R/O system - what kind are you using?

[J Teezy]

For anyone that uses an R/O system in your house what brand are you using and how many stages?

I'm thinking about getting an R/O system mainly for myself for my drinking water since I like to mainly drink water and in the long run would be cheaper than the good old brita, plus having an R/O system would provide me with water for my mistking system so that I don't have to buy distilled at the store.

Looking for some thoughts / opinions on R/O systems that are out there

Big difference i've seen is that there are RO units and RO/DI units. And that some systems use 5 micron sediment filter and others go lower down to 1 micron. Seems that an RO/DI unit will get you 0 TDS water. Is 0 TDS water necessary for that no spots on the glass / no mister head clog water? or would a non DI / 5 micron sediment filter unit work fine?

[J Teezy]

ok so i've been researching this whole RO or RO / DI thing for several hours now. Someone who's a little more knowledgeable on the matter shed some light please

From what I understand DI water is close to distilled water you can produce, BUT RO DI water is totally stripped and more acidic than just plain RO water right? So if this is true is RO DI water actually not good to use in a mister where the mist will be in contact with plants and frogs? Would just RO water be better to use? Will RO water be cleaned enough to not leave water marks on glass?

If just RO water and not RO DI water will work good I was looking at something like this

Stage 1 - 1 micron poly sediment filter
Stage 2 - 0.6 micron, 20,000 gallon carbon block
Stage 3 - Filmtec RO membrane
Stage 4 - inline GAC Taste and Odor filter

which then connects to its own faucet at my kitchen sink where i can fill my glass for drinking water or fill my Mistking reservoir

The big question here is if the above filter system will provide good RO water for my mistking system or do i need to have my water in the mist system be RO DI water?

[MikeM670]

I have a RO/DI System from a company called the filter guys.

This is the webpage of the setup I'm using. Just look for the following: $ 199.00 - OCEAN REEF + 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI. I have a picture of my setup in my gallery. http://www.frogforum.net/members/mik...sc-images.html. I use two brute garbage cans for holding the water and run the system to produce each both types of water. The cans contain float values so they will shut off when the cans are full. I piped the waste water into a drain. If you have lots of plants you can use the waste water them.

I use the RO/DI water for misting and the RO for making cultures, water for the vivariums...ect.

The company was recommended to me by someone at work and I would recommend them to anyone else

[J Teezy]

I read some stuff that RO/DI water is "aggressive" whatever the hell that means, and may not be good for critters, whether that's true or not i have no idea.

You use RO water for your animals water bowls? do you add anything like RO-rite back to the RO water before using it as the animals water?

Problem for me is i live in a small condo (2 bedroom 1 bath, very small place) and i don't have a place to really put water storage bins and don't really need that much water on hand. I'm hoping just RO water (without the DeIonization) would work well for use in the mistking resorvoir because like i said i really don't have a place to put two resorvoirs for RO and RO DI water. I have room to put one of those 4 gallon storage tanks that feed one of those faucets you install on your sink and I could simply take RO water from there and dump it in my misters bucket, plus i'd be able to get my drinking water right there.

Basically what's up in the air is, is RO water that hasn't been through a DI stage filter good enough to run throuh the mister and keep from leaving spots on the glass and early clogging of misthead? If so, i'd probably go with a 4 stage setup from buckeyefieldsupply.com since i can pick it up locally and they pretty much have the same systems as the filter guys. I made a call to a guy at buckeyefieldsupply and he told me just RO water would be good enough for the mister and wouldn't leave spots on the glass, but I'm looking for reassurance from an actual herper who uses RO water and not RO/DI before i go off of what any sales person tells me.

Also your link to the picture of your setup doesn't work

Thanks for the response!!!

[MikeM670]

I would add RO-rite if the water I used was the RO/DI for bowls ect. I just use the RO water for things like that. Distilled water is the best for misting as it contains zero minerals. RO/DI is the closest you can come to this.

I'm pretty sure there is a nice article on water right here on Frog Forum you might be interested in. You will just have to hunt it down.

[J Teezy]

I would add RO-rite if the water I used was the RO/DI for bowls ect. I just use the RO water for things like that. Distilled water is the best for misting as it contains zero minerals. RO/DI is the closest you can come to this.

