Reverse Osmosis, what do i need

[dustinpedley]

well theres no economical way to get rid of my hardness so i might as well go all out. I'm breaking down and I'm gonna get a R/O system. how do i know what to get and what do i need for it?

I was looking around on the internet so
what do i need?
how does it work?
which one to get?
How big? for my 55gal

I keep spending more and more $$ on this tank, it better turn out nice!

[smaug]

Have you considered doing an african rift lake tank?Those fish do well in hard water,if you cant fight it, join it ,so to speak.

[dustinpedley]

Have you considered doing an african rift lake tank?Those fish do well in hard water,if you cant fight it, join it ,so to speak.
whats that? african rift lake tank?

i had my heart set on a nice planted tank and a pair of German Blue Rams

[Sasquatch]

I can't really recommend one system over another, but in the long run it'll be fairly econimical over constantly buying distilled water.

One thing to be careful with is to never use straight RO water in your tank. Use PWCs to dilute the hardness and mix the RO water with your tap water to get the hardness level you want.

Straight RO water will kill the fish by bursting the cells in their gills.

Fish from african rift lakes like very hard water and pHs around 8.4. Planted is pretty much out of the question, they're herbivores (I think) and dig up all your plants.

Many livebearers like platies and mollies can also handle very hard water, and will do well in a planted tank.

[dustinpedley]

pardon my ignorance but where do you hook it up? does it go to your tank?

[Nautilus29]

First of all get an aquatic ro system. You get alot more gpd then one made for drinking water for the same price. Like 12gpd for the drinking water and 50 to 100gpd for the aquatic ro system. Secondly you dont want to hook up an ro system straight from your well or whatever water source you have. you either want to buy some kind of filter or the best is to hook it up to your water softener (if you have one). You will need some kind of container for the water to drain into. People use trash barrels but you can use whatever you want. If you use a pressurized water tank you could have it feed anywhere you wanted.

All ro systems waste water, but the more expensive one you buy the less water it wastes so buy the most expensive one that you can afford(thanks for the info dave66). Im going to get a 50gpd I have a 75g 55g and 20g tank. Usually you have to replace the membranes every 3 years or so, so make sure you remember to look into the membranes too.

I think you should get an ro system instead of getting mbuna cichlids. You may have to spend more money but then you will be able to keep whatever fish you want to instead of only fish from a certain part of the world. Good luck if you have any more questions just ask.

[Nautilus29]

I had all of the same questions as you when I first started. You will want it to hook up to a seperate tank or storage bin then your original. ro systems can only do a certain amount of gallons per day(depending on what they are rated for) so if you hook it up to your regular water tank you will be using all of your ro water.

if you hook it up to a trash can then you can buy a special float as a shutoff. I am not sure about having it hooked up to a pressurized water tank though maybe someone else can help you with that.

[smaug]

whats that? african rift lake tank?

i had my heart set on a nice planted tank and a pair of German Blue Rams
Im sorry I forgot your earlier post stating that.A rift lake tank would be african cichlids from the rift lake area,mostly just rockwork and high alkalinity and water hardness.Your correct in wanting a ro system for your hard water problem if you want plants.I have no experiance with them.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Just a recommendation for reconsitiuting RO water for a planted tank. Seachem makes a great product called Equalibrium. It has a lot of the essential nutrients in it, so no only do you make the water safe for the fish, you make it helpful for the plants. I have to use it on my tap water because I have water that is all but RO out of the tap.

[dustinpedley]

how much do you add (R/O) vs tap water?

ILuvMyGoldBarb is that chem like Zoe Freshwater Vitamin?
i have this stuff and i use it when i do water changes

[sailor]

If you have hard water and have your heart set on an RO system you will want to get a water softener as well. It will greatly increase the life of your RO filters and membrane as well as the RO unit itself. I add 50/50 ro and tap water to my 55 gal german blue ram tank. With the drift wood and this mixture my ph is a steady 6.8

[Nautilus29]

It depends on your tap water. You will just have to keep doing different percentages untill you get what you want. Since your tap water is so hard you will probibly have to do less then 50/50 maybe start off with 25% tap and 75% ro and then go from there.