RODI Water...Necessary or A Huge Scam

[Marco S]

Many years ago at a sales conference, an instructor told everyone that the best sales person could sell water to someone right in front of their sink. This was way before there was bottled water, (well besides Perrier) and people just drank tap water. Flash forward many years and now companies are making billions on selling us, "Clean" water and a large majority of us fork over $$$ for this water and don't ever use the water that is readily available to us in every tap in our house.

People have been keeping reefs for a lot longer than bottled water and RODI units have been around and while I know that there are some harmful things in tap water, there are also useful things as well and people just used water conditioners to make it safe with no issue. The same goes for freshwater tanks that I have kept my whole life and always used tap water and within the last few years the LFS's and forums have been pushing people to start using RO water for freshwater tanks as well. I call BS and continue to use tap water for my freshwater tanks and have had absolutely no problems, but when it came to saltwater I followed the masses and broke down and spent over $300 on an RODI System.

After thinking about it, it seems pretty convenient for the companies selling RODI Systems that everyone is being told that we need RODI water in order to be successful in reefing. Targeting the reefing community is a genius idea because a lot of us are willing to spend a lot of money on anything giving us a better chance of success, but have we all been brainwashed here??? Do we really need RODI???

 

[NinnJinn]

At least in my small town there are so many chemicals that the town puts into the water to bring it up to "code" it would probably kill my fish within 24hrs.

When my kids were younger we had to use distilled water just to keep their goldfish alive and with my 125 gallon display tank it was cheaper just to get a Rodi system.

 

[Flippers4pups]

The answer is in your local water companies water quality report. It's not a matter of "killing" marine life off in an instant, it's long term. Chloramines are the thing now to disinfect our water supplies. It will not dissipate like chlorine would in a storage container. Heavy metals typically won't degrade and can build up in a system long term.

My local water supply is rather clean, but you never know when they will change something without notice. Example, adding silicate to supply lines to clean them once a year. Fertilizer run off is a concern and is likely during wet months of the year.

TDS is one thing, what makes up that TDS is another. Not worth the risk with thousands of dollars of fish and coral in my book. Your milage may vary.

 

[Greybeard]

People have been keeping reefs for a lot longer than bottled water and RODI units have been around

Simply untrue. Your average aquarium keeper didn't even consider keeping live corals until the mid 80's... RO water was certainly available at that point. (RO membranes were invented in the 1700's!) Sure, we kept marine fish tanks... but reefs? Not until those visionary Germans started writing about the 'Berlin Method'. Even then, you couldn't source most of the cool new technologies they were talking about outside of Europe.

I had marine tanks back then... I remember my first skimmer. Ran on a wooden air stone. Lighting? My old marine fish tanks used 40w incondescent bulbs. Decent skimmers and halide lighting wasn't even on the horizon in 1982.

Bought my first RO/DI system in the early 90's. Made a HUGE difference in my ability to keep corals alive then. I'll never again fill a tank intended for corals with anything but absolutely pure, clean water. IMHO, after several decades in the hobby, labratory clean water is the single most important component of any reef. An RO/DI system is the cheapest way to get that quality water at home.

 

[Marco S]

The answer is in your local water companies water quality report. It's not a matter of "killing" marine life off in an instant, it's long term. Chloramines are the thing now to disinfect our water supplies. It will not dissipate like chlorine would in a storage container. Heavy metals typically won't degrade and can build up in a system long term.

My local water supply is rather clean, but you never know when they will change something without notice. Example, adding silicate to supply lines to clean them once a year. Fertilizer run off is a concern and is likely during wet months of the year.

TDS is one thing, what makes up that TDS is another. Not worth the risk with thousands of dollars of fish and coral in my book. Your milage may vary.

And that's what we have been sold...but how did reefers do it successfully before RODI Systems? Or are we saying that the water has progressively gotten worse over time. And if so, why do we pay the water companies for water? It can't be as bad as they say...or can it?

