RO Water Alternative?

in vegas we have these "water mills" they have reverse osmosis incorporated with other filtration methods... was curious if this water would useable in fowlr tank... its only 25 cents a gallon... which is much more manageable than purchasing a home unit... just while i get everything set up /established

Watermill Express | Our Water

 

Just depends on how often the "water company" is changing their filter and servicing their equipment. Most people buy their own RO/DI system because then they can control how old filters are and how well the system is maint.

 

The other problem is that the RO filter might not be the 98% rejection rate units that are used in the hobby, but much lower rated ones, possibly under 90%.

 

Vegas like Phoenix and much of So. Calif is served by Colorado River water. The TDS and hardness are extremely high and RO by itself only does 90-98% of the job, you really need to follow up with DI for the best water.
I avoid vending machines at all costs, you are at the mercy of the maintenence person and really what they consider maintenance is disinfecting the nozzles and maybe changeing the prefilter which has no effect on TDS.
I am certain you have Water & Ice type stores all over the place just like we do. The stores are manned and usually do a pretty good job of treating the water. Again its RO only but the quality is almost always higher. They also have a TDS or conductivity meter in the store and i have always found they are more than happy to test the water in my presence when I tell them its for a reef tank. They are proud of their product and depend on word of mouth for advertising since they area small business.

Never purchase water without testing it with a TDS meter no matter what the source. The idea is you want to control its quality not let someone else do it, or in many cases not do it, for you.

 

For a FOWLR that would be fine. If you decide to switch over to a reef I would purchase an RO/DI unit.

 

How can you make a statement like that when you have no idea what the incoming TDS or outgoing TDS numbers are. I would venture to say its not "fine" as its treated Colorado River water. Probably suitable for drinking but fish deserve just as high a quality as corals do if not higher.
Many vending machines are through the roof on TDS since it only has to meet drinking water standards not reef standards. Actually thats overstated, vending machines are not tested by health agencies at all. In AZ all they are tested by is the Dept of weights and measures to make sure you get a gallon for your quarter, not by the health dept. I am not aware of any state that requires quality testing so they are self policing.

 

only way to know for sure is to test it. just that simple.

 

It doesn't need to meet reef standards since he is doing a FOWLR tank. Many people just use tap water for their FOWLR aquariums with no issues.

 

I would not use any water without knowing the TDS of it, if the Tds is too high even a FOWLR could have algea issues and especialy a highly stocked tank. For reef tanks the tds should be less than 2 and idealy 0.
Also dont trust tap water with some of the elements they use to treat it,in the short term it might not seem to have any negative impact but in the long run a buildup of metals etc in the water and liverock from using tap water could cause fish to have internal probelms