RO alternatives

At the most yes, i actually think it is a bit less, havent actually measured the waste. My water bill is like R150 a month MAX.

 

here is a link http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/forumdisplay.php?f=71

 

In the garden!

 

ok so back on the topic of alternatives.there must be another way to skin this cat.

 

so the wasted water can be collected and used in the garden then?

 

im going to check on youtube now and see if i can see how one actually works and how to collect the waste water etc

 

5. Resin.

 

im going to check on youtube now and see if i can see how one actually works and how to collect the waste water etc

 

resin?explain please

 

I do not know the details. Theory is you cycle your water through resin that absorb the elements it is designed to absorb. You get many different types of resin. If you want to take dissolved solids out, you use the resin for that. If you want to take NH3 out, you use the resin for that! When the resin is saturated, you clean it by rinsing in some liquid and use it again. I abandoned the idea without trying. Google it and see for yourself.

 

Pictures of my set-up. I went overboard and spend unnecessary money. Used copper pipe for plumbing! Expensive, temptation to steal and leech into water. Then, my holding tank is a bit big. Learn from my mistakes.

My 300gpd unit deliver 25lt in 25 min. You can run the unit 8 hours on, 2 hours off. Paid R3990 incl.

 

ok so distilled would work out a bit much.
rainwater would require also a large enough container to carry me out thru the year so thats not going to work.
filtering peat comes with the blackwater which will not work on a planted tank.
then is the diy co2 blasting which i spoke to shihr about then the subject of co2 imbalance came in which would obviously pose a problem but if my limited understanding is correct
1.co2 lowers ph?
2.if the gh is high it is harder to change the ph?
3.if said container is open and/or aerated the co2 will be dissipated negating a co2 imbalance?

as im writing a few problems are popping into my head like how would i know if all the co2 is dissipated before a water change.how long would the water have to be blasted before a drop is measured(bearing in mind its weekly water changes.) i suppose that could be tested but then the results would most likely be all over the place.

 

very nice tomk unfortunately for me RO is just not going to work out for various reason hence the search for alternatives if any.

 

I do not know anything about CO2. The problem remain, you do not want hard water. CO2 is not going to make it soft. It will only bring ph down.

Buying RO water may not be so expensive. Ask around and buy from a DIY guy. 50c as I have said, maybe even cheaper. Ask around. I know, if a fellow fish keeper buys a few 100lt at a time from me, I might even go to 30c !

 

thanks tom but also the logistics of carting around 200kg of water a week is a no go.

 

OK, again I see this thread only once it has got on quite a bit.

You have mentioned how to soften water, that is by distilling it, using RO and then someone mentioned resins.

Well you can take out all the positive ions by means of an anion exchange resin and replace them with H+ and then you can use cation resin and replace all the negatively charged ions with OH- ions. The H+ and OH- ions neutralize each other and give you water, so you end up with pure water after passing the water through the two columns. This is called a combined cation and anion exchanger. See: http://www.waterprofessionals.com/ultrapure/ion_exchange.html Sounds all nice, until you have to recharge the columns with dilute hydrochloric acid and caustic soda and you have a major mess with hazardous chemicals in your kitchen so as far as I am concerned, RO is the only alternative.

It needs to be stated here, that peat reduces carbonate hardness and takes carbonate out of the water, but only that and not any other negatively charged ions such as sulphate or chloride (note I say chloride and not chlorine, those are two completely different things). So peat softens water, but it does not remove everything and particularly if your water is quite hard then it will not be good enough. It also does NOT remove the positively charged calcium and magnesium ions so it does NOT reduce general hardness. In an area such as Johannesburg this will not soften the water enough to breed discus for example. So again, you end up with RO as the only alternative.

Now TomK, I do not know why it is always like this, but I seem to end up putting a spanner in your works all the time. BUT, your copper pipes for your water after the RO are ABSOLUTELY lethal. You have now prepared this beautiful pure water coming out of the RO unit in plastic pipes and then you spoil it all by adding a copper pipe!!!!!!!!! Because the water is so soft it will just love to pick up any ions from your copper pipe and your water will be contaminated with copper. This is just about the worst contaminant that you can have in water for fishes. I now all of a sudden understand why your angels are having problems, COPPER! It will kill tiny sensitive fry like that, no wonder! You need to replace the fittings after the RO pipe with plastic or PVC, but absolutely no copper, promise me, PLEASE.....!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Dirk, I know! I brought it up in the first place, did I not?

We must have been enemies in a previous life? :fight:Strange, I quite like you... :stupid:


As far as my Angels is concerned, I do not have a problem, other than not having BBS for them! Maybe time to place a pic of my current fry, by the 100, swimming with mom? It is amazing, she collect them from all the dirty areas, and take them to a cleaner area, so I can siphon there! She is one hell of a mother and it break my heart to not be able to feed them. So, if I had copper in my water, I doubt that this would be the case.

My RO water for use in my tank travel for 30cm in the copper pipe. I will test for copper and get back to you, but I am virtually sure it is not a problem.

Other than that, I am very upset with myself for wasting money like that and every time I look at that monster tank, I am reminded. I did say, 'learn from my mistakes!'

 

Wish I used that money on a better camera. She is in one school, with another in the right bottom corner and another to the left, out of view. Then there is a lot of loners doing their own thing all over the tank. This is the batch following the previous one where I reported the 'hive' effect. I lost them all in the end, no BBS...

 

Hi Tom,

Sorry to be such a pain in the proverbial.

I am on sabbatical leave this year which may sound all fancy and as though I would have loads of time, but what it actually means is that I am doing research flat out. I must get an email to you re the eggs, but I am glad to hear that you are making headway with your angels, I am glad I am actually wrong on this. In your big tank, the water would get acid due to dissolved CO2 and there the stopcock copper is a real danger because in acid water, copper dissolves even better. Remember that if the water gets warm/hot more copper will dissolve. Remember also it is better to let the first water from the tap run into the drain and to only use the water after a minute or two to flush the copper pipe.

Don't worry about the money you spent on the fittings, view it as an investment in the learning process.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

No prob Dirk, I understand. But do not worry, I have some on its way from a lady in your neck of the woods.

Now back to the alternatives. Sorry @oscar freak.