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Semi-Urgent Water Quality Question

wyattbaker

Hatchling
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Aug 29, 2011
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Ok so my roommate accidentally ran warm/hot water through my Pure-FloII Premium TFC Reverse Osmosis Water Purification System. He only did so for a few hours and the water was not very hot (more on the warm side) but I have been told that hot water will destroy the membrane on this system so I am worried.

My 37-gallon Eclipse (with a Bali octopus in it) is overdue for a water change (I was only planning on doing a 5-gallon change) and so I really need to know if my Pure-Flo system is safe to use as the source for my water change or if I should look for other means of getting clean purified water (i.e. buying it from a store). I live in New York City and I’ve been told that we have the best urban water in the nation but I know that cephalopods are very sensitive to certain minerals or trace amounts of metal in their water so I don’t want to risk my octopus’ life for the sake of convenience but if the risk really isn’t that high then I think that I will just go ahead and use the water that I have already filtered though my system after the warm water incident.

Do any of you have any advice for me? I’m in a bit of a bind and my local aquarium store is temporarily closed and not getting back to me. I would really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Wyatt
 
Interesting question and I have no answer so I googled a bit to see what others have said. Do you have any idea how hot the water was? My quick check on the net suggests that is the critical question and under 80 degrees does not seem to be a problem (that is actually pretty cool water though). It should not have effected your particulate prefilters, I did not see anything negative about the effects on DI resin but the RO membrane could have been compromised.

I did find the operating range for one filter to be from 40-100 degrees F. If you know your manufacturer, the safe range may be published in a spec sheet.
 
:welcome: to TONMO

I'm not sure what to tell you about you RO/DI system, as i dont have much experience with them, but if you need water, I would suggest using your system to fill a bucket or whatever then add a dose of water conditioner just to be safe. I personal don't have a RO/DI system, I simply fill a bucket in my shower, then i add 10 drops of conditioner, then I pour it directly into either the tank or the sump (I have many tanks and they are all different).
 
Thanks for the responses guys. This does help ease my concerns a lot. I think I will go ahead and do the five gallon water change with the water that I have because I don't think that it should be that bad.
 
For 5 gallons of new water diluted into a large volume of water, even straight tap probably won't affect your tank very much. However, you may want to invest in a TDS meter to see how well your RO membrane is working. I think you can find them for $20 if you look around (ebay???). If the water felt warm, it was probably over 95 degrees, so I would recommend erring on the side of caution and at the very least, test your current membrane with a TDS meter.
 

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