RO/DI

[BIGBIRD123]

Can you use the waste water from the ro/di for FW tanks? I was just wondering because I know you can drink it.

Steve

[OldSalty]

I wouldn't use it! Waste water is has a HI tds. thats why its rejected in the first place.

[dan]

yes it's high in tds but since it's gone through carbon, is'nt better than tap water? when you drink tap water you get all the tds. ummmmm goooood :sick :sick :sick

[Ram_Puppy]

I would say it's better than Tap, it should have reduced chemical content having gone through your carbon pre-filter (or a sediment pre-filter if you have one) Should be low in chlorine, and other nastyness...

that being said, you might want to try it on a canary (metaphorically speaking)

[Tim Marvin]

"Waste water" is a poor choice of words. This water is much better than tap water as it has gone through a pre-filter and carbon. I use all the waste water in my ponds and I would not hesitate for a second to use it on FW tanks. It should be called partially filtered water.

[dan]

that's where my waste line is, in my pond. ;)

[Tim Marvin]

Right, don't "waste" it.

[Richard]

That's a cool idea! I'm hoping to get my pond done this spring. How do you collect the "waste" water? Do you just have the drain line running to your pond?

[Tim Marvin]

Home depot has all the line you can stand....LOL... I run it straight out to the pond.

[BIGBIRD123]

Thanks Tim and Dan. I thought that was right but just wanted to hear it from someone "more" knowledgable than me. ****, that word's so big it don't look like I spelled it right!

Steve

[Tim Marvin]

there is an E after the G... But I am no english teacher....LOL... I have a hard time with Algae, or is it Algea? LOL.....

[BIGBIRD123]

Tim, You see I paid my dues, where's my frag? LOL!

[Tim Marvin]

Come and get it. I have a nice hydnophora frag for you...LOL...

[BIGBIRD123]

Do you mean...hidenoforya? LMAO!

[Gator]

great now i have to tell the wife i have to install a pond for my rodi water\, i dont think she is going to like this one :wacko

[Tim Marvin]

She'll love it!

[OldSalty]

Well, looks I'm out voted here :blush. Someone told me a while back (just because you can drink it, doesn't mean a fish can live in it) I water the plants with mine but never have used it in my pond.

[Richard]

OH! I actually didn't read the original question. Just spotted the thing about ponds and thought that was what it was about.

I would NOT use your RO waste water for your FW tanks. The fish you have listed (Oscar & Tropical) are both soft water fish. They generally tolerate our hard water but I think using the RO waste water would really be pushing it. Remember there is nothing to use up carbonates in your FW tank like there is in a reef so you'll just be constantly increasing the alkalinity. I had customer who had an African cichlid tank on a sump system. He was just topping off and figured that counted as a water change. He brought me some water to test when he started losing fish and his alk was at 15. Any african cichlid people are thinking 15 dKH no problem but I mean 15 meq/l :o

Not an issue with a pond IMO. Large water volume and it gets diluted everytime it rains.

[MikeDeL]

Now what if you were to use the waste water for water changes, and top of with RO? I wouldnt see a problem with that.

[Richard]

That might work. On our FW setups we do water changes with tap (well) water and top off the sumps with DI. South American cichlids and most tropicals will do best and show better color in soft water with the ph around neutral.

[Richard]

Oh, but his water will still be much harder than ours stays unless he's bagging fish everyday and topping off with di. Our tropical fish are doing dramatically better since we started doing this.

[witecap4u]

One of these days/months/years, my "waste water" will be going to my pond as "partially filtered water", but that will only be after I get around to doing it.

[speakerguy]

polkster does that, his pond is real nice. I think it would also be fine for African cichlids.

[Polkster13]

Yeah, Tim told me about that little trick. It was what convinced me to go to a DI/RO unit. Glad I did.

[Tim Marvin]

Richard, that makes sense, I don't know jack about freshwater fish. I know the Koi do fine, but as you said the rain overflows the pond often. Can you use something to keep the alk down in fresh water and sill use the partially filtered water?