reverse osmosis coralife pure-flo 2 stagnant since 2010

[DerrickL]

Hello, all! I am a first time poster here, but have had my discus, Jim, for nearly eight years; he is the remainder of a breeding pair-- one of which, sadly, has not made it to this day.

I will be moving out of my apartment in a couple of weeks and looking to get Jim housed in a 110 Gal aquarium, where I know he will be very happy to be; unfortunately, getting 110 gallons of R.O water into this tank is not going to be an easy task.

My dad had used a pure-flo 2 (i believe) by Coralife for many years, and I continued to do so until my cat chewed through the input hose-- I then started buying water ten gallons at a time-- a practice I sorely regret.

I hope to use his filter once again, but in the past two years it has sat stagnant in our shed here at my mom's place. It appears that there is a little bit of water in the bottom of one of the canisters, and I'm thinking the whole thing probably has to be cleaned out pretty well before I should start pumping water from those canisters into Jim's new home.

Does anyone have any recommendations for me as far as keeping my lone ranger happy and handsome for his remaining years, while leaving myself sane and content.

Thank you very much,
Derrick

[Keith Perkins]

Not sure why you're wanting to use RO, unless you're breeding discus it's not usually necessary at all. It's an extremely safe bet that the membrane in the RO is shot and it and the filters need to be replaced if you really want to use that unit again. Personally, I wouldn't bother.

[DerrickL]

Really? it seems that my water being of the city breed would be too hard and toxic :/ ... I suppose I could give it a try. What signs should I look for to abort mission and run for New water?

[Keith Perkins]

If you simply age your water with aeration and a heater for 24 hours that eliminates Ph swing and a product like Safe or Prime safely removes any remaining chlorine or chorimines. Except for my breeding tanks that's exactly what I do for my community or growout tanks and the TDS from my tap is just under 400. Stable water is much more important than soft water.