Re: [APD] RO taste great, less filling.

[Wright Huntley <whuntley at verizon_net>]

>Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 15:10:29 -0800 (PST)
>From: Thomas Barr <tcbiii at yahoo_com>
>Subject: Re: [APD] RO taste great, less filling.
>To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
>
>  Okay Wright, you will incur my wrath and the curse of a vile infestation of BBA upon you and all of your descendents.

Won't grow here. My water appears to be too soft or something. :-) [BGA is another subject, tho.]

Besides, a lush growth of purplish BBA covering a big driftwood branch and waving in the current can be very lovely!

>   
>  Umm, I'm not sure you or the other wonky water people that put all this mumbo mush in folk's heads, but RO water is just pure water, we get plenty of salts from various ***other sources** like all them tater chips, cheese, junk food is loaded, grease laden slime, gatorade, and 10,000 other things besides water.

In general, you are absolutely correct in that our food provides plenty of (too many?) electrolytes. Sometimes, they are in severe excess, particularly sodium (and, for folks with water softeners, studies have shown some serious downside in heart/artery health).

I have experienced severe cramps from combining a so-called heart-healthy diet and drinking lots of water with too few electrolytes. So have many others, which is just our body warning us of an imbalance. We won't die from it, but that's the only reason I suggest folks drink their tap water. It is generally potable in much of the US, and will be quite healthy for them -- particularly if it is a little bit harder. If it tastes rotten get a carbon filter.

There are local limitations, I'm sure, as the excess sodium in the Texas case. 

Here, the water has a high flouride content, and will possibly stain the permanent teeth of babies raised on it. [It is far worse for those growing up in the Death Valley region to the SE of here.] The plants seem to love the excess in iron (0.3 ppm+), tho. :-)

A good flushing out with very pure (RO or DI, even) water can actually *cure* cramps by flushing the electrolytes out of storage and into our bloodstream. If I cramp up when exercising, the first thing I do to fix it is drink a lot of water. It makes no difference if it is the basically "unhealthy" Bishop town tap water -- 30 ppm and 0 degrees GH -- or my slightly better rural water -- 90 ppm and 3-4 degrees GH --. Either one gives the needed flush-out to let the body restore the electrolyte imbalance. It does that quite well, usually.

The point I was really trying to make is that it does take some minimal balance of all the electrolytes. It is just lots easier to get in trouble there with good RO or DI water, and a severe imbalance can be hard to detect. Dosing a tank can throw the balance off a bit quicker, particularly if with NaCl. IMO, using KCl for a water softener should be just as suspect as NaCl if the balance is thrown way off (maybe not too likely in most places). 

House plants and their aquatic friends may just show such imbalances quicker than we do. Maybe it is because their physiology is a bit simpler?

Wright

- 
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