Monsoon water

[Garf]

Just ordered the monsoon system. Quick question, because rain water has a low TDS, is it advisable to use RO or perhaps RODI with a suppliment? Thanks

 

[deadhd5]

Just ordered the monsoon system. Quick question, because rain water has a low TDS, is it advisable to use RO or perhaps RODI with a suppliment? Thanks

I use RO water for my misting system to reduce buildup and prolong the life of the system. It is also important that chams do not drink chlorine or other additives so filtering or using something like reptisafe is necessary. I also noticed my cages were less grimy using RO water.

 

[Garf]

I use RO water for my misting system to reduce buildup and prolong the life of the system. It is also important that chams do not drink chlorine or other additives so filtering or using something like reptisafe is necessary. I also noticed my cages were less grimy using RO water.

Thanks. It's no big deal to tee off my RODI. I've seen a few replies on the interweb that says it's perfectly fine to use tap water, I thought it was a bit strange considering the amounts of contaminants regularly encountered. I think this monsoon system will also mean I won't have to provide a drainage system, maybe wishful thinking

 

[Carlton]

Thanks. It's no big deal to tee off my RODI. I've seen a few replies on the interweb that says it's perfectly fine to use tap water, I thought it was a bit strange considering the amounts of contaminants regularly encountered. I think this monsoon system will also mean I won't have to provide a drainage system, maybe wishful thinking

There's no way anyone can say using tap water is "perfectly fine" because everyone's tap water is different. If yours is from a municipal source it may have added fluoride, chlorine, or chloramine. You wouldn't want to use it without treating it to remove those additives. If you are on your own well that changes it completely. You might want to filter it to remove excess mineral salts, algae, heavy metals, microbial cysts, heavy tannins for example.

Chams drink rainwater in the wild. They get their nutritional content from their food. RO water is fine for chams.

 

[bbprinting]

I use an RO/Di unit also because I had it from my reef days. I removed the DI though because there is no reason to get TDS down to 0, in fact I read before that it is better for humans to drink just RO water because the DI removes a lot of minerals that our bodies need. Plus it produces much faster with the DI off.

 

[Garf]

Thanks peeps. I take it nobody has experience of using RODI and adding something akin to a natural salt or something beneficial. To be sure,,a zero TDS then adding something beneficial seems more appealing than trusting to luck.

 

[bbprinting]

I'm sure there is some sort of vitamin additive for water but with what we already dust with I don't think I would want to combine. Plus as much water as I go through a week can't imagine how much I would have to add, considering less than 1% of what I mist and drip in ever enter the Chameleons system anyway.

 

[Garf]

How about running RODI though a calcium carbonate sand. Through tasts on my saltwater tank, you get about 20ppm to 40ppm. calcium.?

 

[bbprinting]

Hmm thats an interesting idea but it may still cause clogging in your misters after awhile.

 

[Garf]

Perhaps a tiny, tiny amount of marine salt in RODI would be more realistic to nature;

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v186/n4726/abs/186705a0.html

"Oddie directs attention to the fact that the low sodium/potassium ratios commonly recorded at inland collecting stations are scarcely ever observed at exposed coastal stations in Europe and North America and states that in general the more maritime the situation of a station the more closely does the ratio approximate to that of sea-water"

 

[Garf]

For anyone thinking "What is that English idiot talking about?"

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00128-007-9353-x

"The observed rainwater ratio of Cl/Na (1.1) is closer to that of seawater ratio (1.16) indicates fractionation of sea-salt"

http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/17569/2010/acpd-10-17569-2010.pdf#page1

"During both seasons Cl− and Na+ were the most abundant components. These ions
were also highly correlated and their ratio was close to that found in sea water. A
comparison with Na+ showed that also for several other components an appreciable
part of the concentration was derived from sea-salt"

http://core.ecu.edu/geology/woods/RiverComp5450.htm

"Precipitation is very dilute seawater because most of its dissolved ions are derived from bubbles bursting at the sea surface"
"Because of the great dilution os sea salt by pure water, the TDS of rain is low (1-10 ppm) depending on proximity to the coast."

 

[Garf]

So, in my reckoning, use RODI to remove all TDS, aerate to replace oxygen and co2, add very dilute marine salt solution to get the TDS back up to 5 or 10ppm, hey presto - artificial rainwater

 

[Carlton]

In my VERY humble opinion, I feel you are overthinking it. Plenty of cham keepers use RO or rainwater or treated tap water with no problems. But hey, if you love getting down into this level of design knock yourself out!

 

[Garf]

In my VERY humble opinion, I feel you are overthinking it. Plenty of cham keepers use RO or rainwater or treated tap water with no problems. But hey, if you love getting down into this level of design knock yourself out!

Had nothing to do today and I'm a bit prone to "overthinking" but now I've done the groundwork and a few simple sums I think it's an improvement. 1 millilitre of full strength (35ppt) artificial saltwater mix in 4 ltrs RODI gives artificial rainwater (almost 9ppm). Will have to confirm the TDS with a meter though.

 

[junglefries]

water quality

Monsoon recommends that you use distilled water with its systems. As far as tap water goes, if you are lucky as i once was (Portsmouth, VA (Manor area)), your tap water may test BETTER than RO water. When RO systems were first really being pushed around 1990 for salt water aquariums, i had a salesman test his RO water to the tap water where i lived. Mine turned out better. Wasn't a fair test though, i knew from my previous tests of setting up my aquariums how good my water was. I know that's not the norm before everyone starts lecturing.

 

[Garf]

He may have not been aware of TDS creep across the membrane when the unit is shut off for a while. TDS of water up here is anywhere between 200 to 300 ppm. After membrane it's between 4 to 6 until the membrane ages. I only suggest that this method replaces TDS of unknown origin with a known composition to mimic rainwater. Whether there is actually any benefit, I suppose it's impossible to tell, but the data suggests it is more akin to rainwater than either using tap, RO, RODI or distilled. And hey, it's simple if you've already got a RODI system. And if you've already got a RODI then there's a good chance you've got marine salts

 

[Garf]

My next querie would be about water temperature. I see a few interweb posts that say Luke warm is best, others that say room temp, but most have no reference to temperature. I'm guessing that a slightly heated source would mimic rainfall in the natural environment. Achieved perhaps by coiling the supply line inside the warmest part of the enclosure?

 

[Garf]

Ok, gonna give an idea. There's a lot of posts on here and elsewhere that say the chams will retreat from spraying. Why? They evolved in a rain situation, why retreat? I suggest a thermal shock response. I'm a Newbie, but come on, why not an explanation?

Edit - just re-read this and it sounds a bit aggressive, apologies, not intended that way. I've left it as I wrote it though