 

[hart24601]

I live in Iowa, our nitrates frequently exceed the FDA legal limit and we have to use a very expensive treatment facility. There are also so many organics lime is added to try and reduce the amount and phosphate depending on the time of year can be several ppm. Topping off a reef with several gallons of this a day puts quite the pressure on export in the best case scenario.

Many municipalities also randomly flush the systems, that has led many fw keepers to lose their systems. I only use ro/di even for FW now as so many people locally have mysterious deaths in livestock.

Not all places need RO, we know that, but many of not most areas do and many of us have thousands of dollars in our livestock - and it isn't just a monetary reason for replacement, but colonies we have grown for years. The safety of Ro/DI makes sense for most.

 

[Marco S]

Simply untrue. Your average aquarium keeper didn't even consider keeping live corals until the mid 80's... RO water was certainly available at that point. (RO membranes were invented in the 1700's!) Sure, we kept marine fish tanks... but reefs? Not until those visionary Germans started writing about the 'Berlin Method'. Even then, you couldn't source most of the cool new technologies they were talking about outside of Europe.

I had marine tanks back then... I remember my first skimmer. Ran on a wooden air stone. Lighting? My old marine fish tanks used 40w incondescent bulbs. Decent skimmers and halide lighting wasn't even on the horizon in 1982.

Bought my first RO/DI system in the early 90's. Made a HUGE difference in my ability to keep corals alive then. I'll never again fill a tank intended for corals with anything but absolutely pure, clean water. IMHO, after several decades in the hobby, labratory clean water is the single most important component of any reef. An RO/DI system is the cheapest way to get that quality water at home.

So, out of curiosity, where did you get the idea to start using RODI water?

 

[Flippers4pups]

And that's what we have been sold...but how did reefers do it successfully before RODI Systems? Or are we saying that the water has progressively gotten worse over time. And if so, why do we pay the water companies for water? It can't be as bad as they say...or can it?

That's a question. Back in the nineties, we had RO/DI and I used it. It would be a broad statement that early reefing was successful without it. Then again back then most didn't keep difficult corals as we do today.

What the human body can absorb within government guidelines can be questionable, most people would agree. Delicate marine life is impacted globally by human waste, this has become a real problem. Can't say what local water supply companies added to our water way back when, but what is allowed today is proven to be toxic to marine life. Even if they say it's okay for us.

 

[rushbattle]

In short, running a relatively inexpensive freshwater treatment system like RODI is much less expensive than testing the source of freshwater as it changes over time, and doing all of the troubleshooting associated with a less pure source water.

 

[Marco S]

Simply untrue. Your average aquarium keeper didn't even consider keeping live corals until the mid 80's... RO water was certainly available at that point. (RO membranes were invented in the 1700's!) Sure, we kept marine fish tanks... but reefs? Not until those visionary Germans started writing about the 'Berlin Method'. Even then, you couldn't source most of the cool new technologies they were talking about outside of Europe.

It would be a broad statement that early reefing was successful without it. Then again back then most didn't keep difficult corals as we do today.

I was under the impression that reef keeping had been around for a lot longer than it appears it has been. My apologies for making that "broad statement". I was thinking reefers were doing fine and then along came the RODI companies that instilled it in our brains that we needed RODI to be successful in reef keeping. If you are saying that that is not the case and RODI water is actually the reason we were able to achieve success in keeping corals then I guess my assumptions are not correct. I am glad I did spend the money to get an RODI System now. Thanks for the information!!!

When it comes to freshwater though, I have absolutely kept successful tanks, (and still do) with tap water and water conditioner and do not plan on changing that even though the trend seems to be going to RO water.

 

[hart24601]

People have been reef keeping a long time, however that is a broad term. Keeping stony coral, particularly acros, by the average keeper isnt all that old although modern powerheads (magnetic impellers then propellers) have a lot to do with that.


Again water quality is extraordinary variable across the country so just because one person doesn't need ro does not mean it's a scam.

Edit I looked up 1st aquacultured acro and looks like the 1st well documented one was 1985 although even into the 90s is was very rare:

https://reefbuilders.com/2011/01/05...graph-documents-25-years-stony-coral-reefing/

Pretty amazing what we can keep now.

