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...

snip

RO water is water that's been through very very fine filters that take
EVERYTHING out & leave you with (near as dammit) pure H2O. You actually
need
to add back minerals & salts to it in order for your fish to live in it.

/snip

I don't know for sure if that statement is correct as I havent been doing it
for very long, however, I have been using RO/DI water for my freshies and I
have not added anything to the water. So far so good.


You
can buy stuff from the LFS specifically for this. RO is not a necessity
but
is nice to have. RO units for home use are quite expensive and have to be
cared for - you can not let them dry out -

There is a guy here who sells them for $150.00. I bought one recently and I
am very happy. If you want, I'll give you his email address (if he doesnt
jump in first that is =)

snip

~Mort

Hi Robert

For a freshwater tank, if your using tap water, quality carbon
pre-filtration is sufficient. RO is overkill, wasteful and expensive
for such usage.

You don't really need RO until you venture into a sal****er marine
tank.

If you decide to progress further, into a Reef Aquarium, RO is not
even clean enough, you should go with deionized water or better for
your salt mix and top-ups.

My second stage of filtration for Freshwater Aquaria is a silver
impregnated pressed carbon cylinder filter. The first stage is just a
sediment filter to protect the pressed carbon filter from surface
clogging. And even it is overkill for freshwater, but I use the same
source to feed my deionization columns for the reef aquaria.

TTUL
Gary

Suggest you do some research into that - my understanding is that pure
RO/DI
water is almost completely depleted of minerals & salts which the fish
need.
In the longer term you may have problems without something like RO-Right

I.




Will do Iain. I'll let you know what I find. Thanks!

~Mort

"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...

"Mort" wrote in message
. com...

"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...

snip

RO water is water that's been through very very fine filters that
take
EVERYTHING out & leave you with (near as dammit) pure H2O. You
actually
need
to add back minerals & salts to it in order for your fish to live
in it.

/snip

I don't know for sure if that statement is correct as I havent been
doing
it
for very long, however, I have been using RO/DI water for my
freshies and
I
have not added anything to the water. So far so good.

Suggest you do some research into that - my understanding is that pure
RO/DI
water is almost completely depleted of minerals & salts which the fish
need.
In the longer term you may have problems without something like
RO-Right

I.



A suggestion of what to add to your RO and DI water:

3 parts Calcium Sulfate (gypsum)
1 part Calcium Chloride or Calcium Carbonate (will raise up the kH, too)
1 part Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt)

The total amounts in ratio should be adjusted with the use of a
conductivity meter to your desired hardness.

"Racf" wrote in message
et...
"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...


This formula sats how many " parts " to add to the water of these minerals.
OK but to how much water ?

Robert G Smith



A suggestion of what to add to your RO and DI water:

3 parts Calcium Sulfate (gypsum)
1 part Calcium Chloride or Calcium Carbonate (will raise up the kH, too)
1 part Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt)

The total amounts in ratio should be adjusted with the use of a
conductivity meter to your desired hardness.

How do I produce deionized water ? Can I make it from tap water ? I have
been told that deionized water is VERY corrosive. True ? I am asking
because I am going to be running salt and fresh water tanks. Thanks.

Robert G Smith

"Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr." wrote in message
...
Hi Robert

For a freshwater tank, if your using tap water, quality carbon
pre-filtration is sufficient. RO is overkill, wasteful and expensive
for such usage.

You don't really need RO until you venture into a sal****er marine
tank.

If you decide to progress further, into a Reef Aquarium, RO is not
even clean enough, you should go with deionized water or better for
your salt mix and top-ups.

My second stage of filtration for Freshwater Aquaria is a silver
impregnated pressed carbon cylinder filter. The first stage is just a
sediment filter to protect the pressed carbon filter from surface
clogging. And even it is overkill for freshwater, but I use the same
source to feed my deionization columns for the reef aquaria.

TTUL
Gary

"robert" wrote in message
...

"Racf" wrote in message
et...
"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...


This formula sats how many " parts " to add to the water of these
minerals.
OK but to how much water ?

Robert G Smith



A suggestion of what to add to your RO and DI water:

3 parts Calcium Sulfate (gypsum)
1 part Calcium Chloride or Calcium Carbonate (will raise up the kH,
too)
1 part Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt)

The total amounts in ratio should be adjusted with the use of a
conductivity meter to your desired hardness.





3 grams Calcium Sulfate, 1 gram Calcium Chloride, and 1 gram Magnesium
Sulfate is about the right amount to add to 20 US gallons for basic
Amazonian water. You must use a conductivity meter and adjust these
values a bit to be optimum for your purpose. Grow-out versus breeding
versus maintaining......

On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 18:56:20 UTC, "robert" wrote:

How do I produce deionized water ? Can I make it from tap water ? I have
been told that deionized water is VERY corrosive. True ? I am asking
because I am going to be running salt and fresh water tanks. Thanks.

As I hear it, very pure water is bad for distribution pipes; I suppose
it's because any dissolved CO2 makes it acidic enough to damage pipes over
a long time. Just think of leaching cadmium out of the zinc coating on
old galvanized pipes, and you'll be glad that water suppliers with very
soft water sources generally add lime or something to make sure the pH
stays up and the pipes don't deteriorate.

But you won't be letting your aquarium water get into contact with any
metal. And pure water doesn't bother glass or plastic (the right sort of
plastic) on any reasonable time scale.

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