# Bad back  and carrying 25L contaners-Options?



## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

I have recently shifted over to using RO cut with tap water. I fill 25l containers and pump in tank using the inlet on my FX4.
I have a bad back and carrying the 25l containers is crippling me. 
I have seen the chap in Green Aqua using a booster pump to feed the RO straight into tank. But if I'm changing 50% the temp drop must be huge? Is this doable?
Plan B is to plonk the empty containers next to tank and if the pumped RO is quick enough fill up the evening before, but Mrs C may not be impressed.

Alan


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## tam (21 Oct 2019)

I use containers with RO too, but I only carry them half full, I just have an extra container and move one, then move the second and tip it into the first. I try and fill two halves when I run the RO but if I have a full one - I just jug out half into the second rather than lifting n pouring (with a 2L jug it's only takes 30 seconds to do).


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## Edvet (21 Oct 2019)

I never worrie about the temp drop ( it can happen in nature too)
I regularly put the gardenhose in my 400 gallon to do a large waterchange ( leave it running a few hours) which makes the temp drop from 25 to 18 or so. If you take an hour or 90 min to do the 50% change i wouldn't worrie.


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## akwarium (21 Oct 2019)

an extra heater to warm up the RO-water is also an option....


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

It would take at least that. If I'm cutting with tap could use that to balance temp.


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## Aqua sobriquet (21 Oct 2019)

Could you not pre heat the RO by putting a heater in it for a few hours? Just a thought.

When I had a 200 L tank and did large changes I’d run a hose from the kitchen mixer tap and adjust the temperature as it came out the tap.


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

Your first point would be my plan B. I.e fill containers adjacent to tank to save carrying. Issue would be the time it takes to refill. However I have a booster pump on order.
Your point 2 is what I was doing before I started using RO.


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## David Cherry (21 Oct 2019)

Carpet or wooden floor? I've seen people using large plastic water containers on trolleys with castors on. Wheel up to aquarium and use a pump to fill.


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## dean (21 Oct 2019)

Where’s your RO filter ? 
Does it fill a barrel ?
If so then fill it with the required mix and drop a pond pump in it to pump the water to your tank

How do you heat the water in your home? If it’s a combi boiler use warm tap water for your mix 

Are you treating the tape water you use with anything? If not then using your filter to fill the tank isn’t a good idea, you will be killing the filter bacteria 





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Zeus. (21 Oct 2019)

The Fluval FX6/FX4 have a spare tank fill/draining input/output, so when filling tank the water bypasses the filter media 

I normally fill mine with as much cold tap water I can. Tank rarely goes below 18C when I do it. Although in winter when the water gets really cold the flow though the shower mixer is pants so mix with hot water at the same time 
Don't have heaters on tanks any more as the after monitoring the temps it never drops below 20C except on WC day.
I'm with 'Ed' as it's just like a downpour of rain landing on a small stream/river/pond. Was fishing on the river Lawrence in Canada one summer, whilst waiting for bites we would swim in the river to cool off, the water was tepid near the bank you didn't have to go out far and the temp soon dropped , and the river was really wide. So fish are use to sudden temp changes in nature but there are limits OFC


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

David Cherry said:


> Carpet or wooden floor? I've seen people using large plastic water containers on trolleys with castors on. Wheel up to aquarium and use a pump to fill.


My house is too small and full of family junk, I have bought and tried a trolley,a bit of an assault course!


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

dean said:


> Where’s your RO filter ?
> Does it fill a barrel ?
> 
> 
> ...


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

I think I'm going to try pumping with RO straight in. The issue is I have a 2 hour window on Saturdays to get the job done, so if the booster pump does the job it will save a lot of lifting! I use about 30% tap so can use that to adjust temp if it goes to out of kilter.


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## Andrew Butler (21 Oct 2019)

From what I can make out you produce the RO yourself, don't want to carry the containers and using a container on wheels is out of the question.
Unsure quite of your setup etc so I'll as some questions - where do you normally produce your RO, how/where do you store it and how long does it currently take to make the amount you require?
I'm also unsure which RO unit you have or what you're expecting from the booster pump (or would get)

All of this is just guesswork but If it was possible how about moving the RO production so it's stored somewhere higher than your aquarium, upstairs even?
Store the RO in one big container and depending on your RO unit fit a float valve to that container so it shuts off when the container is full.
If this or something similar is possible then there's all kinds of things you can do to simplify things further.


