RO units

[RDFISHGUY]

If these remove chlorine and chloramine I think it would be cost effective to purchase one as it would eliminate the need to use water conditioners and save me a bundle. Does anyone know if they do remove these chemicals?

[RD.]

Yes & no. Here's a good read on chloramine & RO units.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/...ature/index.php

[RDFISHGUY]

Sounds like more tests and more work unless you get a dosing system.

[Baos]

I recently purchased one off e-bay for 140bux, your savings is in the lack of their assembly. Besides removing chlorine, It removes everything else in your water. The combined ppm to the limits of my meter rate it lower than 20ppm. It's almost the same as distilled water. It will have no buffers(add alkalinity and ph down to establish buffers) and you may need to add some trace.(ups the cost) However I have heard of some brita filters that go right on the tap and remove chlorine on the way out.

Edited June 17, 2008 by Baos

[sharuq1]

I usually just add some Prime to my RO before it hits my sw tank as Red Deer water does contain chloramine and you can't be too careful. I guess it depends on what you are using it for as to whether you would want to add trace elements, buffers etc.. Be aware though that many of these trace products also for some dumb reason include copper on their ingredient list. Fine if you just have fish, sucks if you have inverts. (at least it will once it builds up enough) Baked baking soda works really well for boosting kH.

Now that being said I usually don't bother to add the Prime to my FW tanks and have experienced no problems so far using it for top ups and for mixing with tap-water to get a lower pH for certain critters. I guess if you are worried about it you could always test for chlorine/chloramine.

[firestorm]

It removes mostly everything from your water. Best bet though is to buy an RO/DI unit as it filters more out. I also bought one off ebay from Aquasafe, paid around $150 for it including shipping. I have not had the chance to put it together yet, too busy to. You can either use straight RO water in your tanks or a ratio of RO to tap water. If using straight RO, as mentioned above you will need to add the trace elements back to the water since RO water has no pH or KH. If you feel more comfortable you can add water conditioners along with it, but it isn't always necessary. The only advantage to an RO unit in calgary is if you are keeping fish that prefer a lower pH and KH than what we have here in Calgary. Otherwise for fish that like high pH and KH, it just wouldn't be worth it with all the trace elements you will have to be putting back into the water. Hope this helps