RO/DI Units Information
Bottom line, you want your tank water to be clean. You have seen this through what I have already talked about, with reactors, filtration and sumps. But have you thought of what your tap water may already have in it? This is called your TDS or, “total dissolved solids”. This is a measure of basically what is in the water, and the higher the TDS, the less pure the water. Your water can also have harmful chlorine if you use city water, or phosphates and nitrates if you use well water. This is bad, you would be feeding your tank with this nasty algae food if you use tap!
RO/DI stands for, “Reverse Osmosis/De-ionization”. This is a process that creates nearly 100% pure water. You want a TDS reading to be zero before your put water in your tank. How this works:
You attach a hose to your sink or garden hose. Turning on the water source pushes water through a series of sediment and carbon blocks. It then passes through De-Ionization Resin and finally exits a tube into a purified water vessel. The RODI unit will dispose of bad water containing very high TDS automatically. You will need a few things besides the RO unit though. You need a location, to store the unit itself. You need a place to store the purified water. You also need a drainage place for the bad water to go (you don’t have to waste it!). You need a station to mix saltwater, that consists of a mixing vessel with a powerhead and a heater. I will explain powerheads more in the next section but they basically agitate the water so salt can be dissolved.
You CAN get water from other places such as your LFS but it is a huge pain to drag water all over the place, especially for a big system. Believe me when I say, your water will evaporate FAST. Bulk Reef Supply makes one of the best RODI units on the market, for as little as $120.
RO/DI stands for, “Reverse Osmosis/De-ionization”. This is a process that creates nearly 100% pure water. You want a TDS reading to be zero before your put water in your tank. How this works:
You attach a hose to your sink or garden hose. Turning on the water source pushes water through a series of sediment and carbon blocks. It then passes through De-Ionization Resin and finally exits a tube into a purified water vessel. The RODI unit will dispose of bad water containing very high TDS automatically. You will need a few things besides the RO unit though. You need a location, to store the unit itself. You need a place to store the purified water. You also need a drainage place for the bad water to go (you don’t have to waste it!). You need a station to mix saltwater, that consists of a mixing vessel with a powerhead and a heater. I will explain powerheads more in the next section but they basically agitate the water so salt can be dissolved.
You CAN get water from other places such as your LFS but it is a huge pain to drag water all over the place, especially for a big system. Believe me when I say, your water will evaporate FAST. Bulk Reef Supply makes one of the best RODI units on the market, for as little as $120.
