Reverse osmosis

kaylie

New Member
I've been looking on sites to browse systems, and got a little confused. They sell some shower head filters decently cheap, about 40 bucks, but is this all I would have to buy? Or do I need the whole drinking water system as well, which are in the $ hundreds..?
 
RO systems are in the range of $150-350+ dollars. The price really depends on the filters being used, the number of filters, the size of the water tank (that holds the RO water) and the rate of the membrane to process RO water (rated in 'gallons per day'). Other factors involved can be booster pumps for homes with low water pressure (pressure is criical for RO water filter systems to work) and if the system is ZeroWaste.

This is a AquaZamp ZeroWaste RO water filtration system I made and installed for a coworker at his home. It is connected to the kitchen refrigerator water and ice dispenser. He doesn't keep chameleons, but wanted RO for his home.

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This is the RO and misting system I use for my chameleons. It is fully automated and accessible via the internet :D

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Ughhh, really? Is this that much of issue? My aunt has well water, is that better? I drink city water every day.
 
Ughhh, really? Is this that much of issue? My aunt has well water, is that better? I drink city water every day.

If it hasn't been tested there is no way of knowing if it's clean or not.
City water has about 300-500 Parts Per Million of Total Dissolved Solids in it, depending the location.
You can fill a bowl with RO water that has a TDS reading of 10-20 PPM.
Wash your hands in the bowl without soap and you'll have a TDS reading of about 200-300 PPM add chorine and there is your city water.:eek:
Drink up Johnny:D
 
Il have to check that out, i would be surprised, we are supposed to have some of the best water in the world here in quebec.
 
TDS tells you nothing about the nature of what's dissolved in the water, except that it is charged (i.e., ionic). For instance, if you raise the TDS of pure water by 100 ppm with NaCl (table salt), the water is completely safe to drink and utterly harmless. If you raise the TDS by 100 ppm with an arsenic salt then, well, let's just say you really don't want to be drinking it.

TDS tells you nothing about the cleanliness or safety of water, except that water with a TDS of 0 (i.e., << 1 ppm) is probably fine since there are essentially no dissolved ions beyond H+ and OH- that you get from autoioniztion of water.

If you're concerned about the quality of water from your tap, using RO is an effective way to reduce (usually by 90-99%, depending on the quality of the membrane) the concentration of the dissolved stuff you want to remove. However, if your tap water quality is "good", well, then it's good. Reverse osmosis and deioniztion can certainly be useful for some applications, but can certainly be overkill in others.

cj
 
I am sure my cham will be fine, i look at these websites about how bad town water is, funny thing is they all sell the equipment that will solve the problem. I agree it could be usefull for some regions , but i dont think this should be a "must have" for the safety of my cham. There is research that claims ro removes valuable minerals from water.
 
Rain water is essentially distilled water, which is comparable to RO water - lack of minerals. A chameleon will drink rain water, that has no minerals, in the wild from leaves and dew droplets.

The reason to use RO is to remove all of the bad stuff in your tap water and to prevent mineral build up on your misting and dripping equipment. If you have hard water in your area you will need to clean or replace your misting/dripping nozzles quite often from the mineral deposits. I have been using RO on my chameleons now for almost two years and have had zero health issues (that I know to be related to RO water). I drink the same RO my chams do, at home and I also drink RO water at work... I don't seem to have health issues either.

RO isn't for everyone, because not everyone feels like spending the money. But I think when people try RO water they'll notice how much taste there is in tap water... and how much variance there is between cities. Like here in southern California, every city's water has a different taste, I don't like to drink unfiltered tap water.
 
I am sure my cham will be fine, i look at these websites about how bad town water is, funny thing is they all sell the equipment that will solve the problem. I agree it could be usefull for some regions , but i dont think this should be a "must have" for the safety of my cham. There is research that claims ro removes valuable minerals from water.

I don't think it's a must, I just want one so I can easily get water instead of preparing it in advance. Right now I use Jurassi Safe drops, I just think in the long run I could save money with RO by not buying the drops all the time.
 
I found it at petsmart. There's also Reptisafe and other water conditioners out there
Take out "drops" when searching Jurassi Safe
 
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