fluval phosphate and fluval calcium tests

[Rmckoy]

i do about a 2 gallon water change a week

I wish .....

Having 230 gal display .
my evaporation alone is 5-7 gal per week .

 

[bosstoneschick]

That should be fine. I just do around 4g since I mix up a batch of reef crystals and always have it on hand. It's easier for me to drain the bucket and then start new.

If I was buying water from the store pre-made then I would probably do less as well. By the way, I just picked up a 160g pail of reef crystals from petco (in store pick-up) for like $34 bucks. You mentioned that was your local store and it might be cheaper to buy distilled water and mix yourself if you are interested. I have no idea what they charge per gallon.

its $10 and some change for a 5 gallon box of premixed water.

 

[Rmckoy]

That should be fine. I just do around 4g since I mix up a batch of reef crystals and always have it on hand. It's easier for me to drain the bucket and then start new.

If I was buying water from the store pre-made then I would probably do less as well. By the way, I just picked up a 160g pail of reef crystals from petco (in store pick-up) for like $34 bucks. You mentioned that was your local store and it might be cheaper to buy distilled water and mix yourself if you are interested. I have no idea what they charge per gallon.

I agree ...
it’s much cheaper and knowing the quality of the water is a nice piece of mind .
A rodi system is cheap or for the 2 gal per week .
the only thing you will need is a salinity checker or a refractometer to check the salinity after mixing .
It’s easy !!

 

[bosstoneschick]

I agree ...
it’s much cheaper and knowing the quality of the water is a nice piece of mind .
A rodi system is cheap or for the 2 gal per week .
the only thing you will need is a salinity checker or a refractometer to check the salinity after mixing .
It’s easy !!

i dont have anywhere to hook one up at my current house so with the 13.5 gal its just easy to buy...if i had a bigger tank i'd def look for a better way...haha yeah i check my salinity now even thou its premixed to just keep an eye on things..its always been 1.025

 

[Sarcazian]

its $10 and some change for a 5 gallon box of premixed water.

Are you buying this one? I guess at 10 bucks it is hard to beat... I spend at least $100 a year in RO/DI maintenance and distilled water will set you back 50-90 cents a gallon I guess. Unless you have some local place that you can buy RO or distilled water at for cents and fill up your own container. I know that we used to years ago.

Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water, 5 gallons​

My only concern is the label seems to imply that it has a certain amount of phosphates and nitrates in it. But, it also seems like they pump it from the ocean and then filter it.

 

[bosstoneschick]

Are you buying this one? I guess at 10 bucks it is hard to beat... I spend at least $100 a year in RO/DI maintenance and distilled water will set you back 50-90 cents a gallon I guess. Unless you have some local place that you can buy RO or distilled water at for cents and fill up your own container. I know that we used to years ago.

Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water, 5 gallons​

My only concern is the label seems to imply that it has a certain amount of phosphates and nitrates in it. But, it also seems like they pump it from the ocean and then filter it.

yeah, that's the one i get...i buy distilled water at walmart for 86 cents a gallon to do top offs between my water changes when needed.

 

[Rmckoy]

i dont have anywhere to hook one up at my current house so with the 13.5 gal its just easy to buy...if i had a bigger tank i'd def look for a better way...haha yeah i check my salinity now even thou its premixed to just keep an eye on things..its always been 1.025

As long as it’s what works ......
I bought a adapter for the kitchen sink to thread a garden hose fitting

the rodi threads into the kitchen faucet .

 

[Rmckoy]

yeah, that's the one i get...i buy distilled water at walmart for 86 cents a gallon to do top offs between my water changes when needed.

Be careful with distilled .
compared to rodi the tds is not 0

 

[Sarcazian]

I agree ...
it’s much cheaper and knowing the quality of the water is a nice piece of mind .
A rodi system is cheap or for the 2 gal per week .
the only thing you will need is a salinity checker or a refractometer to check the salinity after mixing .
It’s easy !!

I use my rodi system for my house drinking water as well (2-6 gallons a day for drinking, cooking, pets, etc). I am not sure that I would really want the hassle of the system for just 2 gallons a week.