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

I make my RO in the garden at present from a garden tap. I 'make' around a 100L. Storing upstairs won't get past Mrs C. It take around 3-4 hours I guess. A large container at height is something I've been thinking about but space again is an issue.


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## Fisher2007 (21 Oct 2019)

I used RO a lot with marines.  General rule of thumb, RO water will be reduced by 4 times from the manufacturers quoted amount due to variables in mains temp and pressure.  A booster will then double that quantity


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## alanchown (21 Oct 2019)

I'm assuming the booster purely boosts pressure and not temperature?


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## Fisher2007 (21 Oct 2019)

alanchown said:


> I'm assuming the booster purely boosts pressure and not temperature?



Exactly that

Output from RO units massively reduces in winter.  Temperature has a big impact.  Optimum mains water temp is somewhere in the 20 degrees C range from memory


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## Andrew Butler (22 Oct 2019)

alanchown said:


> I make my RO in the garden at present from a garden tap. I 'make' around a 100L. Storing upstairs won't get past Mrs C. It take around 3-4 hours I guess. A large container at height is something I've been thinking about but space again is an issue.


Making RO outside in the winter? 

No idea how far you are wanting to go, spend or other details so I'll just give you a scenario on what I could execute here with relative ease and possibly work around things you've said so far:
I have a cold water storage tank in my loft as part of my heating system so have water and could quite easily add another for the RO unit to fill on a float switch, below the storage tank is the airing cupboard and I could quite easily drill another hole through the ceiling so RO water from the storage tank was quite literally on tap in the airing cupboard, connect a hose adapter onto the tap and you now have RO at height which could be delivered directly to your aquarium through a hose- If you could get permission for something like this or would work is very much a different matter.


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## Zeus. (22 Oct 2019)

Your cold water supply ideally shouldn't go above 20C because of legionella, esp in cold water storage (should be above 50C for hot water tank) We monitor/log our water temps at work because of legionella and the winter temps drop below 10C easy ( temp from memory)


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## alanchown (22 Oct 2019)

Andrew Butler said:


> Making RO outside in the winter?
> 
> No idea how far you are wanting to go, spend or other details so I'll just give you a scenario on what I could execute here with relative ease and possibly work around things you've said so far:
> I have a cold water storage tank in my loft as part of my heating system so have water and could quite easily add another for the RO unit to fill on a float switch, below the storage tank is the airing cupboard and I could quite easily drill another hole through the ceiling so RO water from the storage tank was quite literally on tap in the airing cupboard, connect a hose adapter onto the tap and you now have RO at height which could be delivered directly to your aquarium through a hose- If you could get permission for something like this or would work is very much a different matter.




I have a tap adapter on order so hopefully can do it indoors. Unfortunately now have a combi boiler so no storage upstairs, bu got me thinking about installing the RO unit next to boiler!


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## Fisher2007 (22 Oct 2019)

Just be mindful of condensation.  ROs go through a huge amount of water and in the winter you're going to get a fair amount of condensation build up on the unit itself and any holding container for product

My very first RO unit was a small piggy back one which I naively installed under my kitchen sink.  In the winter the condensation was ridiculous and I ended up putting it in a bowl to collect it all.  That then made the kitchen unit itself mouldy

Later I just kept mind in the garage


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## Oldguy (22 Oct 2019)

alanchown said:


> I have a bad back and carrying the 25l



I too have back problems. I use  three 10 gal builders buckets. Half fill them with rain water at 2gals a go with a bucket, them run a hosepipe from the hot water supply to fill the 10 gal buckets. A small pond pump to transfer the blended water into the fish tank. While I am filling the big buckets the fish tank water is being pumped via  the canister filter outlet onto the lawn or flower beds. (no need to worry about a siphon slipping or critters being sucked into the pipe.) Temp is judged by hand. Used to pump rain water but in the winter the plastic hosepipe is a tad hard. A stretchy hose requires too high a water pressure to expand for my pond pump to deliver a decent flow. eBay is stuffed with affordable small water pumps.
Hope this is of some help and that your back gets better.


