Mix water or buy it

[dominguez00025]

Just wondering should I mix my own saltwater or should I just buy it from a lfs

[drew2007]

Mix your own. Grab a rodi unit and mix yourself. You will save money!!

[Dapg8gt]

Def mix it. It will save you a lot of money. Put out up front for an RODI and you dont have to buy fresh or salt and you know the filters are good and actually 0 TDs.. It may seemlike a lot but just add up how much your gonna spend every time in water,gas and time it's way less to put out the money up front and you have total control on what goes into your tank. .

[fit]

Even though I almost never do partial water changes with fresh mix, I still need to top off with fresh water to account for evaporation. Definitely worth having the RODI machine. But, I advise that you be very diligent to have a float valve in your reservoir to automatically shut the water off, or put your reservoir in a safe place like a sink or bathtub, or you will, sooner rather than later, have a flood that may cost you much more than purchasing water from a store. A real catastrophe may await if you don't.

[Dapg8gt]

Reservoir in a sink or bathtub? Couldn't imagine that at all.. Most don't hook the RODI directly to the sump as its bad for the membrane to constantly turn on and off in little increments FWIW.

[fit]

Imagination training 101: imagine a pink pig in a blue tux with sunglasses, flying. Now picture, if you will, a yellow polka dot reservoir with a green smiley in a bathtub. :idea: Noo, I just meant to put the reservoir in a safe place while filling if you don't have a float valve, say like a shower or bathtub, and then store it somewhere else.

Hooking the RODI to the sump is different than hooking it up to a reservoir. But I know a lot of people that do exactly that. They hook it up to the sump to effect auto top off. I don't do this, but I was thinking about doing it. If it is bad for the membrane if the unit is turned on and off in tiny increments, say a minute at a time, perhaps my RODI would be less susceptible because I have an RODI unit that monitors the pressure on the "output", ie after the final DI stage, and shuts off a valve that is located prior to the RO membrane stage, and, I believe, simultaneously closes a valve on the effluent output from the RO membrane. If anyone knows, I would like to know if this functioning would present a problem for the RO membrane. I know that one reason this is routinely done, is to save a ton of water that would otherwise be wasted and go down the effluent if this scheme were not in place.

In any even, upon reflection, I think it is important that if you do have a float valve to prevent a catastrophe, you should have the pressure sensing function that shuts off water from the RO membrane to prevent a massive amount of water wastage when the float valve shuts off the flow.

[Henchman24]

I say it all depends on how much saltwater you use. I have a 40 gallon tank & do a 5 gallon water change every two weeks. It costs $6 for 5 gallons premixed saltwater at my lfs & I buy rodi water for topoff as well. The cost of an rodi system plus tds meter to tell when the filters needs replacing, & buying salt mix doesn't seem worth it for a the amount of water I use. If I had a large tank I would get an rodi system.

[Crusinjimbo]

Make water because you will get darn tired of hauling water jugs from the LFS. Trust yourself first and always make high quality SW.

[Guygettnby]

save yourself some money and time hauling water from the store. buy a nice RODI setup, a 35g trash can, a pump to mix the salt around, a spare heater and mix your own.

[kissman]

Imagination training 101: imagine a pink pig in a blue tux with sunglasses, flying. Now picture, if you will, a yellow polka dot reservoir with a green smiley in a bathtub. :idea: Noo, I just meant to put the reservoir in a safe place while filling if you don't have a float valve, say like a shower or bathtub, and then store it somewhere else.

Hooking the RODI to the sump is different than hooking it up to a reservoir. But I know a lot of people that do exactly that. They hook it up to the sump to effect auto top off. I don't do this, but I was thinking about doing it. If it is bad for the membrane if the unit is turned on and off in tiny increments, say a minute at a time, perhaps my RODI would be less susceptible because I have an RODI unit that monitors the pressure on the "output", ie after the final DI stage, and shuts off a valve that is located prior to the RO membrane stage, and, I believe, simultaneously closes a valve on the effluent output from the RO membrane. If anyone knows, I would like to know if this functioning would present a problem for the RO membrane. I know that one reason this is routinely done, is to save a ton of water that would otherwise be wasted and go down the effluent if this scheme were not in place.

In any even, upon reflection, I think it is important that if you do have a float valve to prevent a catastrophe, you should have the pressure sensing function that shuts off water from the RO membrane to prevent a massive amount of water wastage when the float valve shuts off the flow.

I think hooking a RO/DI to the sump is a very very bad idea! If the float sticks its going to put water in the sump and floor till you get home or figure it out. Could kill every thing in the tank and cost a lot of money in repairs. The nice thing about a resevior is you can limit how much water can enter if the float sticks, and they are known to.

Yes buy yourself a good RO/DI unit from like BRS and save yourself alot of money

[Kyle918]

I would buy an RO/DI. You know what you are putting in your tank. Just for kicks, you should test the parameters of your LFS water and see if it is good enough for regular use in your tank.

I will be buying an RO/DI because two water changes into my 10 gallon QT and it is already annoying making a trip 6 miles and back and to buy water. Not to mention I spilled some water once and I barely had enough to fill the QT back up...that mixed with being too lazy to replenish my water supply, which I had planned to do a few days prior, just frustrated me more because now I HAD to drive to get water and the whole drive I'm thinking this is not going to work...plus I live on the second floor...no thank you...

I would suggest testing their water to see if it is up to your standards...but it will get annoying quickly not having your own supply on hand all the time, at least for me it did and I haven't even filled the 75 gallon DT yet...

[ptreef]

get your own, make your own water.....
units are very cheap(in price and last long) now a days....
Safe the time lugging and driving....
Plus you can use it for drinking water too!

[jm23]

I sold my wife on the idea by including the drinking water part between the RO and the DI. I just use 2 Brute tashcans, one to store the RO/DI and the other the saltwater. The bigger the tank you have the more of a necessity it becomes, but I would never set up a tank without. What happens if you have an emergency at 10pm and need to do a quick water change, but the LFS is closed? The units aren't too expensive and you only have to replace the filters once or twice a year depending on how much water you use.