well water reef???

[rygar]

Planning stages of a 400 gallon softy tank. I saw a few threads on line about this and they made it seem next to impossible to make the water clean enough. Does anybody here have a reef tank with well water? And what RO unit do you use?

[Squidward5]

Welcome to RC, I am on a shallow well of 41ft and run a Ocean reef Plus with one sediment filter and two carbon filters from the Filter Guys. Others will say bulk reef and specature, But Jim "the Owner of FG" taking calls and answering his home phone for questions about what works the best or issues I had for well water setup at 8:30pm on a Saturday night has my vote.

[RocketEngineer]

I think you are confused. Most folks who talk about using well water are talking about NOT filtering it. This is a bad idea as all the dissolved solids get into the tank and run the gambit from phosphates that produce algae to copper which can kill your livestock. If you run it through an RODI unit you remove any and all contaminates and its no longer an issue. If you have a well, you may have low water pressure which results in reduced production from any unit. This can be fixed with a boaster pump.

My RODI unit isn't made anymore but I use filters from BulkReefSupply.

HTH,

[rygar]

you mean there are people out there who think that non filtered well water is good for a reef tank?

[rygar]

Welcome to RC, I am on a shallow well of 41ft and run a Ocean reef Plus with one sediment filter and two carbon filters from the Filter Guys. Others will say bulk reef and specature, But Jim "the Owner of FG" taking calls and answering his home phone for questions about what works the best or issues I had for well water setup at 8:30pm on a Saturday night has my vote.


Thanks! I may just have to give them a call tomorrow.

[Squidward5]

you mean there are people out there who think that non filtered well water is good for a reef tank? http://www.thefilterguys.biz/index.htm

[disc1]

It depends entirely on your well. Some folks have wells good enough to use in a reef unfiltered. Some people have wells that aren't fit to drink from even after multiple types of filtration.

You need to find out about YOUR well and its water.

[paul26]

I had well water while in Ohio and the well water DESTROYED my RO/DI. My tank had so much algae is was scary. My RO/DI turned a dark red color.

[Felix T Cat]

Well water and 135g mixed reef. I have high iron content in the well water so I have a whole house water softner and then run a 5 stage RO/DI unit. Have been running reef tanks on it for 5+ years and no problems.

[hoaglanddiver]

I have a 95 ft deep well and a 150g reef tank.. here is what I learned:
water going into RO unit must be softened (if you have hard water). The membrane "handles" the sodium ions better than that which they replace.
well water (here in midwest and perhaps elsewhere) is renowned for having dissolved CO2. This isn't necessarily bad except that it will exhaust your DI WAY Sooner than if you didnt have it.. there are test kits out there to test for CO2 in well water. My well water is about 57 degrees out of the ground. RO units are rated for water around 70(?) degrees.. So if it is rated at 90 gpd, and your water temp is below 70, you will not make 90gpd and/or your rejection rate may be diff.. Lastly, most well pumps kick on at 40 and off at 60. When your pressure tank is getting near the empty side and your pressure is 45 - 50, you will not be making the amount of RO that the system is rated for.. Of course, once your pressure tank gets low enough, the pump will kick on and you'll be back up at 60psi for a litl bit ;-) think about Tee-ing off after the RO and run a line to your kitchen sink so you can have some RO drinking water (you'll need a pressure tank). You can use one way connectors so that once pressure tank for drinking water is full, it does not back feed to fill your top off, etc.

p.s. my raw water is about 375 tds
after Softening it's about 460 tds (which is normal - to have rise after softening)
my RO unit (from Thefilterguys.biz) brings the tds down to 7 or 8
The DI brings it down to 0.

regarding DI, get a dual canister setup w/ color indicating resin.. A little more pricey, but SO MUCH easier in long run.

[dkeller_nc]

you mean there are people out there who think that non filtered well water is good for a reef tank?

You'd be amazed. There's even a person with the handle of "Mr. Tap Water" that seems to think that RODI purification is a scam or at least largely an unnecessary expense and that tap water is perfectly fine for use in a reef tank. The person also seems to think that commercial water conditioners sold for aquarium use not only renders trace heavy metals harmless, but actually removes them from the water.

