?? About RO/DI Water Unit

[Redfish]

With the storm in the Gulf I spent the day yesterday making water. I made enough for two water changes and enough top off water for about two weeks. My question: If the city tells you to boil water before you use, will a RO/DI unit make water safe enough for use in your tank??

[Gerwin]

yes,
on a side note did you make any for you?

[Gz28]

im glad i saw this post because i have a question about ro/di water. I read somewhere online that RO/DI water is "too pure" to drink, i thought that was weird when i first read it. but upon reading further it went on to explain that it takes all of the minerals and other stuff out of the water that our body needs in the water. and concuming it is not as beneficial as ro water or straight tap water. it also said that ro/di water could cause diarrea and upset stomach. I was planning on getting a 5 gal water bottle with the manual pump so i could make drinking water instead of buying it all of the time in the store.
should i bypass the di stage when i make my drinking water or not???

[Gerwin]

I am not 100% on the DI, but I do know that RO filters are employed often in drinking water. Also Distilled water can be bought for drinking which is also purified. As far as stripping the water of to much...I think of it like this those that decide to drink purified water are more interested in taking out the things that man has put in the water, you may also take out some other trace minerals that the body needs but you can probably get those from the correct diet. The body is made up of substantial qty of H20 I am mot sure if its h20 with arsenic, lead, iron, mg, ca, cu, I, k and on and on, I think not, I think its just water and all the other things you can get in your cereal. but that is my opinion and I am not a doctor,,just common sense and reason.

[Gz28]

Is there any way to get more Gph out of these things. I have the 50 gal per hour ro/di filter. for example would it help to fill a trash can ...or something with tap water and pump the water from the trash can through the filter using a water pump of some sort? and if so could you drain the waste line back into the same container to be recirculated back through the filter, or would that cause any problems?

[Gz28]

Ok I did a little more research on the subject of drinking ro,distilled,ro/di water. This seems to be a pretty controversial topic. Basically from what I have gathered, it is all safe as long as you don’t drink only one type of water or drink only water. Water being to pure can actually cause problems because water is a great solvent and if you remove everything out of the water it becomes "hungry" and will absorb things around it a lot better, if you drink this while it is in its pure state it will absorb salts and minerals right out of the cells in your body, this is why if you drink too much pure water you will get diarrhea and in more severe cases if you drink too much ro/di water or even distilled water internal bleeding can occur because the water will completely absorb cell walls in your body(this is unlikely but there are documented cases of this happening) also with distilled and di water if you are doing something very active like sports etc. And you have a large diet of "pure" water when your body sweats the pure water you have absorption and hydration problems, you need electrolytes to properly hydrate so if you add a sport powder to your ro/di you will be fine.
So to sum it up every kind of water is safe as long as you drink more than just water, drink tea,juice,etc along with your purified water to replenish whatever the pure water may have absorbed from your body. Ro water is a better route to go over distilled or DI because the water is not as "hungry" and will not absorb as much minerals and stuff from your body. if you do drink large amounts of pure water and you get diarrhea this may be a sign that the water is absorbing too much stuff from your body and you should drink some less pure water or something else besides water.

[Doug]

I heard about a radio station-sponsored contest a few years ago where a woman died. The goal was to see which contestant could drink the most water before dropping out. And that was just plain tap or bottled.

[Gerwin]

Is there any way to get more Gph out of these things. I have the 50 gal per hour ro/di filter. for example would it help to fill a trash can ...or something with tap water and pump the water from the trash can through the filter using a water pump of some sort? and if so could you drain the waste line back into the same container to be recirculated back through the filter, or would that cause any problems?

you can get more water out of your ro but you have to get a flow restricter and the correct size membrane (if your tube can hold it), the waste water is the water that has all the crap you do not want in your water, I would think if filtering could remove this easily , one would not even buy a RO unit) so NO do not reuse,,maybe your plants?. as far as purifying water from a trash can, if you could get the connections and provide approx 65 psi to the unit it wouild work just as it does now and again you would have a waste water to get rid of.

Hope this helps and great read on the pure water and human body! although I would still argue that you get many if not all the trace elements and minerals from fruits veggies and nuts and seeds. therefore one may even argue there would be a medicinal efect from the absorption of body bad and flushing with water. Like the wise man says..everything in moderation, except for aquarium supplies from JUST FISH aka Pass road Pet ( yet another shameless plug by your lfs , but that is another subject

[Gz28]

Thanks, im glad you enjoyed the read!! totally agree with the moderation comment! and the just fish/pass road pet's comment...

