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Reverse osmosis / water filter


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Hi, well it's April and down in Kent we haven't had much rain. I've got a 900 ltr water capacity (greenhouse is 12x8ft, mostly Sarracenias), but I'm now down to 300-350 ltr and there is still no sight of rain in the weather forecasts! I'm therefore thinking of some sort of reverse osmosis system. Any advice on what to go for? Or any other options? Cheers, Dave

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you can buy  from a aquatic shop .Just a thought if you don't want to go to expense of buying a unit .

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I've got an ro unit as I used to keep marine fish plus I keep shrimp. I have this unit:

http://www.swelluk.com/d-and-d-r-o-unit-50-us-gallon/

Since buying it I've added extra chambers (just because of keeping my shrimp) but if your only using it for plants then that one is a good buy. It comes with an attachment so you can hook it up to your outside tap so I just screw it on when I want to use then take it off again when I'm done. You will get a lot of waste water from it, a lot more then the good stuff you want to use but if you've got other plants that aren't fussy then the water is really good for them (I've just added a really long airline tube so that it reaches the length of the garden). I can fill about 2x 20ltr buckets each day with it. If I get a chance I'll try and do a short video on it today!

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Just another thought, if you don't want to buy your own ro unit you can do like Tatter said and get some from a local aquatic shop or another idea would be to ring round some local window cleaners to see if they will sell you some if they are using an ro unit.

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Thanks MikiandHenry, this has been really useful particularly the video! I think I'll buy an RO system as it normally take about 30-35 ltrs a time to water my plants which can be 2-3 times during the summer so I think buying it from an aquatic shop could get expensive!

By the way great wall to the garden, I'm currently planting a South African/Australian bed along mine.

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Dave, you are in a similar situation as I was last year... I have a slightly larger greenhouse but similar capacity of stored water. I was going through my storage too quickly with our dry East Kent summers.

Aquarium shops will become too expensive very quickly for the volume required. A lot of (bigger, busier) window cleaners buy in bulk from RO specialists such as Kent Water Works (http://kentwaterworks.co.uk). Last summer I purchased 1000L of RO on a few occasions. Colin is a great guy and delivered the load (filling all my water butts) for a small cost once, and on other occasions I would travel to his Birchington location to transport 100L at a time in 4x 25L containers.

This was a much better service than small expensive amounts from aquarium shops, however it became a pain making many trips for 100L at a time.

In the end I purchased a 50US gal/day RO unit with DI filter so I can now process my own RO water when times are dry. I have mine connected to an outdoor hose, running in my summerhouse and out into the water butts nearby. As Mikiandhenry said, production is relatively slow and waste water needs to be factored in, so it takes a bit of planning ahead and getting used to!

I did some calculations recently and found mine costs £1.51 to fill a water butt (210L), by storing/utilising the waste water. If you run the waste water down a drain, it costs closer to £3.75 a water butt!

If you need any further advice, just shout, or if you wanted to pop over to Ramsgate some time to see the setup, let me know.

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Quote

 

Hi Stu, thanks for the post. Funnily enough a couple of weekends ago I spoke with Colin and will probably be getting 1,000 liters from him in the next couple of weeks. Unfortunately he can't deliver. I did look into getting an RO system but I have a problem getting rid of the waste water as I don't have access to an outside drain or storage capacity, also I'm planning a Protea/Banksia bed so can't even use it on the garden. Also none of the companies I contacted for advice about buying an RO system ever replied! However I'm glad at least I have a back up source. And with it being a bank holiday hopefully it will chuck it down! Would be good to come over and see you system and collection though! Dave

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  • 2 months later...

No rain in Hampshire and looks like we'll be missing more of these 'months in a day' deluges too so finally bit the bullet and had to buy a RO unit as my butts were down to the last couple of watering cans!  Thought I'd post a few observations if anybody else is in the same situation :roll:

How do you pick a system to buy?  I went for the Amazon sold compact RO 4-stage unit from Vyair - seemed a reasonable price (£48) and had good reviews (and I had some credit with Amazon).  It came two days later and plumbed up today (temp set-up to test and see how it worked):

large.59617a79b1406_WP_20170708_20_16_25_Pro1.jpg.5ac8706d1566ca455a33b59b0a79e10a.jpg

Set-up easy - most of it was already pre-plumbed.  Just had to add the DI resin, RO filter, and run a few litres to clear etc.  Instructions to do all this were fairly clear.  Currently its just on the outside tap at the back of the house which is fed from the header cold tank so far from ideal.

