Reverse Osmosis - Best Home Option? page 2

[gilroy]

There are shower head filters out there, although I have never used one - might be an option for you.

Just in case you didn't know - the efficiencies on household RO filters are low, meaning that you only get around 15% (or maybe a bit more with newer household RO technology) of the water entering an RO system as actual filtered water in your tank

Thank you Crabbcakes. Didn't know either of those things. Whoa that's a lotta lost water! Def will look into that aspect of things too now.

[Bushrat]

I don't have any concrete evidence. I'm just a regular joe! But as a fishkeeper, I do know a fish's health can be adversely affected when maintained in too low a pH, weakening the bones. In the short term, it's not a huge deal. It takes a long time for the damage to be done. But if you want your typical asian mass-bred pet shop fish to live a good long life, neutral or slightly hard pH is typically preferable.

As for humans, we get our minerals from food and dirt, animal bones and, usually, water. While we might break even on the acidity scale by drinking bone broth and supplementing minerals to counteract the intense acidity/demineralizing effect of RO water, why play that game? Any water that dissolves rocks so aggressively probably should not go into the body. If anything, you'd want a net excess of minerals to be excreted, instead of a net loss of minerals spent from the bones to stabilize the bloodstream. To me, this just seems like common sense.

A quick google search brings up a little food for thought, though I'm not really going to dig too deep.

SnyderHealth.com - Water Ionizers - The Dangers Of Distilled And RO Water

What do you do then if you don't want to drink the crap added to city water supplies? Would an RO system with an alkalysing cartridge work?

[Goldie]

Bushrat, I'm not sure I believe Knifegill's claims. He used as a source, a website that's trying to sell a different kind of water treatment method. I did an extensive search on the 'net, and every source I found, when I looked past the surface, was for selling some other type of water filtration system.

It certainly is common sense to provide an optimal water chemistry for typical asian mass-bred pet shop fish, but we're not fish. Water varies greatly in its mineral content from place to place, and did so back in Grok's day too, I'm sure--yet the human race managed to thrive in spite of that. We get the minerals we need from the variety of foods we eat. I personally would rather not risk ingesting the artificially introduced chemicals in municipal water systems.

[Knifegill]

Agreed! We're not fish at all. And I don't have very good sources, either. But RO water is a very unnatural, extreme substance. Utah might be dry, but there has to be an artesian spring within 20 miles of your house. They're common. 15 5-gallon water jugs will last a month for drinking and cooking, and you get your minerals to boot, with no crazy, depleted, hypervalent H2O. And it's free.

[meeshar]

We're looking at getting a Big Berkey with the fluoride filter rather than a RO system. I don't think it takes as many minerals out as RO does, but I'm not sure on that. We definitely need to do something though, the levels are pretty high in our area and I'm not okay with that. The EPA recently lowered their recommendation to 0.7 and our area is at 0.94-1.3! Chapel Hill is lower at 0.57 so at least they're under the new recommendation. EPA lowers Fluoride in Water due to Health Hazards

http://www.owasa.org/client_resource...8%20sheets.pdf

[gilroy]

o thanks meeshar I hadn't seen that.

[ryanmercer]

I figure fluoride is one devil I just have to live with. For one I can't afford to spend half a month's pay on a filter that's only going to filter a fraction of my water and waste the rest down the drain. Second, I'm not going to drink from some random well that I go fill up at every now and then... becuase we have a well on one of our properties and it's absolutely poisoned from a auto salvage yard several acres to the north that's been allowing every fluid in cars go right into the ground for decades. Gods only know what's in one of these 'artisinal wells' around here. They advise people not to fish out of the main river that cuts through downtown because it's so polluted with industrial waste, people even joke that they've seent he mutant fish from the Simpsons in it. Then you have praxair (that blood tests it's employees to make sure they are below 'dangerous' thresholds for the chemicals they use) spewing their crap into the environment, allison's, Eli Lilly, Rolls Royce, a coal power plant that provides the city with all it's electricity etc etc in the area. Just don't trust water from a well in this part of Indiana.

[RichMahogany]

We're looking at getting a Big Berkey with the fluoride filter rather than a RO system. I don't think it takes as many minerals out as RO does, but I'm not sure on that. We definitely need to do something though, the levels are pretty high in our area and I'm not okay with that. The EPA recently lowered their recommendation to 0.7 and our area is at 0.94-1.3! Chapel Hill is lower at 0.57 so at least they're under the new recommendation.

I like this idea, because you'll be able to use the Berkey to filter water when the Zombies attack.

[quelsen]

Agreed! We're not fish at all. And I don't have very good sources, either. But RO water is a very unnatural, extreme substance. Utah might be dry, but there has to be an artesian spring within 20 miles of your house. They're common. 15 5-gallon water jugs will last a month for drinking and cooking, and you get your minerals to boot, with no crazy, depleted, hypervalent H2O. And it's free.

Concentrace.

[Nady]

Not buying that Grok drank groundwater~ other than artesian wells, I believe the primary water sources would be rainwater and runoff from melted snow. It would then follow that the dissolved minerals in hard water would not be a significant source one way or another. I do know that when I use R/O water, my sprouts grow faster, more vigorously. My houseplants like R/O water better too. Only makes sense though~ rainwater is soft.