Brian041
Diary of a Salty Madman
Which do you use. I know RO units save money in the long run, just curious what everyone uses. I'm a bit hesitant to just buy RO water because it's over $1 a gallon.
But what about all that waste water, and does it not jack up your water bill?? I have a 34 gallon Redsea Max and do 5 gallon changes per week, I buy distilled water at 88 cents a gallon at walmart, enough for my weekly water change, top offs takes about 3/4 to one gallon a week and I always keep 10 extra gallons on hand. I gues if you have a REALLY big tank RO/DI is a good thing to have:) I don't mind lugging 8 gallons a week or so:)
I have an RO/DI but also have found myself buying distilled water from the grocery store when I need to top off and don't have water made up, or when I'm running low on salt and haven't placed an order for salt. In the long run making your own is far cheaper, but it is time consuming and a hassle when you're living with other people and can't have a dedicated RO/DI hook-up (I have to attach mine to the kitchen sink, which puts it out of commission for about a day). I think regardless of your tank size, you'll still save money in the long run, though I really can't say how much it jacks up the water bill - I'm in an apartment and don't pay for water (and my landlord hasn't come to me to complain about water bills yet so it must not be huge excess). I have on occasion saved the waste water for the lady downstairs who keeps a lot of plants, and some people use the waste water for doing laundry and stuff like that. Maybe you should price out a years worth of water purchases compared to what you would pay for the unit, at least one set of filter changes, and potential excess in water and see which one works out to be more. Also, if you have an LFS (not petco/petsmart), some of them sell RO/DI water quite cheap - like 20 cents a gallon, which is much better than paying $1/g from walmart. Oh, and one more note - I'd be doing 10% water changes weekly instead of every 3-4 weeks to keep your parameters and calcium/alk levels in check!
$1 per gallon was the LFS's price. He said just get a big empty gas can and bring it and they'll fill it up (obviously a never before used gas can)
Well when I get home from the store I do a water change. Which uses about 6 of them. The other four go underneath a table near my tank. The couch largely obscures this area from view so you can't even see them.
I wouldn't personally even want a big vat of water under my table or anywhere really. My apartment is very small.
And yeah I know it's cheaper to get a unit, but I see no reason for it. The decrease in annual cost isn't worth the added hassle to me.