 

[alton]

In 2000 the attached picture of corals is what was available to us in San Antonio (not much to look at)

 

[Aquavaj]

Not necessary but not a scam either. Yes some people have success with using tap water but it's likely they have better water quality than most or keeping less demanding corals. FW is also a lot less demanding of good water quality in my opinion.

 

[Opus]

I was under the impression that reef keeping had been around for a lot longer than it appears it has been. My apologies for making that "broad statement". I was thinking reefers were doing fine and then along came the RODI companies that instilled it in our brains that we needed RODI to be successful in reef keeping. If you are saying that that is not the case and RODI water is actually the reason we were able to achieve success in keeping corals then I guess my assumptions are not correct. I am glad I did spend the money to get an RODI System now. Thanks for the information!!!

When it comes to freshwater though, I have absolutely kept successful tanks, (and still do) with tap water and water conditioner and do not plan on changing that even though the trend seems to be going to RO water.

I do use tap water for my freshwater tank and it is amazing the stuff that comes out of it. The top of my tank looks like it has icing around it from all the stuff that precipitates out of the water. I sure wouldn't want that in my reef tank or a discus tank if I had one. But my guppies sure don't care!

 

[SDK]

I've been keeping marine aquariums for about 35 years. There has been a noticeable difference for me between the pre, and post RODI era. Maybe not so much with fish, as it's hard to point to which of the many developing technologies gets what percentage of the credit there.

When dealing with algae issues, inverts and corals, I can say with near 100% certainty that RODI was a game changing technology.

Even before keeping reefs, I always struggled keeping shrimp and CUC alive, despite meticulous care on my part. Upping water changes made it worse, and I spoke to my LFS guy about the problem. This was in the 1990's, long before the internet existed. On his advice I tried a product sold at the time. It was a deionizer that had a rubber faucet hookup and a disposable cartridge with a long hose. Maybe one of the other old folks can remember the specifics. I think it was made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. It worked great but I blew through expensive cartridges monthly.

A few years later I took the plunge and bought an RODI unit. At the time, I think they were more DIY in the aquarium world. The very good store I dealt with at the time put units together themselves. They were not cheap or being marketed for aquariums very heavily.

If my memory is accurate, I think some smart person recognized that aquarists were buying these units and started marketing at them. Not the other way around...

 

[SDK]

I found it, and they are actually still for sale

https://www.petstore.com/Aquarium_P...icals_API_MARS_Fishcare-AP4111-AQROAC-vi.html

 

[Greybeard]

People have been reef keeping a long time, however that is a broad term. Keeping stony coral, particularly acros, by the average keeper isnt all that old although modern powerheads (magnetic impellers then propellers) have a lot to do with that.

Prior to the mid 80's, the only successful reef tanks I'm aware of were places where they could do regular water changes with natural seawater. Heck... Instant Ocean wasn't available until what, early 70's? Its' still a very young hobby.

For a FISH tank? Treated tap water is probably fine. I used to take my bleached coral skeletons out of my marine fish tanks and bleach the hair algae off of them monthly. For a reef system? RO/DI would be as close to a 'mandatory' piece of equipment as I can imagine.

 

[Opus]

@SDK, I believe I got my first RO unit around 1996 and it was a Kent Marine 25gpd unit 2 stage. I believe I paid around $199. Still using the housing pieces. I think the 25gpd RO membranes were around $100 back then.

 

[Midrats]

I have to use RO. Our water is so hard here the calcium in marinemix precipitates and the water never clears. I just run my DI housing blank. I chew through DI resin because of excess CO2 and haven't bothered setting up a degassing rig. I noticed zero difference going from 0 ppm RODI to 2 ppm RO so I'm sticking with it for now.

 

[PatW]

Here in Central FL we have high phosphates and nitrates in most tap water which causes problems in most reef tanks unless you have a really major refugium with tons of algae. And that is the not so bad stuff.