UV steralization on salt mixing station?!

[Connor-Waddle]

Hi guys! I know the title sounds ridiculous, why would you run a uv sterilizer on a mixing station? Long story short my step dad has had some health issues in the past which had led him to using a CPAP machine. With a CPAP machine you need to use distilled water due to the fact that it has no minerals or bacteria. As of now my RODI water is unusable to him because of the chance of bacteria. I have plans of setting up a smaller mixing station around 30 gallons both sides. Now this is where I need your guys genius! My ideas were to either have an inline uv sterilizer on the RODI reservoir drain, or could I go with a waterproof uv light on the lid that would passively sterilizer it? All opinions matter and if this is a ridiculous idea please let me know because in the end of the day I'm just a naive college student trying to save my faimly a buck LOL.

 

[A Young Reefer]

there are RODI units ( mainly for drinking purposes) that have a UV sterilizing membrane. maybe you could find this membrane sold separately and hook it up to your existing rodi unit. in theory both options you stated should work but I am not sure how effective are they.

 

[Connor-Waddle]

there are RODI units ( mainly for drinking purposes) that have a UV sterilizing membrane. maybe you could find this membrane sold separately and hook it up to your existing rodi unit. in theory both options you stated should work but I am not sure how effective are they.

Where in the loop do you think it would be best to put something like that, I would think that the storage container poses a risk on contamination?

 

[A Young Reefer]

Where in the loop do you think it would be best to put something like that, I would think that the storage container poses a risk on contamination?

yeah you are right, however going by this even the drinking cups can get contaminated. what is the other option you have if not a uv on your rodi unit or storage containers?

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I’m not a doctor or scientist by any means. I do use a cpap. It is probably safer and easier to either use distilled water, or boil ro/rodi water than to implement effective uv. Most municipal water is treated and probably doesn’t have harmful, brain eating amoeba. When traveling, or if you’re on well water, I probably wouldn’t risk not using distilled water.

 

[damsels are not mean]

Because there is no easy way to really verify that your sterilization is working afaik this would not be a good idea.

 

[fryman]

You can buy relatively cheap UV sterilizers on amazon, I have this one :
COOSPIDER Sun JUP-01 Aquariums in Tank Submersible Machine 211gph 9 Watt fit for 80Gallon (JUP 01 Set + 2X Replace Filter + 1x Spare Bulb)

I use it for phyto culture water and am relatively certain it does work, at least to some degree. I have cyano contamination in my f/2 but after implementing the UV I don't have issues with cyano taking over cultures any more.

Whether this is good enough for a cpap I do not know. Maybe check with a doctor?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

I would stick to distilled water. You will never recover the cost of a UV system required to actually sterilize this. The problem is that different things like bacteria, algae, etc that are a problem with something like a CPAP require different flowrates to fully sterilize. As a result, you would either need multiple UV units to effectively sterilize or would have to significantly oversize a unit so that the flow rate was high enough to handle both but still hit 90,000 uW/cm.

On a 50gal reservoir, this would likely cost >400 for just the UV plus more for plumbing and pump and recurring costs of $40 every 6 months to replace the bulb.

Or just continue using distilled water for $1 a gallon from Walmart.

 

[ZombieEngineer]

You can also just boil the RODI water to sterilize it if you want the best of both worlds.

 

[Connor-Waddle]

I’m not a doctor or scientist by any means. I do use a cpap. It is probably safer and easier to either use distilled water, or boil ro/rodi water than to implement effective uv. Most municipal water is treated and probably doesn’t have harmful, brain eating amoeba. When traveling, or if you’re on well water, I probably wouldn’t risk not using distilled water.

Wow thanks for the advice! I think he is just going to stick to distilled water. Don't want to kill him with pneumonia

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Wow thanks for the advice! I think he is just going to stick to distilled water. Don't want to kill him with pneumonia

No, we wouldn’t want that to happen for sure!

 

[ChuckTownReefer]

What about ozone? Have you looked into that as a kill all?

 

[ChuckTownReefer]

By the time you spend all the money on making your water sterilizer you could probably have bought enough distilled water to last him a GOOD while. Because your not going to want to go cheap with the uv fixture then you need a pump. Adds up quick. Also you will need to filter the water somehow because I don't care how clean you try to keep it hair dust will end up in there.

Stick with distilled water somethings are not worth the squeeze.