When did RO water start to get used in home reef keeping?

[BeanAnimal]

My tank setup was in 1992, and I used it from day 1.

What led you to that decision, if you remember?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

What led you to that decision, if you remember?

I do not recall the impetus, but it was bought from Spectrapure, and they say they started in 1985. I was on Compuserve Fishnet at the time and that's where I learned most of what I knew in the early days.

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[vlangel]

Many people still do.

I am one of those folks who still uses declorinated tap water even though I have an RODI unit in my fish room. I have been in the hobby 25 years and only used RODI water 2 or 3. Algae has not been a problem since my tank has a lot of ornamental macroalgae. I just couldn't justify the cost of changing filters and resins when my tank does so well without it.

 

[lbacha]

I was working for a LFS that specialized in saltwater in 92 and bought an old 75gpd spectrapure unit from them when they upgraded to a larger industrial unit (the owner was my neighbor so he hooked me up as I was still in high school). No DI just RO at that time. The store did have a DI system but it was a huge 6” diameter and 4’ tall double reactor. Not sure if DI resin was less efficient back then or they just processed that much water they needed a huge reactor like that.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I am one of those folks who still uses declorinated tap water even though I have an RODI unit in my fish room. I have been in the hobby 25 years and only used RODI water 2 or 3. Algae has not been a problem since my tank has a lot of ornamental macroalgae. I just couldn't justify the cost of changing filters and resins when my tank does so well without it.

One of the things I hope to try if I set up another tank is RO only, no DI. I really think it would suffice for nearly everyone. In any case, I'd test the RO only water before use...

 

[lbacha]

One of the things I hope to try if I set up another tank is RO only, no DI. I really think it would suffice for nearly everyone. In any case, I'd test the RO only water before use...

I have let my di resin go for quite a while without refreshing it and it had very little impact on the main tank. The biggest issue I ran into is I started growing some bright green algae in my top off containers. I’m guessing some phosphates where making it through and since I struggle to keep phosphates up in my main display (I have a huge mangrove that loves to strip nutrients from the tank) it really wasn’t a big deal

 

[vlangel]

One of the things I hope to try if I set up another tank is RO only, no DI. I really think it would suffice for nearly everyone. In any case, I'd test the RO only water before use...

I am guessing that our municipal water is better than most. I always know that if things begin to go south in my tank, that I need to consider that the municipality has changed something and I may need to go back to RODI water.

 

[BeanAnimal]

One of the things I hope to try if I set up another tank is RO only, no DI. I really think it would suffice for nearly everyone. In any case, I'd test the RO only water before use...

I did not change resin, pre filters or membrane for 6 years. Maybe longer. TDS out was higher than IN when I finally checked it... I can draw no conclusions other than my tank was still running and things were living... with no filtration or water changes, it is hard to tell what contributed to what.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I really have felt so horrible over my first run at saltwater in the mid 90’s. My LFS wouldn’t sell me a coral set up. He said “it was too complicated”. Instead, he sold me a 90g, a plastic swing arm and a couple bags of salt. With the fish in the system I would dial in the salinity by adding raw salt to the water or simply tap water to thin the mix out. Water changes didn’t exist. I would refill the evaporation by pooling tap into the system and allowing the tank to fill to a piece of tape. The swing arm was held in suspension by thousands of micro bubbles, so god only knows that it really was. I had more air stones in that tank then Elton John has sunglasses. And an old school Fluval canister that was bronze and almost transparent.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I really have felt so horrible over my first run at saltwater in the mid 90’s. My LFS wouldn’t sell me a coral set up. He said “it was too complicated”. Instead, he sold me a 90g, a plastic swing arm and a couple bags of salt. With the fish in the system I would dial in the salinity by adding raw salt to the water or simply tap water to thin the mix out. Water changes didn’t exist. I would refill the evaporation by pooling tap into the system and allowing the tank to fill to a piece of tape. The swing arm was held in suspension by thousands of micro bubbles, so god only knows that it really was. I had more air stones in that tank then Elton John has sunglasses. And an old school Fluval canister that was bronze and almost transparent.

Still not wholly unreasonable other than the chlorine and salinity is not that big of a deal

 

[Fenral]

Umm, I had an RO unit back in the 80's much to my parents chagrin about the water bill

 

[FUNGI]

Many people still do.


The hobby was insanely smaller and predominantly fish only in the 80's. There were no "forums" or "social media" to pass on advice (or nonsense) and there were very few publications, let alone SW LFSs. People used (gasp) library books written in the 60's and 70's during the 80s.

