Title: Reverse Osmosis
Description: what is it and how it works
Description: what is it and how it works
Salt freak - November 30, 2005 03:17 AM (GMT)
What is Reverse Osmosis?
Reverse Osmosis is the purification of water by forcing it with pressure through a semi-permeable membrane. Before we can go into detail about Reverse Osmosis we must first understand the concept of Osmosis. Osmosis is were water is pulled through a membrane from the side that little solutes to the side that contains more solutes Here is a diagram of Osmosis.
know Reverse Osmosis is the same idea only you would apply pressure to the solute end via tap and the pressure will over power osmosic pressure and force the water the other way there by keeping the solute on the other side the only thing is that you would keep geeting saolute trapped on one side so you need a way to remove this we do that via a waste line that has a capilarry in it to still keep pressure in there. the other side is your filtered water that you would use. here is a diagram of reverse osmosis.
What kind of RO units are there?
There is a couple of different types of membranes the first is CTA (Cellulose Tri-Acetate) they remove the lowest contaniments about 84-94% they are also organic meaning they need to be ran on chlorinated water to protect the membrane from bacteria and mold. The next membrane which is more common is the TFC (Thin Film Composite) this membrane is the most common it removes about 94-98% of all contaniments this one is a non organic membrane and needs to be ran on non chlorinated water to protect the membrane from chlorine damage. And there is one more which is more of a category it is called High Removal Membrane and these membranes remove 97.5-99% of contaniments but they still need to be ran on non chlorinated water.
there are different types of units all together they are two stage three stage four stage and sometimes five stage. they two stage usually comes with either a sediment prefilter or a carbon prefilter depending as to which membrane you use these units are small and lightwieght. the three stage units contain a sediment prefilter carbon pre filter and the membrane this unit is a great unit for there price and are also the mostly common used. and the four stage units contain sediment prefilter carbon prefilter membrane and a dionizing to remove what is leftover these units can remove greater than 99.9% of all contaniments this would be the unit i have five stage unit is the same as the four stage unit only it also contains a pressurized holding tank.
Why do I Need RO water
Tap water contains a lot of impurities that can cause a lot of problems like fish stress, or algea blooms invertabrae death or just a few examples, some of the stuff in tap water that could be harmful is phosphate, nitrAte, chlorine, copper defferent heavy metals, silicates, ammonia, calcium magnesium.
Can I just add RO water to my Aquarium?
Depending on your aquarium you are using and the type of salt. If you are using it for a freshwater aquarium then you probbally want to stabalize the water with RO right because RO water becomes very unstable pH wise. Know if you are using a cheap salt i would use OSMO prep marine to add extra magnesium and calcium that might not be in high enough quanities in the salt to stabalize the pH to about 8.3. Even though I dont use a cheap salt I still like to have the OSMO prep to the aquarium to help with magnesium.
to be continued
S_F
Reverse Osmosis is the purification of water by forcing it with pressure through a semi-permeable membrane. Before we can go into detail about Reverse Osmosis we must first understand the concept of Osmosis. Osmosis is were water is pulled through a membrane from the side that little solutes to the side that contains more solutes Here is a diagram of Osmosis.
know Reverse Osmosis is the same idea only you would apply pressure to the solute end via tap and the pressure will over power osmosic pressure and force the water the other way there by keeping the solute on the other side the only thing is that you would keep geeting saolute trapped on one side so you need a way to remove this we do that via a waste line that has a capilarry in it to still keep pressure in there. the other side is your filtered water that you would use. here is a diagram of reverse osmosis.
What kind of RO units are there?
There is a couple of different types of membranes the first is CTA (Cellulose Tri-Acetate) they remove the lowest contaniments about 84-94% they are also organic meaning they need to be ran on chlorinated water to protect the membrane from bacteria and mold. The next membrane which is more common is the TFC (Thin Film Composite) this membrane is the most common it removes about 94-98% of all contaniments this one is a non organic membrane and needs to be ran on non chlorinated water to protect the membrane from chlorine damage. And there is one more which is more of a category it is called High Removal Membrane and these membranes remove 97.5-99% of contaniments but they still need to be ran on non chlorinated water.
there are different types of units all together they are two stage three stage four stage and sometimes five stage. they two stage usually comes with either a sediment prefilter or a carbon prefilter depending as to which membrane you use these units are small and lightwieght. the three stage units contain a sediment prefilter carbon pre filter and the membrane this unit is a great unit for there price and are also the mostly common used. and the four stage units contain sediment prefilter carbon prefilter membrane and a dionizing to remove what is leftover these units can remove greater than 99.9% of all contaniments this would be the unit i have five stage unit is the same as the four stage unit only it also contains a pressurized holding tank.
Why do I Need RO water
Tap water contains a lot of impurities that can cause a lot of problems like fish stress, or algea blooms invertabrae death or just a few examples, some of the stuff in tap water that could be harmful is phosphate, nitrAte, chlorine, copper defferent heavy metals, silicates, ammonia, calcium magnesium.
Can I just add RO water to my Aquarium?
Depending on your aquarium you are using and the type of salt. If you are using it for a freshwater aquarium then you probbally want to stabalize the water with RO right because RO water becomes very unstable pH wise. Know if you are using a cheap salt i would use OSMO prep marine to add extra magnesium and calcium that might not be in high enough quanities in the salt to stabalize the pH to about 8.3. Even though I dont use a cheap salt I still like to have the OSMO prep to the aquarium to help with magnesium.
to be continued
S_F
Ritsuko Nashida - December 2, 2005 03:03 AM (GMT)
Excellent write up!!! Very well explained.