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Tap Water Purifier (was Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #1136)

on 01:48 AM 7/7/99 , Aquatic Plants Digest wrote:
> 
>>Just in case you did not know, there is a very affordable DI system >>that you can us for your aquariums.  American Pharma. makes the mixed >>bed DI resin systems (called 'The Tap Water Purifier',  TWP) that are >>suppose to be a one use cartridge system.  Someone has come up with a >>procedure to recharge these resins.  Here are the directions:

> Is this an ion-exchange system? What does it end up adding to the > water?
> (Hydrogen and hydrochloride?) and are these bad for aquaria? What is > the general hardness and alkalinity of the resulting water?
> thanks for any answers.

For what it's worth, here are some data on Aquarium Pharmaceuticals'
*Tap Water Purifier*
All of the snippets below come straight out of the unit's instruction
manual.  Most of this information can also be found at the company's
website: http://www.aquariumpharm.com/apb128.htm.

====Start quote==========

<The Tap Water Purifier is a water filtration system using a disposable
filter cartridge that removes all impurities and dissolved solids from
tap water, creating ultra-pure deinoized water.  This water is free of
all minerals and organic and inorganic chemicals.>
....
<The Tap Water Purifier filter contains custom formulated ion exchange
resins that remove all ions from tap water, thus making deionized water.
A conductivity of 0.5 microSiemens is not uncommon when using the Tap
Water Purifier.>
....
<pH test kits and pH meters are unable to accurately measure the pH of
deionized water such as that produced by the Tap Water Purifier. 
Deinonized water has no anions or cations and therefore has no
pH-buffering capacity.  When pH-testing chemicals are added to a sample
of deionized water, the sample takes on the pH of the test chemicals
themselves.  Therefore, the true pH of deionized water cannot be
determined by using test kits.  Though the deionized water is initially
neutral (pH 7.0), a small amount of carbon dioxide from the air quickly
begins to dissolve in the deionized water, giving it a pH as low as 5.6>
....
<The Tap Water Purifier does not remove bacteria from polluted water
sources.>

======End quote========

A few remarks; the TWP comes with a 4oz. bottle of Electro-Right(adds
essential electrolytes and trace elements to deionized water) and a 4oz.
bottle of pH Adjuster(adjusts the pH of deionized water)
The information between parentheses above is basically all that's
available on these two products.  There are a list of trace elements
included (are there others, not listed?) and the statement that neither
product contains phosphates.  I wish the company would make some more
specific information available.  Until now I have only used water
produced by my TWP and if I follow the directions as stated I get a pH
of around 6.4, GH of 3 to 4 degrees and KH of 1 to 2.  (Could be wrong
directions, could be my test kits) Speaking of soft water.  Anyway, my
fish and plants are happy as can be.
Using the TWP is time consuming (especially for my 150 gal tank - a
partial water change takes around 5 to 5.5 hours, just to make the
water) but from what I understand, that's still a lot faster than any RO
system.
There is also no loss of water.
Does the TWP add something to the water?  I don't know. No information
on that.
Anybody else have good/bad experiences with the TWP?

Johan Henckens
johan at mmdg_org