My own take on it is that if, and only if, you've determined by sophisticated laboratory trace metal analysis that your water supply very low in heavy metals you can probably use it for a fish-only or reef tank. But that's assuming that the ion concentration of heavy metals like arsenic, copper, lead, selenium, cadmium, etc.. are in the single-digit to low teens parts per billion range.

Anyway, a properly functioning water purification system can even render highly contaminated sources safe for use assuming it's properly designed and maintained. In the case of typical well water, more than likely it will be in your best financial interests to pre-treat the water going into an RODI system with a salt-based regenerative water softener as noted by other posters. The reason for the water softener isn't so much the ultimate purity of the product water out of an RODI system, it's that excessive amounts of iron or calcium will very, very rapidly clog your front-end particulate filters.

Since you are on a well and therefore don't need to be concerned about chlorine or chloramine getting to your RO membrane and ruining it, you don't need a lot of high-functioning carbon filtration. One standard carbon 10 um cartridge would be more than enough. Since you only need to take up one filter canister with carbon, you might consider a custom plumbing set up for your RODI system. Specifically, you can "tee" the water inlet to go to 2 standard sized canisters in which you place your particulate filtration, then combine them again before it goes into your carbon block and then on to your RO membrane.

What that will do is operate 2 particulate filters in parallel instead of the more typical series arrangement, and you will get a lower pressure drop and have to change out the particulate filters less often.

Another way to do this would be to put a so-called "whole house" sized canister on the front end, but both the empty canister and the replaceable filters are pretty expensive.

[mr.maroonsalty]

If you are worried or having problems have a professional water analysis done. If you open your phonebook and there are a lot of pure water businesses chances are area wells have a lot of problems. Many wells are perfectly good for the rodi plant except they are 1, cold and 2, low in preasure; both effect production. In the end quality may be the same at an albeit slower rate, however rejection or the waste water will be higher thus, more electricity used pumping water out of the ground.

[Fizz71]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v93/Fizz71/Reef/2005-02-07%20February%207th%20-%202005/Tank_1.jpg
...had it running for two years (until I moved) on well water you almost had to chew. Did I need an RO? ...you're d*mn right I did. :)

If your TDS is high (obviously mine was) just make sure you get an inline TDS meter so you can see how the membrane is functioning and flush often. Also check your water pressure because I had to buy an external booster pump for my first RO even with the RO on the same floor as the well tank.

The second RO I bought had an automatic flush and a built in booster pump...it was very nice to have it flush every day.

[eyesinthedrk]

one of my employees has a hand held TDS meter that we were playing with one day. Williamsport, PA city water out of my tap was at 80 TDS. his well water was 860 TDS.

[Felix T Cat]

LOL, made me wonder:
Well - 35
Post salt softner - 98
Post 5 stage RO/DI - 1

[rygar]

Wow! Thanks everyone. Gave me hope. The house will be done in a couple months so I have lots of time for research and get prepared for the build. High water table so sump, top off tank, and mixing barrels will be in a 4' conditioned and well insulated crawl space. (basically a short basement) I'll need some help with that too. I haven't tested the water yet, but when I do, I'll post the readings here and see what you all think would be the best route to take. What I know right now is that the well had to go thru a lot of clay, then gravely stone, then about 80' of sandstone. Total depth of 175'. Took them 3 days to drill the well.

[Lochi02]

My well has low TDS but my Alk runs around 5 dKH. Well water can also change composition over time, especially with a new well.

When I moved in December I did not have a Rodi system and used tap water setup my tank. Big mistake. I can't encourage you enough to get a Rodi system. I run a 2 stage system and suits my needs well. It makes your water a known value and you will know that your salt mix will be as the manufacturer intended (as long as you mix correctly).

[ca1ore]

Can definitely run a successful reef tank off well water, but as somebody noted earlier in the thread, all well water is not created equally! I have a well, and have been using it for my tank for 17 years. I do have a whole-house softener system that takes incoming water down from a TDS of 825 to about 300. My RO system then knocks it down to 3. Just replaced my first RO system after 16 years. I'd suspect in the absence of the house softener, that my RO wouldn't have lasted that long, but who knows.

