# continuous ro water added aquarium



## danmil3s (28 Feb 2010)

i have an ro unit im not using. im wondering if i run it straight in to my aquarium continually would that be ok. if its on all the time it would change %50 of the water or there a bouts in a week. would i still need to do a water change i know i would have to add the salts ever day. would it cause other problems. my water is very very hard 22 dgh thanks for any advice.


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## Ed Seeley (28 Feb 2010)

If you continually monitor it then this would be fine and could replace your weekly water changes.  Just bear in mind that a constant trickle adding 50% does not have the same dilution effect as a single 50% water change.

How are you going to remove the excess water?  If it's via some kind of overflow make sure it cannot either block or cause the water level to drop too far.  Fitting and auto shut off kit on the RO feed would stop the water flow if there was some overflow-blockage problem.

Perhaps a more important question is why do you want to use RO?  You do realise that you don't need RO water for a planted tank (unless growing some fussy plants or specific fish species) and it will waste water as it rejects around a third to a fifth of the water when working well.


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## danmil3s (28 Feb 2010)

i was thinking about using ro just because i have it sitting in my cupboard doing nothing and i like the idea of not having to do a water change. all so i did read if its really hard plants might struggle to use some nutrients. i would use an overflow box in my sump to remove the extra water shouldn't block as there is nothing floating in there.i used to have it running all the time when i had six smaller tanks to keep up with there water changes. the guy in the shop told me it was a good idea to use ro water i know i don't really need to. just being lazy now i guess.


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## Ed Seeley (1 Mar 2010)

Ro isn't bad - I use it for all my tanks - it's just that it isn't necessary for most tanks and water supplies either.  I use it for all my tanks (even a Tanganyikan one) but all my waste water goes into my koi pond so I don't waste any water.  Unless your water is liquid concrete then the vast majority of plants don't need the water softening and you would need to add some hardness back in for the plants too so it does make things more complicated.

If you want to run a constant trickle you could do it without the RO membrane, just have the prefilter and carbon block to remove any impurities from the water and then fit a ball valve on the line to just trickle that water in.  Be even easier than RO and no wasted water!


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## danmil3s (1 Mar 2010)

thanks edd so i could set it up with out the membrane reduce the water presser to just a trickle. and have it slowly change the water that way. using an overflow box to get rid off excess water no need to add salts and no wasted water.which is better for the environment. doest matter to me no im not on a meter.  i think i prefer this method i was just concerned because when i tested my tank water it took i got a reading of 32dgh if it even goes that high. that's how many drops of the checker went in before the colour changed. i read some where about some one putting a tap on there ro fillter so the could switch between filtered and ro water. would it be worth me setting it up like that to reduce hardens a bit by say put ro water in for 24 hours a week or should i just not worry so much. thanks for all the help im getting guys.


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## Ed Seeley (1 Mar 2010)

Bear in mind your tank water might be higher than your tap water - I'd check that first before deciding whether you want to use RO.

If you want to reduce the hardness then the best idea IMHO is to add a percentage of RO water and a percentage of the waste as a constant trickle.
For instance if your tap water is 32dGH and you want water about 8dGH you need to add about 25% waste water to 75% RO product water.  (That's assuming your product water is 0dGH.)  This would still generate a fair bit of waste water though.

If you don't want to run the RO membrane I'd just take the whole membrane and housing off and run the feed pipe to the tank straight out of carbon pod (This will be the feed into the membrane housing as your RO unit will currently be set up).


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## danmil3s (1 Mar 2010)

if the water harden doesn't mater i might just run it with out the membrane im right in thinking that water is chlorine free and fish tank safe so can go straight in.


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## Ed Seeley (2 Mar 2010)

The carbon block will get rid of the chlorine in the water so just running it through the prefilter and carbon will deal with anything in the tap water like that.


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## danmil3s (2 Mar 2010)

thanks ed i think thats the plan then. ill set it up in a couple or weeks. shouldn't be to hard already got most of the plumbing there from the water butts i fill up at the moment.thanks for you advice.
dan


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## Mark Webb (10 Mar 2010)

This may be useful   *Drip System Water Change Rate Calculator*


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## danmil3s (10 Mar 2010)

thanks for that i was going to guess at %20 every day looks like %10 would do 50% change in  a week. if i get an hour this week end ill set it up might go for Sunday do a proper change then get this running then f1


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## danmil3s (13 Mar 2010)

so its up and running lets see how it goes. all made of coke bottles and bits i  had lying around.


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## Ed Seeley (14 Mar 2010)

Don't forget to keep track of your water parameters after you've set it up.  I'd check KH, GH and pH at least every day for a while to check you don't alter the water chemistry too much.


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## danmil3s (14 Mar 2010)

im just using the carbon and 5 micron filters like you suggested  so it shouldn't change to much should it.


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## Ed Seeley (14 Mar 2010)

danmil3s said:
			
		

> im just using the carbon and 5 micron filters like you suggested  so it shouldn't change to much should it.



It shouldn't... But if you don't test the water for the first week or two while you're doing this how will you know?  Water supply through the taps can change and as you're adding new water to top up evaporation as well as change the water it is just worth playing it safe and testing the water to make sure of this.


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## danmil3s (14 Mar 2010)

i was going to test ph don't think my gh can go up any more thought it was only the ro part that affected hardness ill check them all tonight


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## danmil3s (14 Mar 2010)

checked ph kh and gh the gh went down unexpectedly from 30 down to 22 dkh ill keep an eye on that might check the tap water aswell


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## Ed Seeley (14 Mar 2010)

You say the GH went down to 22dKH?  KH and GH are different things!  GH is the general hardness which measures the calcium and magnesium ions in the water and KH is the carbonate hardness which measures those ions.

Assuming you meant 22dGH then that's still very hard so no need to worry.  It might be that your constant water changes are reducing the TDS and the GH with it.  No need to worry though, but good to know.


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## danmil3s (14 Mar 2010)

sorry did mean dgh ill keep watching


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