The filters get slime on them, it takes me like 4 hours to sanitize the housings, lines, etc when I do clean them, and it is something else you need to learn and store. Granted, I have 9 filters, 2 badder tanks, and way too much 1/4 cable. Then the dual stage di for the tank water.

It seems like BRS now has some good chloramines filters that I may need to look at to potentially lower my filter needs and increase output.

 

[Sarcazian]

I wanted to add that the RO systems can last a long time though. I am still using the same unit that I picked up from https://airwaterice.com/reefkeepers-rodi/typhoon-iii-aquarium-rodi.html in either 2008 or 2009. Great units and I had a leak in 2013 or 2014 and the part was promptly replaced.

Looking now, it seems like they recommend replacing the whole units every 7 years.

 

[Rmckoy]

I use my rodi system for my house drinking water as well (2-6 gallons a day for drinking, cooking, pets, etc). I am not sure that I would really want the hassle of the system for just 2 gallons a week.

The filters get slime on them, it takes me like 4 hours to sanitize the housings, lines, etc when I do clean them, and it is something else you need to learn and store. Granted, I have 9 filters, 2 badder tanks, and way too much 1/4 cable. Then the dual stage di for the tank water.

It seems like BRS now has some good chloramines filters that I may need to look at to potentially lower my filter needs and increase output.

A few things
Deionized water is said not to be safe for human consumption .....
it’s stripped of everything .
In Canada , I don’t believe they use chloromines in the water .
chlorine yes .

 

[Sarcazian]

A few things
Deionized water is said not to be safe for human consumption .....
it’s stripped of everything .
In Canada , I don’t believe they use chloromines in the water .
chlorine yes .

Very good points, but I seem to remember that discussion starting around 2010 when the WHO started the discussion around DI water not being safe.... They also switched what was safe around Covid like 8 times and others say it is safe.

The point is you need to remineralizer it before consumption or it will in theory leach the minerals from your body through osmosis (if memory serves). I don't take that change with my family or pets, so we divert the pure RO off to another carbon filter and then 1-2 remineralization filters then to a storage tank.

The DI is split off before that last polishing and remineralization. In theory, you could treat all of your water with DI (costly) and then remineralize it to remove the ammonia gas, silicia, etc that was able to pass through the RO process.

I am not sure why we would want to be drinking that stuff personally, but again it's why I use 9 filters for drinking and not 3. I guess 10 if you include the membrane.

 

[Sarcazian]

This seems older than I remember, but this came up in a quick search - https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutrientschap12.pdf

For reference, the TDS on my water is 254 in, and 37 out after mineralization which likely varies a bit.

For the heck of it, I just tested a gallon of whole foods (365) spring water I had around. The TDS came up at 23.

1. The 1980 WHO report Salts are leached from the body under the influence of drinking water with a low TDS. Because adverse effects such as altered water-salt balance were observed not only in completely desalinated water but also in water with TDS between 50 and 75 mg/L, the team that prepared the 1980 WHO report (3) recommended that the minimum TDS in drinking water should be 100 mg/L. The team also recommended that the optimum TDS should be about 200-400 mg/L for chloride-sulphate waters and 250-500 mg/L for bicarbonate waters (WHO 1980). The recommendations were based on extensive experimental studies conducted in rats, dogs and human volunteers. Water exposures included Moscow tap water, desalinated water of approximately 10 mg/L TDS, and laboratory-prepared water of 50, 100, 250, 300, 500, 750, 1000, and 1500 mg/L TDS using the following constituents and proportions: Cl- (40%), HCO3 (32%), SO4 (28%) / Na (50%), Ca (38%), Mg (12%). A number of health outcomes were investigated including: dynamics of body weight, basal and nitrogen metabolism, enzyme activity, water-salt homeostasis and its regulatory system, mineral content of body tissues and fluids, hematocrit, and ADH activity. The optimal TDS was associated with the lowest incidence of adverse effect, negative changes to the human, dog, or rat, good organoleptic characteristics and thirst-quenching properties, and reduced corrosivity of water