How are you guys storing your RO/DI water? I've got the "drinking water" kit that comes with many units, but it only stores about 2 gallons. Not nearly enough for a water change of any size.
When I was in college, I rigged up a 15 gallon (or so) drum to feed from my RO unit, with an overflow tube that took water to the drain once the drum was full. I had it mounted up high, so I could gravity feed using a hose to any of my tanks. That was nearly 15 years and a number of moves ago, and that drum is long gone.
I've been thinking of getting something similar going with a 55 gallon drum so I have good capacity as well as a supply of disaster water for the inevitable SoCal earthquake.
I'm curious if anyone else has done something similar or what everyone else is using. Photos would be cool too.
It might be kind of cool to do a mod that also keeps the water heated to make salt mixing easier, but that might lead to some sort of bacteria growth, I guess.
I store my RO/DI for topoff in a 30 gallon rubermaid container. I don't have storage for waterchanges, and just make it as I need it. I really should have some spare water sitting around, but I don't really have any extra space...
Rubbermaid brand sells a 20 gallon barrell "Brute" that is a) food grade and b) much more sturdy than the typical plastic trash barrell and c) has almost as airtight a lid as I've ever worked with.
With any and all storage, you can let it be for some time, but in a few months, you'd want to empty it, clean it with just a clean cloth and reuse. If it gets real slimy etc, you may want to clean with bleach, rinse and ensure all bleach is gone.
Rain barrels also work good. I have two of them...one for fresh water and one for saltwater. I have a pump in the fresh water barrel that runs to the sump and gets automatically switched on when the water level has dropped in the sump. If you do this, just make sure that you drill a hole somewhere in the tubing so that you don't drain your entire fresh water barrel into your sump!
This photo's kind of dark, but you can see how I have the two barrels under the counter. The saltwater barrel is on rollers so that it can be moved in and out for adding salt once it is filled. We also have a safety drain in both barrels that hooks into the sink plumbing, just in case we forget to leave the RODI running in the barrels!
Dave - check out my thread! I've finally updated it and fixed all my picture links!
But, you're the cool one - you've turned your whole house into a fish room!!
I had a regular 30 some gallon rubbermaid trashcan from walmart (it might have been a brute or toughy or something) but it ended up leaking after a couple months! So make sure you get a good container made to hold water.
I use 4 - 55 gallon food grade plastic barrels. They are kept outside as is my RO/DI unit. The barrels are blue in color. I found the color is important when storing outside. My original white barrels actually promoted algae growth, the blue ones don't. I also store NSW in blue barrels outside, no algae in them either.
I use a Brute trash barrel for mixing water.
Dick
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Dick,
Where did you buy the barrels at? Did you order them online, or buy them locally?
I've been looking in Southern California on Friday and over the weekend, but couldn't find anyone selling them, which blows me away considering how many people are concerned about earthquakes, etc. out here.
I'm pretty sure I'm just not looking in the right place, but I'm running out of ideas for places to look.
I store my water in a 60 gallon barrel that was used to transport olives. I used Buteric acid to strip the oils from the barrel. I then let it sit wit DI water in it for two days after that I filled it and have had no problem sense.
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You might try a home & garden center where they would handle rain barrels. Years ago I got one from a friend whose wife worked at a pharmaceutical company. They used the barrels to ship raw ingredients for drugs so I presume they were food safe.
ah important to avoid the cans with wheels molded in, these will begin to leak after a while as the weight will eventually crack the seam! I assume you've got the same GE water filtration unit I have with a little 2 gallon tank (comes in handy for a pinch if you've spaced making top off BTW). You may want to do yourself a favor and drop another $40 on an additional DI module to add on as the GE system lacks DI (at least mine does) out of the box. You can plumb it easily after the RO membrane and the can!
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