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## GlenD (22 Oct 2019)

Hi, I use RO cut with tap, I have my RO storage barrels in the garden and I change 70-120L at a time (50/50 - 60/40 RO/Tap).


I have 2 barrels:  1 x 60L and 1 x 120L. I fill the 60L to the brim with RO, after I do my water change, so it's ready for the next week. 
I have 1 x 1200LPH pump from allpondsupplies, when it comes to water change time and pump the 60L barrel containing RO into the empty 120L. 
I then use a 10L bucker or hose from the hot tap to mix hot tap water into the RO, I monitor temp until it about right and then fill the barrel to around 90% and add Prime.  
*While the above is happening I'm normally draining the tank. 
*You don't really need the 60L barrel, but I use that to "measure" out the correct amount of RO (the barrels are not see-through). 

I now have around 110L or dechlorinate RO/Tap up to temp, I then stick a hose to the water pump, put the pump in barrel and pump directly into tank. I use an old external filter inflow pipe to keep the hose in-place. 

In this way I can change 100L of RO/Tap in <45min with NO lifting at all.


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## alanchown (22 Oct 2019)

I need to pick up a nice big storage container somewhere- they seem to cost a fortune new!


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## Fisher2007 (22 Oct 2019)

alanchown said:


> I need to pick up a nice big storage container somewhere- they seem to cost a fortune new!



Just use a garden rain water butt.  They are not food grade plastic but in all the years I used one to hold RO for marines I never had a problem.  You can easily drill them as well and fit a ballcock type thing to auto shut off the product water once it is full.  You can also buy a cool little device that then under pressure turns off the mains to the RO unit itself - see link.  This is the place I used to buy all my RO stuff from

https://www.ro-man.com/shop/accessories-and-extras/auto-shut-off-kit.html


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## GlenD (22 Oct 2019)

alanchown said:


> I need to pick up a nice big storage container somewhere- they seem to cost a fortune new!



Only £20-£45 and I had one of mine for 10 years. They come in 30L 60L 120L 220L. I use these blue ones https://oipps.co.uk/120-l-plastic-blue-open-top-keg-un


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## alanchown (22 Oct 2019)

It turns out a booster pump doesn't help much! save 40 seconds a litre- whoopee doo!


GlenD said:


> Only £20-£45 and I had one of mine for 10 years. They come in 30L 60L 120L 220L. I use these blue ones https://oipps.co.uk/120-l-plastic-blue-open-top-keg-un



They look ideal! It would only have to be in my living room Friday night, just refill Fridays before water change.


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## alanchown (22 Oct 2019)

I bought 2 of the 120L- more than I need- but can have one in garage full in case of emergencies- like I end up in pub.


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## GlenD (22 Oct 2019)

alanchown said:


> I bought 2 of the 120L- more than I need- but can have one in garage full in case of emergencies- like I end up in pub.



I actually have (for no good reason)....

3 x 30L
2 x 60L
1 x 120L
For a 180L tank


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## rubadudbdub (29 Oct 2019)

Would a sack barrow work to help lift the 25 litre containers from outside to inside. Smaller footprint than a trolley and often the base folds up for storage.

Failing this, large container. Fill up with RO outside, at water change time top up the RO container with hot tap water and pump to the tank.


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## Keith GH (30 Oct 2019)

I had exactly the same concern its extremely easily fixed buy smaller containers I ended up using 15lt then finally 10ly containers.

In the end age and my old back won next step I sold every thing now I have 3 terrascapes I use a 1lt watering can now and no back problems at all.

Keith


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## alanchown (30 Oct 2019)

So last weekend I tried my solution which seems to work.
Friday evening, Bring 120 litre barrel into through room at opposite end to tank. Fill with RO through slightly open window. Remineralize with tap and bring to temp.
On Saturday I drain water from tank via the extra outlet on FX4. Run length of hosepipe to barrel and use FX4 to pump back in.
It would be fair to say Mrs C is not entirely happy but I dont have to lift anything!


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