Top off water straight from r/o?

My new house has an outside shower and is kind of just on the outside of the wall my tank stands. So I was wondering if any of you run the top off water straight from the ro unit and use a float valve in the sump? Also would it be better to put the ro unit outside or mount in the stand?i worry about leaking but don't really want the unit on my back patio. Right now I have the ro unit in the garage with a 60g drum and I use a 5g reservoir for my top off. I'm kinda looking to cut out the middle man

 

Leave it in the garage, allowing for equipment/storage space under the tank. You could this, but you would have to have a way to mix in salt, keeping your water params. (specfically SG in this case) constant.

 

it is highly risky to remove the middle man in this scenario. It serves, more than anything else, as a layer of protection.

 

ditto

 

Agreed. I think you guys are right. That is why I asked. It seems too risky

 

Better to have a top off container, maybe 5g or so that will gravity feed an ato.

 

i agree id not take out the middle man. if the valve were to fail you'd not only ruin your tank but your floor of your home...

 

An RO or RO/DI units needs to be in a climate controlled environment away from direct lighting and temperature extremes. With high lighting and warm water you are providing the perfect environment to grow all sorts of nasties once the chlorine has been removed in the RO unit by the carbon.

It is best to feed the RO or better yet RO/DI to a storage vessel then feed the ATO from that storage so you limit the amount of fresh water available to the aquarium in case a float or ATO sticks on flooding the system with fresh not salt water. In my case I limit my possible storage availavble to the ATO to 11 gallons in a 23 gallon container by placement of the ATO pump. The storage is in the garage near the RO/DI and is fed to the sump via a persitaltic pump which can also be set to limit the flow if I want to for another layer of protection.

 

I topped off directly from my ro setup for a few months and noticed some serious TDS creep. Normally it put out 1 or 2 tds, but set up to drip randomly throught the day it eventually crept up into the 80s only droping lower when I flushed it or made water.

~Will.

 

I didn't know about the RO unit having to be in climate controlled enviornment. I have had my RO/DI unit in my garage where it gets very hot for years and have never had a problem. I use a 5 gallon container next to my sump in the stand for my top off water that replenishes via float switch and pump btw.