Producing large amounts of blackwater

[Jacob]

Is it possible to fill a container with tap water and run some kind of a filter inside of it to remove the hardness, instead of using an r/o filter attached to the tap? I know peat filtration lowers the hardness, if you run it long enough can it remove all the hardness like an r/o filter would? There is r/o water I can buy from a fish store but they’re saying it usually has a tds of around 200. It’s supposed to be closer to zero for blackwater, I thought.
From my tap the “in” reading on my r/o filter tds meter is 89.

[Bill Little]

There are key differences between reverse osmosis and filtration. Reverse osmosis removes the salts and other effluent materials from the water molecules. That will not happen with just a plain filter although you may be able to reduce the pH and your TDS may also drop. I purchased a used working RO unit on Craigslist. I didn’t trust the carbon block in the unit so I purchased a new one for another $18 -$20. I attached the RO unit to a freestanding piece of plywood. The water going into the unit is a ¼” piece of tubing about the size of airline tubing. I acquired a coupling that attached to the RO tubing and the other end of the connector has a standard garden hose connector. When I want RO water I connect the unit to an exterior hose bib. The water runs through the RO unit and out into a 5 gallon fish bucket. When I am finished I just disconnect the RO unit and put it in the corner of the garage. I normally make 5 – 8 gallons of RO at a time. Making 8 gallon of RO water at a time; it didn’t take long to recover my $8.00 investment. I measure my water in terms of uS rather than TDS, but you can convert. My RO has a reading of 12 uS coming out of the unit.

[Jacob]

I will just stick to the r/o unit then, since it is much more thorough than filtration.

[Peter Finke]

I work with a so-called mixed-bed filter, which is filled with a mixed bed of synthetic resins of two kinds. This method produces at high speed large quantities of fully demineralized water (identical with destilled water). The cartridges must be treated (revitalized) professionally. You can not do that yourself.

The water you obtain is of the purest possible quality (near to H2O). So, you still have to add a tiny amount of minerals again, change the pH to acid values (f.i. by peat) and add humic substances in order to receive a sort of blackwater.

This ist the best, quickest and most consequent technical way presently at hand.

[Jacob]

What is there to say about using rainwater, it’s recommended in the water section on this website.
I think I’m going to use rainwater and store bought r/o and then my own r/o if I absolutely have to. I can get 10 gallons or so at a time from the store and rainwater could certainly reach a pretty large quantity fast. I will look into the mixed bed filter.

[Jacob]

A mixed bed filter is more advanced than an r/o unit, right, and what brand names are there to look out for?

[Peter Finke]

Jacob, I am afraid I cannot say anything about American brand names of mixed-bed-filters, but maybe Bill Little is able to do so.

As your other question is concerned: Yes, rainwater is good, some say: it is best. Today, the rain is often falling down with an acid character already because of the intensified CO2 and other acid substances (from industrial emissions) in the air. We did not encounter any problems by that. What you have to obey is that the rain should not be used in the first hour especially in industrial regions; there should have been a certain “washing” of the often polluted air before you use it. And it should not run across rather dirty roofs or other materials before being collected.

But if you obey such simple rules, rain water is very good indeed. And cheap!

[Jacob]

I was planning on using a rainwater barrel that attaches to a roof’s gutter, now I won’t. So just wait one hour before using it, the pollution in it dissipates that way.

[Author]

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