Water filter/softener (regeneration salt) and water for planted aquarium

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I’ve heard Tap water quality in parts of the USA is dreadful. Whether it’s actually bad for your health or just makes you want to be sick is another matter! 🙂 Weren’t some folks able to set light to the tap in fracking areas? !

Unfortunately "market forces" at play in a, basically unregulated, environment. It is much more "cost effective" to add a lot of chlorine to the water supply <"than actually treat it">.

......Five minutes later I realize I did not add Prime to the 20 long. Too late, all six fish are dead. Anyone that has attended CatCon knows how deadly the water is here. No fish can survive in untreated DC water for more than a minute or two...........

It is the <"same with power outages">, horrible and unusual for us, but really common in the USA. If you go onto <"PlanetCatfish"> there are multiple threads of woe from the USA.

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Sodium (Na) is limited to 200 mg/l, which I believe is the same limit defined in UK's Drinking Water Directive.

It is the same. If you have more than about ~18 dGH in your incoming tap water, once it has been through the ion exchange unit, the treated water it will be over the 200 mg/L Na limit.

<"Companies that sell these units"> know that the calcium carbonate ~ CO2 equilibrium will not produce water with more than 18 dGH, unless there is another source of calcium (from <"evaporite minerals">) etc. And if you have harder water than that? They can just <"sell you another filter"> to reduce the sodium levels.

A cynic might suggest that the 200 ppm limit and calcium carbonate solubility values are not unrelated, although the link between sodium and hypertension is not as clear cut as was once thought.

Because our processed food is awash with salt (and sugar) companies that sell water softening units can point out that drinking water is a relatively smaller contributor to our <"overall sodium intake">.

cheers Darrel

 

[arcturus]

Another question from someone that never used RO water in an aquarium... should I add water conditioner to the RO water before re-mineralizing it? I ask this mainly because of chlorine and chloramine (or byproducts of chloramine such as ammonia). Or will the water conditioner do more harm than good when used in the highly demineralized RO water?

And do you have any suggestions for salts to re-mineralize RO water? The prices I have seen so far are outrageous...

 

[sparkyweasel]

Most RO units have a dechlorinating stage (such as an activated carbon prefilter) mainly to prolong the life of the RO membrane as chlorine can damage it.

 

[bazz]

Hi,

And do you have any suggestions for salts to re-mineralize RO water? The prices I have seen so far are outrageous...

I remineralise 140l of water/week with 4g-CaNO3, 10g-MgSO4, 5g-CaCl, 5g, CaSO4 and 3.5g-KCO3 which = dGH5.24 + dKH1.1.
Each chemical is around £10.00/kg, so for £50.00 I have enough chemicals to last me approx 4 years, according to my dodgy mathematics that's 25p/week.
Twice as much MgSO4 is used but this is less than half the price.
You can also remove CaNO3 and CaSO4 from the equation but it will increase the amount of Chloride and I already had these remaining from other projects.
So you could actually get away with spending £25.00 but this will obviously last half the time.
Cheers!

 

[ian_m]

should I add water conditioner to the RO water before re-mineralizing it?

Some people always add water conditioner to their RO water in case there is chlorine (from chlorinated water) and/or ammonia (from chloramine) getting through into the output due to worn out/failed RO elements. Also the RO water is probably one case where a chlorine and/or ammonia test kit would give meaningful results, as there are no other interfering ions/salts present in the water.

I learnt about this "issue" with RO water when going to a local fish shop when they had an open evening, where as well as trying to sell you stuff also showed what equipment they have for their tanks, how it works and how they verify it is working.

They stored RO water in tanks from their pumped (8 bar) RO unit. RO unit had flow meters, measuring pre-filter (chlorine removal) flow as well as output flow so they knew when to replace the filter/RO elements. Might have been a dual stage/element RO unit to reduce water wastage, as they were on a commercial water meter. They also tested their RO water for chlorine & ammonia before selling to the public and cutting with tap water to use in their display tanks.

 

[Aqua sobriquet]

It seems extremely difficult to find unbiased opinion on the health effects of using artificially softened water. 99% of the “information” seems to come from companies that manufacturer, supply and fit water softeners. Not surprisingly they say it’s perfectly safe! I therefore though It quite amusing to see another biased report that stated the opposite! Not surprising as they make water filters. I wonder though if there’s any truth about damage to water pipes etc?

What is Soft Water and Why You Should NEVER Drink it!

What is soft water, why you should NEVER ever drink it and what types of safer water should you drink instead?

www.mrwatergeek.com