H.crispa
02/17/2005, 12:25 AM
Hi all. I am currently experiencing a mild, but annoying and persistent outbreak of diatoms. This really sucks because on Sunday, I fly out to New Jersey for 2 1/2 weeks on business and my reef will be under surrogate care.
Anyway, in my research to alleviate this outbreak, I came across a tidbit that I thought many of you would find interesting. It comes from this article from our good friend Albert Thiel and the full article can be found here: http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/reefref/diatoms.html#remove
The blurb that caught my attention is this:
" Many hobbyists are under the impression that using reverse osmosis water or deionized water will solve the problem, and that doing so will remove the silicates and silicic acid from that water. This is, unfortunately, not the case. Such units, even if combined, will remove silicate and silicic acid for a very short period of time only and, then, the silicate and silicic acid will get through the membrane and the resins and will start to build up in the tank.
By a short period of time I mean in a matter of days, depending on how much silicate and silicic acid the water you are treating actually contains. Tests have shown that, when treating water with 14 ppm of silicate, the silicate and silicic acid came through the membrane and the resins used in combination with the R.O. unit, after less than 100 gallons of water had passed through the filtration set-up (lab. notes ref. 95/6/-012)."
Interesting. An RO or RO/DI unit is not the end-all solution to H2O purity that I have always taken it to be.
Thoughts? Opinions? Personal traumas?
Anyway, in my research to alleviate this outbreak, I came across a tidbit that I thought many of you would find interesting. It comes from this article from our good friend Albert Thiel and the full article can be found here: http://www.netpets.org/fish/reference/reefref/diatoms.html#remove
The blurb that caught my attention is this:
" Many hobbyists are under the impression that using reverse osmosis water or deionized water will solve the problem, and that doing so will remove the silicates and silicic acid from that water. This is, unfortunately, not the case. Such units, even if combined, will remove silicate and silicic acid for a very short period of time only and, then, the silicate and silicic acid will get through the membrane and the resins and will start to build up in the tank.
By a short period of time I mean in a matter of days, depending on how much silicate and silicic acid the water you are treating actually contains. Tests have shown that, when treating water with 14 ppm of silicate, the silicate and silicic acid came through the membrane and the resins used in combination with the R.O. unit, after less than 100 gallons of water had passed through the filtration set-up (lab. notes ref. 95/6/-012)."
Interesting. An RO or RO/DI unit is not the end-all solution to H2O purity that I have always taken it to be.
Thoughts? Opinions? Personal traumas?