In the 1980's a small membrane would have been about $250 and a system easily $800 ... or about $3,000 in 2024 dollars. By the late 1980's that was down to maybe $2,000 in today's dollars and by 1990, closer to $1,1000 in today's dollars.

So not only was there exponentially fewer people in the hobby and far less access to information.. RODI systems were not sold or used by individuals for anything. The "new" technology was mostly used in scientific and industrial settings.

Ahh yes.....“The Aquarist and Pondkeeper”.

EDIT: And WetWebMedia......

 

[BeanAnimal]

Umm, I had an RO unit back in the 80's much to my parents chagrin about the water bill

What brand?
How much did it cost?
How big was the tank?
Parents upset about the water bill?

80's water rates? Even in an expensive part of the country the wastewater may have cost $1 or $2 at most for any reasonable amount of use. Right now, I pay over $20 per 1,000 gallons and the waste from the RO/DI makes little difference to the bill. The 80's that would have been $1.00 or less per 1,000 and at that time very few regions billed sewer with water and instead charged a fixed sewage rate.

 

[backinthereef]

Sounds about right for early adoption. But due to cost and availability mainstream adaption, driven by forums and publications, did not get traction until the late 90's and early 2000's. Even in the early 2000's RO/DI was a luxury recommendation, not a must have for a reef.

I would guess that of 100 or so members in the Pittsbugh club in 2004 or so, that only a very small handful had RO/DI units. Calfo - Fenner... maybe Paletta and a few of us that were on the board. There was certainly still a barrier to entry (cost) even then.

AOL had a SW chat room as well but I spent most of my time on a USENET saltwater group and in an IRC reefing chat... that was actually a gateway to a repurposed a MUD (multi user dungeon)... a txt based interactive environment similar to modern RPGs.. that was simply SW fish people trading information.

The biggest argument there was VHO vs MH and the danger of getting burned on a MH lamp or starting a fire in the hood....

I had a prodigy account, but don't remember fish stuff there or on GEnie or Delhi - but did not use those as much.

There was also a private dialup fish hobby related BBS back then, but for the life of me I can't find the number. Yes I still have a list of a few dozen BBS systems that I used to dial into and for a short time me and another guy ran s 2 line BBS with various content, but it was primarily used for its "door" to the college server where "internet mail" could be sent and received (by syncing with our BBS) a few times a week. So you would send something.. and kind of like US mail... it would take days to get delivered and days for the response.

All of those combined did not have the footprint of RC and R2R, let alone social media. Most were real-time conversations (with the exception of the CompuServ SIGs and Usenet). But even then, people participated mostly real time and they were poor reference resources. The hobby in the 80's and 90's was very different than today.

Anyway....

I remember a forum called fish room on something… was very informative

 

[Fenral]

What brand?
How much did it cost?
How big was the tank?
Parents upset about the water bill?

80's water rates? Even in an expensive part of the country the wastewater may have cost $1 or $2 at most for any reasonable amount of use. Right now, I pay over $20 per 1,000 gallons and the waste from the RO/DI makes little difference to the bill. The 80's that would have been $1.00 or less per 1,000.

I don't remember the first two as I was still a Kid, nor did I pay the bill for them—I do remember my dad bemoaning the cost.
At that point, there were several tanks: 55, 45, and 20-gallon—all fresh water. I had just started trying to keep discus at that point, when we learned that tap water was not so good in Harford County, Maryland. While they may not have billed a typical residential place very much, I do remember it was tax-based by the county - and my dad kept his medical practice in our house, so it was not residential billing or a residential system. Regardless, I remember the lectures about wasting water...

 

[BeanAnimal]

I remember a forum called fish room on something… was very informative

Sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't recall it exactly. I don't remember what forums I tried before RC, but I (like many RC members) tried half a dozen or so before finding RC.

I don't remember the first two as I was still a Kid, nor did I pay the bill for them—I do remember my dad bemoaning the cost.
At that point, there were several tanks: 55, 45, and 20-gallon—all fresh water. I had just started trying to keep discus at that point, when we learned that tap water was not so good in Harford County, Maryland. While they may not have billed a typical residential place very much, I do remember it was tax-based by the county - and my dad kept his medical practice in our house, so it was not residential billing or a residential system. Regardless, I remember the lectures about wasting water...

Thanks for the update.

In the 80's the only units available would have likely been leased units from Culligan and Rainsoft. Likely Culligan in MD. I would also assume it was RO without the DI. In the late 80's there was a push to improve water quality in areas with very poor water. Culligan (and RainSoft) did very well in these markets.