Water from Seattle Aquarium

[dnjan]

Please tell me about your experience getting filtered saltwater from the Seattle aquarium.

Specifically:

What containers do you use?

Is it drive-up, or do you park and carry?

Suggested time of day (for least traffic problems)?


thanks

[MtnDewMan]

I don't get my water from there ... but ... have you checked out their site on it?

http://www.seattleaquarium.org/visitors/SaltWaterSales.htm

[dnjan]

Thanks for the link. That was going to be my next question.

Still hoping to hear from someone who actually gets water from there.
(using the RO unit to purify water before mixing saltwater is fine in summer, when I can run the waste line out to the plants along the house, but I would like to quit wasting water this winter. Not having to use RO water for water changes would help a lot.)

[Jeremyp]

Anthony Calfo suggests using DI without the RO to eliminate the waste water problem.


-jeremy

[dnjan]

Yes, I read that. Wish I had read it before I ordered a new membrane and new filters for my RO unit.

I have read a bit about buying bulk DI resin, but was wondering about the waste of that (at least the waste water is recycled - the used DI resin is landfill).

What I would like to do is use the RO unit for makeup water, and get saltwater from the Seattle aquarium. Just wondering if that will be a lot of hassle.

[Mushroom Boy]

Hi Don.

I've used the Seattle Aquarium's water in the past and have found that it requires additional salt to bring it up to the proper levels. I found that it was at 1.019. I used 5 gallon buckets and just parked my car right next to the pump. The station is right at the north end of the aquarium. Talk to Mike O'Brien about it, he uses it exclusively in his tank. For a nickel a gallon, it's hard to beat.

Paul.

[dnjan]

Thanks Paul! It sounds like a good deal - I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. I had expected that I would need to add additional salt to bring it up to 1.025
I'm glad to hear that you can stop right next to the "spigot". I wasn't too keen on the idea of carrying buckets of water very far. My limit is from the basement to the livingroom at home.

[Zack S]

My dad works in a lab so I get free ro water. I can change that to di water should I???

[dnjan]

In terms of water quality, I doubt you will notice a difference (between RO and DI). Our Seattle water is pretty clean anyway, and the RO takes it down to 1ppm or less disolved solids.

I'm kind of surprised that your dad's lab uses RO instead of DI. Just because of the water-wasting issue. The City of Seattle made us put in a cooling tower (instead of using and wasting tap water) for some water-cooled compressors. This was back in the late 80's when we had had a couple of dry years.

[Zack S]

They mostly use di but have ro so what should I use???? di or ro?

[dnjan]

In Theory, DI will be cleaner than RO. But it all depends upon how good they are at replacing their DI resins as necessary. I believe there is usually some type of conductivity meter (or possibly even an idiot light) on the DI unit. So actual quality will also depend upon how sensitive the conductivity meter is.

Since it is free either way, I would probably use the DI water.