[dkeller_nc]

Can definitely run a successful reef tank off well water, but as somebody noted earlier in the thread, all well water is not created equally! I have a well, and have been using it for my tank for 17 years. I do have a whole-house softener system that takes incoming water down from a TDS of 825 to about 300. My RO system then knocks it down to 3. Just replaced my first RO system after 16 years. I'd suspect in the absence of the house softener, that my RO wouldn't have lasted that long, but who knows.

I'm confused - you have an RO system, but don't use it for your seawater changes or top-off?

[Twistofer]

you mean there are people out there who think that non filtered well water is good for a reef tank?

Yep...they just mix the sea salt and go. They might figure that all the water eventually ends up in the ocean, so what? :blown:

The only thing that you don't need is chlorine/chloramine removal. Otherwise a good RODI unit will suffice. Just make sure you have an excellent sediment filter. You can ruin a RO membrane very quickly without one. Some people advocate using either a sediment filter followed by two carbon filters, or sediment filter--carbon filter--sediment filter, before the RO filter. IMHO DI resin is also a must.

[Ranger Daryl]

When we moved into our new house I ran my RO/DI off the irrigation well because I had to make a large amount of water to fill the tank. The well is fairly shallow for Florida and the water came out 0 on my TDS Meter. However, I quickly switched it over to my city water tap because the well water was high in iron and cashed the first two filters in my 5 stage RO/DI filter. Both were red after 100 gallons. The public water is lower in iron.

[RiffeShooter]

Well water and 135g mixed reef. I have high iron content in the well water so I have a whole house water softner and then run a 5 stage RO/DI unit. Have been running reef tanks on it for 5+ years and no problems.

Is your whole house a filter also? Which one do you have? My water just started stinking and I need t do something...:uhoh3: then add a rodi for the 210 I got today. :fun2::fun2:

[Felix T Cat]

Is your whole house a filter also? Which one do you have? My water just started stinking and I need t do something...:uhoh3: then add a rodi for the 210 I got today. :fun2::fun2:

Mine is just a neutralizer / softener system (Autotrol Performa) no filter. I'm running a 5 stage RO/DI system and even with the whole house system I can turn the paper filter in stage one orange in a few months.

[RiffeShooter]

Thanks.:thumbsup:

[Mark...]

Sorry about bringing up a fairly old thread, but have some well questions.

I have a 50ft well that has heavy Iron. I water the lawn pre softener and it makes the sidewalk rusty. My household water runs through a large water softening system that uses salt. The water is much better, but at times we notice some iron in much smaller amounts. Also a few years ago we added a ph unit after the softener company tested and noted the water to be acidic. Now the ph is fine. A fellow local reefer also mentioned problems with CO2. Ironically CO2 will cause acidosis. I wonder if the ph treatment will deal with the CO2...

I'm in the process of planning a reef tank and fear the water quality might make this a no go. (Shame. I bought a nice 180g acrylic tank). I'm planned on getting the brs 75g ro/di. But before I make the full commitment to spending some serious cash, I'd like some input on my well situation.

Thanks...

Mark...

[gatsby174]

Everything is possible and doable, you just have to keep reading...i also run off a well and haven't had any problems. I have a brs 75gpd with a booster pump and drinking water kit for the sink. Have you checked your co2 levels yet? Even if it's high, there are people on the forum who can help you fix it (and pretty cheaply if I remember correctly). Good luck with the build!

[Jamey1010]

My well water is high in c02 I just run the ro water in a large garbage can than aerate although I think it would probably just equalize on its own overnight or so and then use my same booster pump rerouted to run it from the can threw double full size di cartridges and get several months out of them doing it this way. My tds is 600 and use a water softener (no rust though just really hard water) and get 6-12 tds before di with spectrapure products

[ca1ore]

I'm confused - you have an RO system, but don't use it for your seawater changes or top-off?

Ah, sorry, what I wrote was completely unclear. What I meant was that having well water as your initial source water is find as long as you treat it subsequently. I cannot imagine what TDS 800+ water would do to my tank. In fact a tank crash years ago was traced to an exhausted RO filter (city water then tho). I run all my water through a house softener then my RO/DI system.