RO water

[berkdog]

I'm considering buying RO water from my local grocery store (with 5 gallon bins). Is RO water good enough? It has a multi stage filtering process and is RO and has zero protein, etc in it and no chlorine added. But I don't see anything talking about the de-ionization of it.

I read Water Quality, etc. What sort of things might RO water have in it that RODI water wouldn't? I want to test for these things with some water samples to see how the quality is.

Thanks!!

[reefplayground]

I would have to say that that "RO" water is not really as clean as you'd like it.

Have you tested the tds on that water source?

[berkdog]

actually the SF bay area water source is very good with just a conditioner additive to remove chlorine i've been told. assuming that's the case, RO would be great, right? i got like 8 salifert test kits and have tested everything including copper in tap water that's been treated, RO water, and distilled water. they all have the same test results.

[berkdog]

CONSTITUENTS WITH SECONDARY STANDARDS Unit SMCL PHG Range Average Typical Sources in Drinking Water
Chloride ppm 500 N/A < 3 - 17 9 Runoff / leaching from natural deposits
Specific Conductance μ S/cm 1600 N/A 32 - 320 185 Substances that form ions when in water
Sulfate ppm 500 N/A 0.8 - 37 17.6 Runoff / leaching from natural deposits
Total Dissolved Solids ppm 1000 N/A 25 - 193 109 Runoff / leaching from natural

Hard to read, but the city tap water has between 25-193 tds ppm (average of 109 ppm)

[reefhead728]

If i understand you are saying that your local tapwater just needs a conditioner additive, you are looking at buy in store RO water, and you have tested the distilled water, and all three have the same results? If that is the case i would have to do the math on the cheaper of the 3.

[berkdog]

Yeah Good idea. What worried me at first was the cheap drip stick tests. Inaccurate junk! haha... once I got Salifert tests, I feel more secure in what I got.

[reefhead728]

did you get your lights set up yet berkdog?

[berkdog]

yes I did... in fact, they came in yesterday. I have to take some pictures, but wow the tank looks nicer now Even the blue background looks cool! I will post pictures after I take some