RO Systems

[Duncan]

what is your experiences when using RO

has it worked out as you expected ?
are your membranes giving longevity ?

are your restrictors working how you would like ?

above all are your water companies on your back or your water bills OTT?

when i say water companies on your back they do go around in the dead of night with listening sticks on tyour main stop cock

dunc

[Gazza]

Hi Dunc,

As you know i have been running RO for years and its all your fault I can still remember what you said to me all that time ago:

"Gazza you have two choices mate you can try to make the water softer or keep cod as with your water you will trash nice Koi"

So that was it and i have been trying to get better systems ever since that day and have learned a bit along the way and all thanks to you


what is your experiences when using RO:

I have found that since running RO i have been able to keep the Koi i want and not only that i have found that the fish also are much healthier and develop better especially in skin quality compared to the water before. I have also found that if the fish are to get a little knock for some reason that before i would have to intervene but now i would just leave it as is and it will heal on its own.

has it worked out as you expected ?

Yes i have to say for me it has worked a treat and i am very pleased with how things have gone since running softer water

are your membranes giving longevity ?

With my water being so bad/hard i have in the past had trouble with membranes but for a while now i have been running a water softener and an auto flush system and this has made a great in pact on the longevity of the membranes

are your restrict ors working how you would like ?

I don't actually run a restrictor at the moment i have a valve that i can turn so i can rerstrict the waste flow and increase the product output and i keep my eye on the water pressure when doing so and this is a bit of early testing at the moment on this system.

above all are your water companies on your back or your water bills OTT?

I have had no problem with my water company but we have always been heavy on the water and i do try to recycle;e as much as i can and as you know i have been like yourself looking into a few options/project

[tomc]

OK, well:

1/ Membranes last about a year and I get through a lot of water.
2/ Currrently running it without a pump which means output is a lot lower but actually "about right" for the pond.
3/ Water Co are fine.
4/ Water bill is massive/ridiculous.
5/ Sewerage firm (not same as water providing) in dispute with over waste water charge as all excess water goes over garden. Should get there after another dozen arguments!
6/ Key reason for using RO is that koi had a habit of mucusing up regularly with regular water supply so tried RO and it seems to address that issue.

T

[Duncan]

so presumably you would be interested ina recirculating ro system where the source water is pulled from the pond filtered then put through the membranes the waste water also goes back through the membranes as well

no restrictors as gazza says we use a tap that sets your balance up if you go over the top you TDS output from the mem goes up if you under shoot your waster water increases?

i have just bought all the stuff to start trials i aniticiapte you will still change the membranes as often but you water bill will drop like a stone

dunc

[tomc]

Yes. Indeed

Tom

[Gazza]

Hi Dunc,

Yes bring it on i say

As you know this is something i am going to play with this year and its just working out the delivery to the system and stuff and setting it up temporary to get it going first as i don't want to trash to much before i know it will work

One of the ideas i had is that for people with very hard water like myself it possibly may help with the membranes as mine have so much to deal with so for me it was two fold :

(a) to save on water usage

(b) to give the membranes a better chance as they will be receiving softer water which is what they will like and should function much better that with the stuff that goes through them at the moment.My TDS reading recently was 770 not bad me thinks

[Paul24]

I'm very interested in this thread. I'm always keen to avoid wasting anything and Koi ponds are heavy on utility consumption, so any techniques to save water will be a good thing. I look forward to hearing more about these systems. My concerns are how all the solid waste in the water can be dealt with and whether the system will be complicated/expensive.

I've always felt we should be able to 'recycle' the pond water, but never a clue how.

Please let us know how the trials go.

Paul T.

[Gazza]

Hi Paul,

The waste should be OK as you run it straight through to your pre filtration before the RO unit.I was going to look at trying to take the water from my clean side of my mechanical vortex. The main thing is getting it to the RO unit and pumping it straight through the full system............i think

[Duncan]

the stuff arrived yesterday

im ginna take the water form my last chamber and divert this outside to a tank with filter material i dont want any chance of crud getting into the pump

the waste goes in this tank as well so there is no waste

Gazza makes the point these membranes wont be working any where near as hard as my total TDS at the moment is less than 120ppm after my current mems are partically bblocked but iv e had them running now for 4 years

dunc

[StuW]

this sounds really interesting as the only reason I have not set up my R/O system is because , as posted elsewhere, I do not like the idea of wasting so much water and the inherant risk that this will result in the water company putting me on a water meter as at the moment my water bill is about £250 a year.
Cant wait to hear more

[Gazza]

Hi Dunc,

I think its the logistical side of getting the water to the RO is what we have to master and then we are in

[Duncan]

i have the return figured just gotta go get a cold water tank abd some pipe and tank flanges

dunc

[Norseman]

I got involved in some very interesting debates on this subject and after a lot of listening and learning I decided to give it a go. I had been throught twelve months of trouble and had considered jacking in the hobby completely. I decided to include ro im my pond inprovement plan. I had seen what others had done and decided to take it slowly, allowing all my factors to drop with rushing anything with chemicals or extra dosing pumps. The difference I have seen in my collection is incredible. They generally seem happier and are definately healthier.One of the main differences I have seen is if a knock shows up I can leave the fish alone and it will come right on its own, where as before in my bio soup I would have a sore and it would need treating in a few days. I have a 300 gal a day system that is running at about 50/50 so I am getting a 24/7 trickle of about 150 gallons a day. My factors are in my control now and my only problem is that my fish are so hungry and eager to feed. The system has been on since last spring and it took six months to settle, and I am still running my original pods. I will be watching Dunc and Gazza's tests with interest as the only downside I can see with this system is the amount of waste water.

Simon

[Gazza]

Hi Simon,

You can restrict your waste water a bit more to help you get less waste and better product as long as you flush the system enough and don't go to mad

[wallo69]

Gazza,

I know Andy Finch is currently sorting out his growing on set up again, but before he got distracted by that he had all the bits ready to set up a similar system, with pre-filters of varying degrees of sediment filters, then into an RO membrane.

I am looking forward to seeing these systems tested as being on a meter I get through a 1000litres a day and whilst am gettting a rebate from Anglian Water for the water I submeter and recycle, its still got to be better to re-cylce the pond water than having to replace all the time with new!

Mark