Storing RO/DI Water

If you were to store RO/DI water how long before it goes bad? For the people that do store RO/DI water what do you use to store it in? When I have to do top offs and water changes I dont really want to sit around all day waiting so Im trying to find an easier way.

 

I just store mine in a 50 gallon trash can with a lid on it and a power head in it. It's cheap and seems to work.

 

Depending on how much water you need to store Rubbermaid Brute trash cans are very popular. Otherwise most Rubbermaid containers work well, that's what I use now. Just remember that water weighs a lot and you need a pretty sturdy container for holding more than 5-10 gallons otherwise your container might start deforming making it tough to get a lid on.
Also as long as you keep your container clean and don't get any organics in there to feed bacteria etc it should last pretty much forever I believe. It's quite pure. I probably wouldn't let it sit in there forever though.

 

i use a 55 gallon rain barrel that i swaped the metal hose bib with a pvc one and use a garbage bag where the screen was on top

 

I went to a car wash and got one of them white tubs they use to hold the soap. Of coarse it was cleaned many times before it was used. I used bleach to clean it out.

 

Why do you need a power head in pure RO/DI water ?

 

I use a 35 gallon Rubber maid trash can with it's original lid. Drilled a hole near the top lip to install a float to shutoff the RO/DI system. And I'm using a "pond pump" dropped in with 3/4" in clear plastic tubing, (drilled two more holes, above the float for the tube to come out and for me to poke the end of the tube back into the tank to keep it clean) to get the water out of the trash can...just remove the end of the tube and plug in the pump....it has worked well for the last 4 years....I draw 7 to 10 gallons a week out of the tank on average...20 gallons if I set up the medic tank....

 

I had a spare, and I thought it would be good to have the circulation in there.

 

I store my RO like this. RO container is the top barrel. When I do a water change I drain water down to the barrel below and mix the salt with a powerhead. There is no powerhead in the top barrel. At anytime there is about 10-30 gallons of RO in there. So there is always water in there, it is covered tightly. So I say it is fine being stored for long periods of time if it is covered well.