Osmosis VS Ion Exchange

[Sebastiaan1985]

Hi,

Can somebody please explain THE main differences and advantages of both ways to prepare water for my tank.

And maybe also some buying tips?

Thanks a lot!

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[Playa-1]

Welcome to reef central.
You could write a book on this subject.
Many people use both methods. Water softener (ion exchange) and Reverse Osmosis ( RO )
As far as what you need that really depends on your specific situation. A person on a water well with naturally soft water will have completely different water filter needs then somebody in a big city that has hard water, Chloramines and poor water pressure.

Buying tip is to research this subject carefully and buy right the first time.

[yardboy]

Short and sweet, An RO (reverse osmosis) is a type of utra-filtration that removes about 95% of the contaminents in water. The larger the ion, the better it removes it. Normally, salt rejection (sodium ion mainly), since it is smallest, is used to determine filtration rate.
Demineralizer or Ion/Exchange, as we use them is a nearly complete removal of contaminents from the water. When the resin nears exhaustion, sodium bleeds through so it is again used as a measure of water quality produced.
Number of gallons produced by an ion exchange resin depends on the quality of the feedwater, if it is dirty, then the ion exchange will exhaust quicker. With dirty water, putting an RO in front of the ion exchange bed will result in a longer life for the ion resin. That's mainly how they are used. If your feed water is relatively clean, an RO may not be as needed. I work at an industrial sized RO/DI (500gpm) and we use an RO because the feedwater is not so clean, other plants in the company do not use them due to cleaner feedwater.

[chilwil84]

is the original poster talking about the stupid things with the magnets in them, i belive they were advertised as an ion exchanger

[disc1]

is the original poster talking about the stupid things with the magnets in them, i belive they were advertised as an ion exchanger

No, I 'm pretty sure he's talking about de-ionization resin which is a type of ion exchange media.

[chilwil84]

i think that is also what zero water is. you are probably right but a few years back there was this stupid tube thing you put inline that was suppossed to purify your water. it was advertised heavily for a while, but a few people decided to cut them open and all they were were a few magnets placed around a plastic tube.