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Boil water notices for hr Houston and surrounding areas (1 Viewer)

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TX_Punisher

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So how does his affect making topoff and fresh saltwater production for those needing it these next few days? it Seems after Harvey some tanks in our area took some losses as MUDs and the city changed water treatment protocols as processing came back online.

Let’s start the convo so everyone is aware.

anything to be aware of?
 

chewborka

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I believe that if you have RODI system, you don't have to worry about boil notice water bc it inherently gets rid of pathogens in the water. Also you can just use the RO part to make safe drinking water (many stores sold out of bottled water).

Of course, you have to have water pressure to run RODI, which we don't have at our house even with a booster...
 

Erin

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... if you have RODI system... it inherently gets rid of pathogens in the water. Also you can just use the RO part to make safe drinking water
The underlined statements are not at all true. RO units for drinking water remove things that have been added to the public water supply, like chlorine (which kills pathogens), which keeps the water from causing illness. Will an RO system remove some spores or cysts that make it past the water treatment process? Sure. But if the city is telling me that the water coming out of my tap has not been properly disinfected, there’s no way I’m relying on RO to make it safe.
As far as using for an aquarium, that may be ok, but considering how much we invest in livestock, I wouldn’t take the chance.
**and, yes, RO units take out more than just chlorine, and some places have tap water that is less ”palatable” than others, but the point is that the city (or utility district) treats the water to make it safe to drink. Untreated water will not be made safe simply by running it through a sediment filter, carbon, and a membrane.
 
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Erin

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So how does his affect making topoff and fresh saltwater production for those needing it these next few days? it Seems after Harvey some tanks in our area took some losses as MUDs and the city changed water treatment protocols as processing came back online.

Let’s start the convo so everyone is aware.

anything to be aware of?
The best plan is to call your LFS and see if they are selling any that was made prior to the disruption, and/or try to find distilled water at the store. Where I live, our water district has said we are not under a boil water notice at the moment, but my water is shut off due to a broken pipe. Once I get up and running again, as long as my water is still safe, I’ll be offering RODI water to fellow reefers...
 
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The underlined statements are not at all true. RO units for drinking water remove things that have been added to the public water supply, like chlorine (which kills pathogens), which keeps the water from causing illness. Will an RO system remove some spores or cysts that make it past the water treatment process? Sure. But if the city is telling me that the water coming out of my tap has not been properly disinfected, there’s no way I’m relying on RO to make it safe.
As far as using for an aquarium, that may be ok, but considering how much we invest in livestock, I wouldn’t take the chance.
**and, yes, RO units take out more than just chlorine, and some places have tap water that is less ”palatable” than others, but the point is that the city (or utility district) treats the water to make it safe to drink. Untreated water will not be made safe simply by running it through a sediment filter, carbon, and a membrane.

Let me google that for you...

Would I rather drink bottled water than RO water right now? Yeah. Is RO water safe? Most likely.
 

Erin

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Let me google that for you...

Would I rather drink bottled water than RO water right now? Yeah. Is RO water safe? Most likely.
I stand by my statement. There are things that can make you sick that are small enough to make it through RO, and if they weren’t killed by chlorine or another disinfectant prior to hitting the filter, they are still virulent. Boiling will kill them. Is it unlikely in the current situation (i.e. the wastewater system hasn’t been compromised by flooding)? Sure. But please don’t tell people that an RO unit can purify potentially contaminated tap water.
 

mittens

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I asked David Raines of Galactic and he said pathogens won’t make it through the rodi.


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Erin

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I asked David Raines of Galactic and he said pathogens won’t make it through the rodi.


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My cousin is a virologist and we’ve had this conversation. Most pathogens won’t get by but some can, and if the city is telling us to boil water because it’s not treated properly, then advising people to forgo this step is irresponsible. Plus, have you seen the condition of some people’s rodi media??
This is not a campaign against RO filtration, just a word of caution in the current situation.
 
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TX_Punisher

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So this is why I started the topic. After Harvey several here reported losses. Did Houston and area MUDs add additional disinfectants to the water supply? This is why I added the DIY 20” chloramine buster to my system.

that whole-house UV is looking good right about now.
 

Maga

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So this is why I started the topic. After Harvey several here reported losses. Did Houston and area MUDs add additional disinfectants to the water supply? This is why I added the DIY 20” chloramine buster to my system.

that whole-house UV is looking good right about now.

there were issues with RODI water? I just added new RODI last night to huge batch of saltwater prepared to do big wc when situation stabilized, did not know about boil water orders and had to run water anyway to prevent freezing
 
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TX_Punisher

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there were issues with RODI water? I just added new RODI last night to huge batch of saltwater prepared to do big wc when situation stabilized, did not know about boil water orders and had to run water anyway to prevent freezing
Several SPS tanks in the area noticed changes in tank health post Harvey after performing water changes.

Yes, this was with RODI. if you had pressure I doubt the issue has hit as I believe once systems came back online after Harvey I believe additional disinfectants were used and some reefers‘ rodi systems were not setup to remove additional chloramines or chorines.

Its difficult to know exactly if this was the cause of stn events but I know the problems arose after water changes were performed directly after Harvey.
 

decimal

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If you added a UV component to your RO system, it will be safe. That is one of the major differences between bottled water RO and our normal units. Not sure where it should be added in the system though. As far as what the city says and filters not being safe, unless the standard is that everyone has 7 stage RO units, I seriously doubt that they include RO filtration in that equation. surly they are referring to Brita water filters, refrigerator filtration and things like that.
 
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TX_Punisher

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I may add UV to the home system altho it is overkill since I am on a MUD. perhaps put on a bypass for these situations to not run it all year. But, that’s overkill.
 

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On the subject of this, how long do we wait before making fresh RO? Until the boil water notice is over or several weeks?

I lost all my corals prior to Harvey when my tank crashed around June 2017 and since it was a FOWLR only at that point with a light bioload I probably didnt do a water change for several months.
 

Erin

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So this is why I started the topic. After Harvey several here reported losses. Did Houston and area MUDs add additional disinfectants to the water supply? This is why I added the DIY 20” chloramine buster to my system.

that whole-house UV is looking good right about now.
I think the safest bet is to have at least 2 carbon canisters - preferably with new(er) carbon - to filter out any extra chemicals. When they switched to chloramine a lot of people did what you did and added another filter.

*I apologize that this thread went sideways... I think your original question/topic is important and will help others prevent losses from (potential) excess disinfectant in the water. :)
 

sneezebeetle

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On the subject of this, how long do we wait before making fresh RO? Until the boil water notice is over or several weeks?

I lost all my corals prior to Harvey when my tank crashed around June 2017 and since it was a FOWLR only at that point with a light bioload I probably didnt do a water change for several months.
Our plan was to drain our 20gl storage drum, fill a second time, and drain again, but then wait until the boil order expired to refill. We figure it is also a good a time as any to swap out for all new filters and media/resin at that time as well. Until then I will get my water from a LFS. Overkill? Maybe 🤷‍♀️, but I'm okay with that 😎 Thankfully we filled all our ATO reservoirs before we lost water so were good for a few more days.
 

kris4647

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[mention]Buckeye Hydro [/mention]

need an opinion on boil water notices and our ro systems. Please.


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