What Is Ro/di?

[b0bby1]

what is RO/DI water? is it just plain distilled water?

[dcombs44]

RO/DI=Reverse Osmosis/Deionization.

RO/DI units can be purchased from a number of Reef Central Sponsors. Many cheaper, less effective units can be purchased elsewhere as well, but a typical RO/DI unit will contain at least four filter chambers containing the following:

Polyfilter
Carbon
RO Membrane
DI media

To answer your question, no RO/DI is not distilled water. I've heard of some people using distilled water in their tanks, but I also believe that there are some people that don't recommend it. Most fish stores will sell RO/DI water by the gallon, but you never know if they keep their filters changed regularly, etc. etc.

Wait for some more people to chime in about the distilled question.

Other people buy water from the culligan machines at wal-mart. It is typically RO water.

[Gobie74]

Pretty much as dcombs44 said, RO/DI systems pass water through a bunch of filters/membranes. Distilled systems boil the water and collect the condensation. Depending on how the condensate is collected/condensed, it could contain some things you don't want, i.e. if the condensing tubes are copper.

[dcombs44]

Originally posted by Gobie74
Pretty much as dcombs44 said, RO/DI systems pass water through a bunch of filters/membranes. Distilled systems boil the water and collect the condensation. Depending on how the condensate is collected/condensed, it could contain some things you don't want, i.e. if the condensing tubes are copper.

I was thinking that distillers could use something that contained copper, but I wasn't sure, so I didn't say it. Thanks!

P.S. Bobby, copper is lethal to most if not all inverts in marine aquaria.

[Big Chika]

Originally posted by dcombs44
RO/DI=Reverse Osmosis/Deionization.

RO/DI units can be purchased from a number of Reef Central Sponsors. Many cheaper, less effective units can be purchased elsewhere as well, but a typical RO/DI unit will contain at least four filter chambers containing the following:

Polyfilter
Carbon
RO Membrane
DI media

To answer your question, no RO/DI is not distilled water. I've heard of some people using distilled water in their tanks, but I also believe that there are some people that don't recommend it. Most fish stores will sell RO/DI water by the gallon, but you never know if they keep their filters changed regularly, etc. etc.

Wait for some more people to chime in about the distilled question.

Other people buy water from the culligan machines at wal-mart. It is typically RO water.

So can we use water from the water stores? I have about 10 empty water jugs in my backyard storage. I also was looking to get a unit but not sure what I'm looking for.

[bertoni]

The water stores near my had very clean water. I'd check their report on water quality and likely get a TDS meter for testing, just for safety's sake, though.

[MR PALM BEACH]

Lose the jugs and get yourself a 1 or 2 5g water jugs. Most super markets have water purafication fill machine In the store. Might cost $1.50 to fill 5g. Might be eaiser than lugging 1g jugs around. Check this Link you can get a unit for a very reasonable price.

http://www.thefilterguys.biz/index.htm

[rbtwo4]

http://www.thefilterguys.biz/index.htm
Jim will answer whatever questions you may have.

[MR PALM BEACH]

I was also told from a fellow reefer that you can tell them the city and zip you live In and they will pull a water analyst sheet on your cities water quality and then put a system together thats meets your water quality needs.

[dcombs44]

www.reefcentral.com/sponsors

you will find all vendors here that sponsor Reef Central

Spectrapure
The filter Guys
Melevs Reef
Purely H2o
Buckeye Field Supply
Etc.

[Big Chika]

So what's more important RO or DI or both?

[marduc]

A good RO membrane should remove 97 - 99 % of the impurities from the water, however it works by only allowing molecules less than a certain size pass through the membrane, water being one of them, however water is not the only molecule small enough to get through.

This is where the DI cartridge finishes the job by binding any of these ions that may have passed through the membrane including nitrates, silicates, ect.

A good RO can drastically extend the life of your DI unit, if I was forced to take one over the other I would take a good RO unit (provided there is a sediment filter and a carbon block before that to extend its life), however there will still be those trace ions left over. Another drawback of a membrane (RO) alone is that on start up they have a tendancy to release water with an elevated dissolved solid content unless ran for a few minutes to release the creep that builds up.

Nothing beats a good RO/DI combo though, and spending extra for quality does pay off long term in membrane/resin replacement costs, each filter in line extends the life of the one behind it when working at peak efficiency.

[dcombs44]

You ultimately want the TDS to be zero. The RO is more important, but you usually won't get the quality that you want without DI.

[bertoni]

It's possible to use DI only, but you'd want to regenerate your own media, since the DI filter will be exhausted very rapidly. That's not worth the trouble, in my opinion, and also the regeneration solutions are not very friendly (muriatic acid and lye, I think).