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RE: RO and DI Water
George Booth wrote:
> The warning came from a process engineer in an integrated circuit
> processing facility that used DI water to clean wafers. He remarked
> that since DI water is so pure, it has no mechanisms to prevent
> bacterial growth and, in essence, makes a nice breeding ground for
> some very nasty germs. People in the IC facility were warned about
> drinking DI water for this reason.
Several other posts also make the point that these purified waters may
harbor dangerous pathogens, since the substances added to control them,
usually chlorine or chloramines, have been removed by the purification
process.
This raises a question in my mind: What about the aquariums we keep?
Since most of us remove the chlorine/chloramine by adding chemicals or
through carbon filtration and if RO water is a potential bio-hazard due to
their removal, are aquariums also a potential breeding ground for the
dangerous bacteria? Or, is there some biological process in our aquariums
that keeps the levels of harmful bacteria low?
Also, does anyone know of instances of "Legionnaires" bacteria being
present in either RO/DI storage units or in aquariums? If I recall, the
"Legionnaires" bacteria will grow in untreated water such as roof top
cooling water units if not trreated.
-----------------------------
Doug Skokna in Houston, TX, where the Rockets are 31-10
and the temp. is near 70 F and it's nice.