I'm pretty sure there is a nice article on water right here on Frog Forum you might be interested in. You will just have to hunt it down.

Yes i'm aware that RO/DI is as close to distilled water as you can get, what i'm saying though is that the reason you get spots on your glass in tanks is from particles in the water. Now good RO/DI water is going to be 0 TDS along with distilled, but just RO will get you usually in the range of 40 on the high end down to low 20's i've seen and into the teens as well. What i'm hoping someone can attest to is that a TDS reading of somewhere in the 20-40 range rids the water of enough of particles that would cause your glass to spot. I mean we are talking particles that would be in the 2-3 micron range here which i'm willing to bet won't cause spots on the glass for the human eye to be able to see. Maybe after a long long time of never wiping the glass you may eventually see something and i'm wondering what kind of effect particles in the 2-3 micron range would have on the misting head clogging.

If i had the space i'd go for something like this


and for that setup i would have to have kind of holding tank for the DI water to go into which is the problem as i have mentioned i don't really have space for one. I may be able to fit a 5 gallon bucket into my cabinet that is right next to the sink and just drill a hole through the side of the cabinet to run the line over to the bucket. And if i did that i would need a float valve like this inside the bucket right in order to stop the bucket from filling up too much?


If i go the RO/DI route this is the system i'm looking at
http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/sh...ry=171&Sub=166 which is probably just like yours right? minus the storage tank and faucet hookup for the RO water.

Basically its about 100 more bucks to add the DI stage into the system is what it comes down to. This would really be awesome if i had several vivs that were getting misted, it's just going to be that i'm going to have this bucket of RO/DI water sitting and sitting and sitting full alot of the time because for now i only have 1 viv running one nozzle for about 30 seconds total time over a 24 hour period so really thats probably not even close to a gallon of RO/DI water being used per day. In this case it would probably make more sense to just buy distilled for a buck a gallon at the grocery, but the reason i'm researching this all is because I mainly want an RO system for my drinking water at home as i like to drink alot of water so i figured if i'm going to get a system i might as well make it so i can use the system to produce water for my Viv as well then eliminating trips to the grocery for distilled water

[MikeM670]

Sorry it took so long to respond back. My thoughts in no particular order.

Well I don't have the expertise if that low of a ppm would have as far as leaving residue on the glass. To be honest the frogs get the glass dirtier then misting. The issue is the residue can be hard to get off the glass.

My system generates much more water then I need daily so I only run it every week or so. If I ever setup a central misting system with drainage then it would work a lot more. I've also been looking into saltwater reef systems the past few years but just never pulled the plug and do it.

You can start with a system without the DI portion and add that if and when you decide you need it. I just ordered the whole thing at one time.

The float in the picture looks just like the ones I have. I'd just be a little leery about that being the sole shutoff. If my floats get stuck or something the water will just run onto the basement floor. Messy but no real damage done. So you may want to keep that in mind. I have read stories about them failing on sites like Reef Central.


As far as I can see most system like I have and your looking at are just about the same design. It's a nice setup and built very well.

With on Viv I don't think the cost is worth getting a system. Its just when your hooked and need all that water. Tho you mentioned drinking a lot of water and want to use the system for that. It might be cost effective then.

[J Teezy]

thanks for the input. I talked to water from mistking today and he said there's no need to go as far as RO/DI water for his mist system and that RO water is perfectly fine and will work great so I think i'll opt out of the DI portion for now and go with something like this

http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/sh...ry=184&Sub=103

[MikeM670]

thanks for the input. I talked to water from mistking today and he said there's no need to go as far as RO/DI water for his mist system and that RO water is perfectly fine and will work great so I think i'll opt out of the DI portion for now and go with something like this

http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/sh...ry=184&Sub=103

Oh I forgot to mention that my system also removes the Chlorine from the water so I don't have to treat it. Will that system do that or are you just going to treat it prior to use?

[J Teezy]

i think believe so. The more i like at the different setups, the double carbon setup on the system like yours keeps catching my eye, I just think I would need to add a taste and oder filter as the last filter for the RO side. Once the water left the pressurized water tank it would go through the taste odor filter and then out the drinking water faucet.