[C-21 USAF]

I have to chime in since I've done reasearch on this myself and have been drinking R/O water for the last 7 years.

On the DI...save that for your tank only...it wont hurt you but is overkill on filtration for the human body.

On R/O...let me start by saying too much of ANYTHING is bad for you from a dietary aspect. If you drank nothing but mineral water that could have it's advantages over R/O water but it would get expensive and be highly inefficient as there is nothing in the mineral water you wouldn't get from a normal diet. Drink all the R/O you want without fear of anything. Pure water is water the human body was designed for. Like Gerwin said, you'll get plenty from your normal diet/supplements. If you like lead, copper and who knows what, then drink tap water. I PROMISE you'll get at least those heavy metals and probably more from your tap water...dont' believe me, test it. About the only thing the government is good at is collecting taxes...not purifying your water. If you want to guarantee you get the bad stuff in your body then use hot tap water as those heavy metals especially copper are more soluble at higher temps...say when your cooking in a hurry and want to boil water fast you go for the hot tap water...bad move! Just my two cents

[Gz28]

I agree with everything you just said. and i think that is basically what gerwin and I both said, i just went into a little more detail. and i agree with gerwin too about getting all the stuff you need from food too. I guess i need to clarify what i found a little better, you do get minerals and "stuff" from food but it takes longer to absorb as compaired to it being in liquid form. and in the senario they were talking about is someone who drinks nothing but ro di water and ALOT of it in that case the rodi water would pull everthing out of your body quicker than it could replace it. but just to clarify you would have to drink alot of rodi water for a period of time for that to happen. sorry i was just trying to keep the post a little shorter my basic point i was trying to get across is yes rodi does have the potential to be harmful in excess, more so than less pure water, but some people wont drink it at all because they are afraid of it being harmful. Basically drink whatever you want, but like you said too much of anything is bad.

[don]

With the storm in the Gulf I spent the day yesterday making water. I made enough for two water changes and enough top off water for about two weeks. My question: If the city tells you to boil water before you use, will a RO/DI unit make water safe enough for use in your tank??

i know this is in old topic, but after reading this i had too throw my two cents worth in. yes i agree 110% with gerwin that the ro/di unit will make great h2o,the reason behind this is that, the only reason for boil water notices, is that there was a drop in water pressure,ie power failer,linebreakage,etc. once these probelms are corrected the notices go out to insure the publics safety, ie gives the chorine a chance to catch up and disinfect the h2o,so that you dont get the wet/brown spots in your shorts, if i may say this. also you may not agee with this , but drinking tap water may be better for you than you think, your body needs certian bacteria, in order to maintain proper balance, i was raised on well/city water all my life and there is nothing wrong with me,nothing wrong with me,nothing wrong with me,did i mention there is nothing wrong with me ? anyways drink what you beleave is safe,but i would buy the least expensive,since most is from a tap anyway. i wasnt always a truck driver you know. bla,bla bla lol lolo lol.

[Gerwin]

Good input,

[Gerwin]

Good input,

[bluwtr]

Couldn't help but chime in on this newly old topic. Okay, a couple of things:

1) There better not be bacteria in your water unless it's contaminted, that's what the chlorine is for. Natural flora in our gut was put their by the big man upstairs. You can suppliment it by eating certain foods (yogurt) etc or the little pacs of Pro-biotic. This is why when we take strong antibiotics we get the trots.
2) Drinking RO/DI water isn't going to kill you or make you sick. Our bodies are 98% water. When we drink water it does many things, but namely it allows enzymatic action, dissociation of ions, maintenance of body temp (one factor), dilution of wastes, lubrication of joints etc, etc, etc.

The reason people die from drinking too much water is that they flood their tissues and the osmotic balance in the cell goes to crap. They basically leech all of the salts out of their cells; namely Na+ and K+. When your K+ drops; your heart stops (hey that rhymes! )

Osmosis works by the priniciple that ions move from a higher to lower concentration. Example: split an aquarium with a piece of glass/ plastic. Fill one side with salt water with red food coloring. Fill the other with RO/DI water. If you pull the divider out carefully, you will see the color move from the red to the clear. The tank is acheiving osmotic balance.

Like was said previously--too much of anything will kill you. Too much O2 will kill you dead under the right conditions.

Take this from my science/medicine/biology lesson--drink it, just don't drink gallons upon gallons and eat normally. (Wes now steps down from his soapbox and takes a bow!!!)

Wes