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Filtered Seawater from the ocean, low salinity

Joined
Oct 2, 2009
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Sorry I wasnt to sure where to put this.

I have been testing the water from my RO unit and I keep testing, but ammonia is always there and I'm not sure why other than maybe the water from my water company has very high ammonia right now. I often get my water from a source at the beach which is pre filtered for me but the salinity is always around 1.019. Is there a safe way to boil off the water so that I dont have to add anything to the water to get 1.026 in salinity? I worry about metals being put in the water if I used just a regular pot. Any thoughts would be very helpful.

Sabrina
 
Why is the salinity lower? You could add salt to it to make it right, get some Instant Ocean instead of trying to boil it down.
I personally use straight seawater in my tanks. In the past I collected it myself but I just found a guy that brings it too me for about 50 cents a gallon. He has a huge tanker truck and come right to my house.
 
The salinity is lower because of the filter they use I believe. Its a very trust worthy source so thats the only thing I can figure. I had been not wanting to use salt to add to it but that might be the easiest way to get what I need.

I live near galveston and the water here is NASTY brown looking unless you go out to the Moody Reef thats out there. And at this time I dont have any of the things needed to get there so I have to get what I can from where I can. I wish I knew a guy with a truck. That would ROCK!!
 
I tested all the water I had in the house. First I tested the water in the tank... ammonia, then I tested my RO water... ammonia. So then I tested the saltwater I bought from the fish store to try and fix my ammonia problem... ammonia. WOW I was screwed no matter what it would seem. So I guess I will only be getting water from the ocean and then adding salt to it to fix the salinity. Man this blows.
 
for ammonia there are freshwater test kits and saltwater test kits, You are testing your tap water with a freshwater kit right? another mistake i made in the past.
 
As with CaptFish, I suspect something is amiss with your testing but that does not mean that you don't have an ammonia issue somewhere. How are you testing? If you are using one of the Coralife ammonia checkers, you will need to let it return to normal before making a second test if it detects ammonia(usually a day). The color disk must start out totaly yellow or you can get a false positive. Ammonia in your tap water is unusual and worth reporting if you can validate it. If you have a Britta or equivalent type water filter, try your test on filtered water (these will be charcoal filters). Start with a small fresh cup of water test it then let it stand for a day. Ammonia should evaporate out.
 
If you just have an RO unit, you are not removing ammonia - it is a dissolved gas (like carbon dioxide) and passes through the RO unit. The RO part of the unit is like a tiny sieve, that prevents things from physically passing through the membrane. During the DI part of the filtration system, ammonia is removed. The DI part of the system uses an ion exchange mechanism to remove things like phosphates, nitrates and ammonia. If your local water has high levels of chloramine (used to control bacterial growth), it breaks down into chlorine and ammonia within your filter. This can cause a high load on the DI part of your filter, causing it to "wear out" quicker than the RO part. This may be happening with your LFS' water...
 
I have an ro/di unit and though there my be something wrong with my unit, the water I bought from the LFS to help me with my ammonia problem the day I got my octo was riddled with ammonia too. I dont really understand how this happens. I thought maybe I was testing wrong or something too. So I did multipule tests many different ways and had other stores (3) test the water for me, then asked the LFS where I got the water to test the water there.... Same thing lots of ammonia. I have an almost brand new unit/w membranes. I dont understand how it could already be bogged down with ammonia.
 
My only other thought is that somehow your unit is not set up correctly. You also need a fair amount of pressure going through the unit (about 40 psi). One site I looked at said that some DI units are only good for 200-400 gallons...
 
Quick question, are all RO/DI unit stock the same size? I ask cause I just bought this one and really dont want to have to buy a new one if I can help it. The situation that guy speaks of in the second link sounds like my problem exactly, and my LFS is on the same water supply so it would make sense that they would have the same problem unless they had upgraded to a better carbon filter. I tested the tap water which not supprising has strong amounts of ammonia... which is really disturbing when you think about the fact that we cook and drink that water.

I know nothing about RO/DI units which is a shame but true so does anyone know which filters I could upgrade to? Im not sure if the ones listed on the second link are still the best out there or if there is a better one to fit my unit. If they are interchangeable and still the best way to go then cool if not your personal experiance would be helpful.

Thank you for locating those links for me.
 

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