drbenfield

Our LFS just closed due to the recession and lack of help to run it by persons who can answer questions (owners are true aquarists who like to direct people as accurately as possible concerning their aquaria needs and could not continue to run it themselves). Anyway...my boss has a 90 gallon SW reef and I have a 55 gallon SW reef and we just bought a Captive Purity 4-stage RO/DI unit. We used to just get our RO/DI water from the LFS. I was wondering if we made the right decision. I will probably be the one who puts everything together and keep it operational. I read the instruction manual online before purchase and it seemed easy enough. I only got the 35 GPD one which is more than we will need and I got free shipping...yeah!

au01st

Making your own RO/DI at home is a big time saver and is more convenient than lugging jugs back and forth to the store, and it's cheaper in the long run. The 35 GPD unit may not produce that much as it needs high water pressure to make the advertised amounts.

They're pretty easy to hook up, and if you plumbed your aquarium, I'm sure this will be no problem.

agsansoo

I have a 90 GPD RO/DI unit. My whole family love the taste of the water plus my reef likes it too.
If you have any question on the setup, please feel free to post them here.

rado316

i have a 98 gl cycling with 125 lbs of live rock. I was thinking once its cycled and a few small fish are introduced, water change every week or 2 and using the ro/di water to top off my tank, that means i would have to produce maybe15-20 gallons every other week right? i keep reading folks that need 30 gallons of water a day for aquariums, am i missing something here?

agsansoo

I have a 65 gallon tank and only need 1 gallon of FW a day for top-off. Also my RO/DI unit produces about 2.5 gallon of water per hour.

au01st

I fill up my top off reservoir every 3 days. It's 5 gallons and takes a little under an hour, closer to 45 minutes. If it was a slower unit, I would have to wait longer, it's just about convenience. Same with making new salt water. I can get 15 gallons ready in about 3 hours. You gotta factor in the time factor. In a few months, are you gonna have the time or want to wait hours to make new water? It may seem alright now but it will get old fast.

I don't know where people would use 30 gallons per day as top off as that would be a tank of several thousand gallons and lots of surface area.