Making your own top off Water

[singold]

Can one make their own top off water using "Prime" to remove Chlorine, Chloramine, & Ammonia, then running the water through a filter using a generous amount of Activated Carbon. And if so, how long would the Activated Carbon be effective at purifiying the water - or more precisely the approximate ratio of gallons produced vs. carbon amount usage? I would be using a bare 10 gallon tank to do. This would be strictly for top off water.

Was wondering how pure this would make the water vs. using an RODI unit?

[MrRyanT]

Some people use tap water with a dechlorinator, but for a reef tank its not the recommended way. Have you checked the TDS of your source water? know of any contaminants?

[singold]

Have not checked TDS, but am getting tired of buying the water & lugging it from LFS to home. I guess I will get an RODI unit. I was planning on moving in a year or so, therefore was trying to avoid, but I guess hooking it up then disconnectng to put in new home is not that big of an issue?

[MrRyanT]

No, its not hard to do. I hooked mine up under the kitchen sink, took me about an hour I think to set it all up. It can also be easily removed.

[WhoDey64]

you can buy a waterhose adapter for an RO unit and just screw it into your outside spicket when you want to use it, store it away when your done.

[Jmatt567]

I have a kitchen sink adaptor for my RODI unit. I attach it to the faucet on the kitchen sink and disconnect it and store it out of the way when I am done. It only takes a few seconds to connect/disconnect the unit that way.

[Radar1]

Really would depend on the quality of the water where you live.

[Llamaguy]

Since for the most part only pure water evaporates from your tank, you should really only put pure (or as close as possible) in as top off. It is a good time to dose some small buffers though. Tap water will never be pure no matter how much carbon you use.