Is RO/DI water necessary? Can I use the same system for drinking water?

[BamaCoastPyrat]

I am setting up a 40 gallon fish only tank. Is RO/DI water necessary? I am guessing so.

The closest place to me that sells RO/DI water is just under an hour away. With my schedule that isn't going to happen often and I don't have much room to store just-in-case water. So sooner than later I will end up getting an RO/DI system. We have also talked about getting a kitchen water filtration system for drinking and cooking water. Can I get an RO/DI system for the aquarium that I can also drink from?

 

[Woodyman]

I understand that it will strip minerals as in its pure form is very reactive but to dehydrate, not sure.

There was a thread about this a while back

Is RODI water safe to drink?

We too have well water here in Montana. A 400 ft well at that. Our water has tons of calcium in it so I thought my corals would love it, and they did. Sorry about your fish. Our well water is loaded with CO2 so I’ve not used it for my Reef tanks. Just run it through the RO into a brute so it...

www.reef2reef.com

If you strictly drank RODI you would be dehydrated.

Generally people don't do this so this is all schematics at this point, but still isn't advised to drink RODI..

Drinking RO is not unusual and perfectly fine.

 

[srobertb]

I am setting up a 40 gallon fish only tank. Is RO/DI water necessary? I am guessing so.

The closest place to me that sells RO/DI water is just under an hour away. With my schedule that isn't going to happen often and I don't have much room to store just-in-case water. So sooner than later I will end up getting an RO/DI system. We have also talked about getting a kitchen water filtration system for drinking and cooking water. Can I get an RO/DI system for the aquarium that I can also drink from?

Yes. When I started out, I just bought my water for a 10g tank. It rapidly became bothersome to fill up gas cans. I can’t guarantee or dictate when my LFS chooses to change its filters. I would hassle fish-tank-friends and became a water mooch.

I now have an under-counter 4-stage RO system and the water going in measures around 50-100TDS and 0TDS coming out for drinking and baby bottles. I’m fairly confident I could run my tank on that but it isn’t best practices.

I have a 6 stage high output dual membrane system dedicated for the fish tank with a booster pump. Back to you…

The tubing and fittings for these under-cabinet systems are all standard 1/4” tubing and push-to-connect fittings. If I were you, I would buy a 4 stage system and add a “T” on the output. One line would run to the drinking tap (you can’t hook this up to your main sink faucet, the pressure isn’t good enough) and the other line would run into a DI resin cannister and have a long hose (you can easily disconnect and reconnect) to fill your reservoir or container.

You can just use a simple water filter cannister and fill the cartridge with color changing resin. The whole setup will add $30 to the cost of your new drinking water set. Bulkreefsupply can help and has all the parts.

Water pressure: You’ll need it. These filters live and die with water pressure. Higher pressure means less waste water and better filter life. You may need to plan to add an in-line booster pump (easy to install) that will take up room under the sink and will make noise when on. I would get one with a pressure switch that’s plumbed in line. I would try plumbing the pump before the entire system but attach the booster pump after the DI resin chamber so it only (hopefully) kicks on when you’re using the deionized water.


A concern is chloramines. Look for filters that mention chloramine removal.

Also, you should plan on buying water or waiting a couple days for this to fill up your tank. You could possibly need as much as a gallon of day to fight evaporation .

 

[BZOFIQ]

If you strictly drank RODI you would be dehydrated.

Generally people don't do this so this is all schematics at this point, but still isn't advised to drink RODI..

Drinking RO is not unusual and perfectly fine.

I drink RO from my system but I've read before that RODI is not as bad unless you have mineral defficiences already.

In other words, if you are healthy and eat a healthy diet RODI water will have no ill effect on you.

People drink distilled water with no ill effect. If distilled for human consumption it is as pure just a different path to get there.

 

[rmorris_14]

We installed an RO system in our house for drinking and ice making. I’ve been using that for our tanks. It measures about 12 to 17 TDS. But I don’t have anything really delicate in my tanks yet. I plan on get a seperate budget friendly RODI system or adding an as need only DI canister to the existing system when I make up my mind. I once bought rodi water from an LFS store that was an hour away and it measured higher TDS than my RO water. Not worth the headache IMO. I think it might depend on your tank goals as to what you can get by with.

 

[Woodyman]

I drink RO from my system but I've read before that RODI is not as bad unless you have mineral defficiences already.

In other words, if you are healthy and eat a healthy diet RODI water will have no ill effect on you.

People drink distilled water with no ill effect. If distilled for human consumption it is as pure just a different path to get there.

Why I pointed out the semantics of it.

Most people get enough nutrients from other sources and do not drink enough RODI to make it an issue, but if your looking at it in a cellular level it has a dehydrating effect, but again it's such a small amount and most of us aren't deficient as is so it is essentially a mute point.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

RODI will also dehydrate you if you choose to drink it.

Is it the deionization of the water that would dehydrate you?

 

[Dburr1014]

I always thought/heard the di portion, because it is striped of ions, will try to attach to any that it can. So not that it dehydrates, but it will pull ions from your body and you will just pee them out. Your body needs ions.
Ro/di water just sitting in your storage Container will pull any ions it can out of the air. This is why it should be covered.

DI water will eventually make you sick or death, don't drink it.

Edit: just found this

Can You Drink Deionized Water?

There is a lot of controversy over whether drinking deionized water is dangerous or not, particularly because of its demineralized nature. But can you drink deionized water safely? The short answer is yes, although there is more to the issue.

www.uswatersystems.com

 

[Woodyman]

Is it the deionization of the water that would dehydrate you?

Essentially, but again it's semantics as the likelihood that you consume enough of it to make a difference isn't there.

 

[Woodyman]

I always thought/heard the di portion, because it is striped of ions, will try to attach to any that it can. So not that it dehydrates, but it will pull ions from your body and you will just pee them out. Your body needs ions.
Ro/di water just sitting in your storage Container will pull any ions it can out of the air. This is why it should be covered.

DI water will eventually make you sick or death, don't drink it.

'ions' or 'electrolytes are key for hydration. So that stripping of them by the DI is why it has a dehydrating effect.

 

[Malcontent]