Hi guys, Andrew Esquivel here back with part two of how we implement a reverse osmosis
filtration system for your fish tanks.
Once again this is a very basic simplistic explanation of how to implement this and use
it.
We're not going to go into extreme detail here but this should help those of you who
are beginners understand the core concepts of how we work with this things.
Hopefully, you've watched part one of this video series.
If you haven't, I would suggest you do so because it has some key information that if
you don't know you might be a little confused about what we're about to talk about.
If you have watched it, congratulations we're now going to continue on from there.
As we talked about in the first video, we need some place to store the reverse osmosis
water.
Because this is how first we produce RO water.
It's pretty slow that's not really first enough to fill a fishing tank now, is it?
Now, it takes a long time.
My system produces 50 gallons per day.
This is a 32 gallon drum that we're using to store the water in.
It's been going over night for about 12 hours and you can see we haven't even filled it
up all the way.
But, we can still at least do one of the fish tanks to get the TDS and GH closer to what
we want it to be.
What we have right down there is a pond water pump.
That pond water pump has a few adapters to connect it to a standard garden hose.
Now, that pond water pump is connected and it is running.
It's plugged up where all that tech spaghetti is and we have it going into these hose.
If we take the end of these hose right here which I have a special Orbit adapter here
that disperses the out pour of water so it's more gentle.
We undo the valve here, woo, we got water.
All we really need to do at this point is not make a mess for one.
There's always a little residual water left over because of the size of the head right
here.
We take this and this is my shrimp tank and I'm just going to let it gently flow out.
Place it like so and wallah, we have reverse osmosis water coming into the fish tank.
Now, really quickly in the first video we talked about the necessity to re-mineralize
reverse osmosis water especially if it's a reverse osmosis deionized water.
Because the system will strip most if not all of the hardness from the water making
it pretty pure.
Creatures don't want pure water, they need some trace elements to survive, this is important.
Now, I have not added any minerals to this RO water yet, why?
Because I am currently just using the water in this tank which was already hard at around
22 degrees of hardness, 800 parts per million of TBS.
Which some people are going to say, "Whoa, that's really, really high," and, yes, it
is.
Granted they have been doing well on this tank for quite some time now.
It's the same with these shrimp they've been breathing pretty well.
It's the same with these Mexican dwarf crayfish.
It's the same with my pumpkin shrimp, same with peaches or my plecos, my vampire shrimp
and my crayfish and my wild tanks.
You've got to understand all these fish and vertebrates have been doing just fine with
those water parameters.
One thing I want to reiterate right here is don't chase the PH.
Fish and other aquatic creatures tend to do really well by having stable conditions rather
than fluctuating conditions that you're trying to get perfect.
Keep that in mind.
Now, even though my parameters are far different than what is the recommended parameters for
this species, this is a testament to how hardy the Neocaridina davidi species of shrimp is.
I just want to explain that really quick.
I'm going to go over these shrimps in general in a video sometime soon and explain just
how awesome these shrimp are and why they're considered hardy.
We are just about full now.
I'm going to cut off the valve here.
Just like that, we have topped off our tank with RO water.
We are stepping down in this case the GH, the KH a little bit and the TDS.
Which I am trying to get the perfect parameters out of this as an experiment to see what the
shrimps ultimately prefer.
With that being said, my special case aside, this is really all it is.
Instead of having a hose directly go into the tank to fill it up like I've been doing
for years.
Like I said, that kind of method has been working for me.
Instead now, it's just a simple intermediary step.
Instead of water goes directly to tank, it's water goes to bucket and bucket water goes
to tank.
Really, not all that hard.
Yes, okay there's going to be a mass of hoses, but ultimately just doing some tidying up
and organization it's not going to be hard.
Now, the great thing about it is once again is if the water is pure to begin with you
can then convert it to however you want, whatever custom parameters you need from the get go.
Because technically it is easier to start with perfect water, perfect in this sense
meaning purified as pure as pure can be, and then customizing it to your needs.
Rather than having just random water and hoping the inhabitants are okay with it.
Now, there's different reasons and different arguments for either method.
But, this is one method that's new to me that I'm going to try out.
Hopefully, this explanation makes you feel more comfortable with the idea of an RO system,
showing you that it's not hard.
It's actually quite simple and can be implemented just as easily across a bunch of different
tanks all at once instead of just one tank at a time.
Even a 50 gallon per day reverse osmosis filtration system can work for all of these tanks.
Because remember, every week you're only replacing 20% of the water not the entire water amount
of the tank.
Even a 55 gallon drum or in this case a 33 or 32 gallon drum should be sufficient for
the most part.
That being said, hopefully, this guide was helpful to you as part two.
Part three will go over some more intricate details.
We'll just have to wait for that to come out whenever I can get around to doing that.
Hey, if you like it please give me a thumbs up, don't forget to comment, rate, subscribe,
share with your friends.
Check out my other videos, I've got plenty of them.
As always, I'll see you next time, stay fishy.