Now tap water around here is as hard as nails.  Cold water readings are in the high 300s (take this as +/- 10 or 20 ppm):

large.WP_20170708_20_21_39_Pro.jpg.5f30bdf525921dafc1870c6d5b02a293.jpg

Already have a Pozzani two-stage filter but this only reduces the TDS to around 240 ppm (for comparison a Samsung fridge filter only reduces the TDS by about 50 ppm or less) so not really an option for the CPs! 

Taking readings from my water butts the stuff from my house roof (concrete tiles) is around 45 ppm and that collected off my greenhouse roof around 15 ppm (both of these +/- 5 ppm).  This therefore gives me something to aim for as I've never had any problems with using either of these sources for my plants.

Pre-DI readings from the RO filter showed water at the 80 ppm level (the 'red' pipe water water was over 500 ppm) which seemed a little disappointing!  Once the DI stage was introduced I got a reading of:

large.WP_20170708_20_23_22_Pro.jpg.6c47433dc1d0c4f8e5079938d8a77b73.jpg

Can't say I'm unhappy with this :tongue:

Its slow with this water pressure and so will look at plumbing into the rising main to get full mains pressure and see if that helps but over a few hours today I've got about a third of a water butt of good water now.  How long the filters and RO last is the big question.  I can see the DI changing colour already so will re-test the ppm tomorrow when I re-start and see how its going.  I guess with 80 ppm hitting the DI resin I'm going to go through a fair bit of that to keep it so low but that's the cheap bit.  Initial ppm being so high may mean a fairly short life on the RO membrane filter too.

If only it would rain:woot:

 

Edited by Dunc
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As an update:

Produced about 200 l in a total of about 16 hours.  TDS was 2.5 at start up today (after a membrane flush) but settled down to around 1 ppm after an hour.

The DI resin looks about exhausted so will have to refill before I run again (useful to have the indicator stuff).

I'm now using this as all out of rainwater - some rain promised Tuesday (please!).  200 l won't last long with these temperatures.....

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  • 4 years later...

I can recommend you osmo water purifier, you will be satisfied I'm sure. This technology is the only technology in water purification in osmosis. The osmosis membrane in osmo is very good at providing clean osmotic water, with the smallest particles of contaminants removed from softened water osmotic power includes fluoride, calcium, magnesium and chlorine. Osmo is ideal for people with sensitive taste, are more effective in water softeners. The osmotic membrane can be used without any salt or harmful chemicals due to the healthy osmotic solution, no need to buy tablets osmose water purifier is a good choice.

Edited by Gough
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12 hours ago, Tropfrog said:

It is really bad in the long run to drink pure reverse osmosis water. If osmo water is good for drinking its bad for CPs. 

I think some clarification is required for making such a bold and unsubstantiated statement.

Rob

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Ah, I thought this was a shamless add not a serious post:)

The minerals removed in the RO filter is ecential for human. In the long run it is not healthy to drink ro water.

Quote:

"According to the World Health Organization, low mineral (TDS) drinking water produced by reverse osmosis or distillation is not suitable for long term human consumption and in fact, can create negative health effects to those consuming it."

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://tappwater.co/en/reverse-osmosis-ro-water-filters/&ved=2ahUKEwign_CU8Z7zAhVzQvEDHWZgBVsQFnoECAQQBg&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw1QSPqpFeFrE7GVQy9dK0h0&ampcf=1

 

Br

Magnus 

 

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Whilst I agree RO removes a lot of beneficial minerals from water, which you will likely get from other sources such as food, it also removes a lot of impurities in the domestic water system.  In really hard water, agricultural areas such as where I live currently, a water softener will only neutralise calcium carbonate to a degree - yes I have a water softener - and unfortunately replace it with a lot of sodium, but it will not remove pesticides and other impurities in the water system which an RO system will.

An interesting article you post but I have to say the WHO is not an organization I am prepared to trust, especially after their recent problems with Covid-19, but this a not a subject to discuss in this thread.

Kind regards,

Rob

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