[gpodio]

Whos using it, who's not, what are your thoughts? Pros, cons....

 

[gpodio]

Well it's been a month now since I have posted this poll and about 2 months since I started using RO/DI myself. It sure is very nice to be able to control water parameters to your liking and experiment with different levels in different tanks, it also makes killing snails very easy by lowering your GH and KH to the point where their shells become weak and brittle. But most of all I have noticed in general that my tanks are cleaner, spot algae is less than what it used to be so that is nice. The biggest advantage is probably to the fish in my case as my tap water has heavy metals in it which do a great job at killing my fish if I use a water conditioner that does not treat for heavy metals, I found that out the hard way. Now I don't use any conditioner at all.

I bought my 100gpd filter from aquasafecanada (ebay seller) for around $150 with the 3.2 gallon container (a must IMO), shipping and a digital TDS meter. That's quite cheap and based on what I hear about replacing filters, the only one that really costs a lot is the RO membrane and DI filter, both of these have a nice long life span and in 4-5 years I'm not sure if I'd spend $80 on new filter elements or just buy a new unit from them again, price difference is not a lot if you think about it (excluding the TDS meter and 3.2 gallon container). Plus I now have very good tasting water and ice cubes

Considering what I spend on my tanks each year it's not very difficult to justify $150 on pure water.

Giancarlo Podio

 

[gpodio]

Good question. I think it's a much debated topic, you hear both sides of the story anywhere you go. I've been drinking RO/DI for a couple months now and am still standing

I think most people will save their DI filter because it doesn't last long and regular RO water is more than sufficient for drinking. If I see my DI filter doesn't last long I may do the same myself. I'll look more into the DI issue just in case I shouldn't be drinking it...

Here's the exact same unit that I purchased on ebay for 1/4 of the price:
http://www.cantares.on.ca/ro/

Here's a thread on the drinking topic:
http://www.finishing.com/156/65.html

Giancarlo Podio

 

[gpodio]

In light of the DI debate and if it's safe to drink or not, I figured it's not going to hurt to remove it out of the loop. A quick change in a couple tubes here and there and I now have RO coming out of the tap installed on the sink for drinking purposes and RO/DI out of the auxilary hose under the sink for my tanks. Besides removing any possibility that the DI may cause some unwanted side-effects, this should preserve my DI filter and extend it's life considerably. Luckily these filters use quick disconnect hoses and it's real easy to change things around and re-configure the entire filter to your liking.

Regards
Giancarlo Podio