Ro filter?

[Northernboy79]

I am looking to get into discus, and looking for a ro filter. Will a 3 stage be good enough for a ro filter, or should I get a 4 or 5 stage? Thank you for the help..

[Adam S]

3 stage is fine. DI isn't necessary unless your tap has a lot of nitrates.

[RogueDiscus]

3 stage is fine. DI isn't necessary unless your tap has a lot of nitrates.

+1
I like the 3-stage I got from Bulk Reef Supply (I actually have 2 of them). If I recall, I had to look for it a bit on their site to get the one without DI.

[Adam S]

I emailed BRS a while back asking if they offered a 3-stage, and they said no. Pentaires and Spectrapure also offer good units. If you get a good deal on a 4-stage unit, just swap the DI for another carbon block. Good if you have chloramines.

[RogueDiscus]

I got my numbers mixed up. They are the 4-stage filters; three canisters plus the RO.

[Fishquake]

I emailed BRS a while back asking if they offered a 3-stage, and they said no. Pentaires and Spectrapure also offer good units. If you get a good deal on a 4-stage unit, just swap the DI for another carbon block. Good if you have chloramines.

You have to be certain to use Catalytic Carbon to remove chloramines.

[Northernboy79]

Is there a reason not to have the di part of the filter? Is the di striping to much of the water for the fish?

[Adam S]

It's expensive and unnecessary. RO makes water with 8-15 tds depending on the source water, DI drops that down to 0-6. RO strips too much anyways, so you will have to reconstitute it with tap or a commercial product.

[Filip]

It's expensive and unnecessary. RO makes water with 8-15 tds depending on the source water, DI drops that down to 0-6. RO strips too much anyways, so you will have to reconstitute it with tap or a commercial product.

+1.
Aiming for 50 -100 TDS would be more than enough to strip from the tap water .

[Northernboy79]

Ok, so I live in the city with treated water. And my home has copper pipes. Should I get a ro filter or treat the water coming out? Thanks for all the help just new with it all.

[Paul Sabucchi]

Are you planning on breeding? If not you may not need reverse osmosis. Check the pH, total and carbonatic hardness of your tapwater before deciding if and what RO filter you may need

[gators111]

You might also try looking at airwaterice.com. I've had mine for over a decade and it still works great.

[jeep]

Are you planning on breeding? If not you may not need reverse osmosis. Check the pH, total and carbonatic hardness of your tapwater before deciding if and what RO filter you may need

Paul is :thumbsup: If you are just starting, why the RO? Discus do fine in regular tap. I only use RO to insure fertilization...

[Willie]

A rule of thumb is whether you have a water softener. If you do, then you have hard water coming in. Best approach would be to tap the pipe so input is pre-softened water. Water softeners work by adding salt to the water, so what you get is not soft water, but softened water. There's a world of difference.

If you get by just fine without a water softener, discus will spawn fine in tap water.

Willie

[MendoMan]

I have the BSR 5 stage with an added R/O membrane to cut down on waste. If I don't want to use the D/I i can use unplug the water line going into it. It's the last station on the unit and gives water with 5PPM before the D/I. As someone mentioned you don't need the expense of R/O for domestics, I only use it on my wilds.

[Adam S]

A rule of thumb is whether you have a water softener. If you do, then you have hard water coming in. Best approach would be to tap the pipe so input is pre-softened water. Water softeners work by adding salt to the water, so what you get is not soft water, but softened water. There's a world of difference.

If you get by just fine without a water softener, discus will spawn fine in tap water.

Willie
Not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but I was told to install RO after the softener. It's easier for the membrane to remove sodium than calcium/magnesium.

[Northernboy79]

Thanks Willie. I do feel a lil dumb. Lol

[Northernboy79]

Thanks everyone for the help. I just want to start out with good water. I'm worried about chlorine and city treated tap water and the copper water pipes in the house. I just moved to "the city" from the country with great well water. Lol

[DJW]

Not sure if I'm reading this correctly, but I was told to install RO after the softener. It's easier for the membrane to remove sodium than calcium/magnesium.

Its true that the membranes will last longer with softened water, but since most people that use RO are using RO mixed with tap, or tap only in some tanks, its a good idea to bypass the softener. The best thing, if you wanted to do a little extra plumbing, would be to have unsoftened water going into the fishroom for general use, and softened water going only to the RO filter.

On the other hand, I don't think anybody knows for sure how much sodium is too much, or what minimum level of calcium is required in water for growing healthy fish. Since fish get minerals primarily from food, the amount needed in the water appears to be very low, although I have read accounts of deformed fry in low calcium water. I bypassed my softener simply because I would rather have calcium than sodium. Calcium is at least known to be a beneficial mineral, while sodium is at very low concentrations in South American rivers. The harder the incoming water, the higher the sodium level in the softened water.

[Megalodon]

There's a lot of ion exchange at the gills so I believe water that's much lower in Ca, Mg and other naturally occurring ions can be detrimental to fish. I would definitely prefer Ca over Na or K so I would bypass the softener unless using an RO filter and remineralizing properly.

[JamesW]

R/O filters were designed for desalination. They are much more efficient at separating water from sodium than dications like calcium and magnesium. By using softened water feed for your R/O unit you will get a lower TDS in your output, a longer lived membrane and less waste water. If you reconstitute with non-softened water (often your cold kitchen sink faucet and/or outdoor hoses) you will have a lot more than Ca or Mg in your water for water change than any Na that gets through a RO membrane.