waste water

[Beckie]

I am new to salt and have a question about R/O water. If all the water goes through the filter system than why so much waste water and what makes it unusable.

Beckie

 

[Scooterman]

People use it for many purposes actually, like watering plants, doing laundry etc.!

 

[Boomer]

.....and some people run it back through a second RO for a second pass. In short, you need waste water to remove all the contaments for the RO membrane or the filter membrane would get plugged up quickly. The higher the line pressure the less waste water there is. On the avg for most systems, for every 1 gal of clean RO water you waste 3-4 gals of dirty water. On more expensive systems with high pressure pumps it may be 2 gal Waste - 1 gal Clean or lower. These are often line presssures of ~ 100 psi

 

[busdriver]

I can put the "waste" RO water in to my FW tank straight away, right?

 

[returnofsid]

Only if the FW tank requires hard water, such as an African cichlid tank. Otherwise, you'll end up with problems.