Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 09:42:01 -0800 (PST) From: Albert Huntington <balberth@yahoo.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg4131$foo@default> Subject: Re: Tap Water Purifier or Reverse Osmosis?
Joe Harden writes:
> For my birthday, my brother surprised me and got me
> a Tap Water
> Purifier.
Although many have already answered this quite well,
I thought I might chime in with my Tap Water Purifier
experience.
The TWP works just fine for making small amounts of
fairly pure ( and soft ) water. In my area of the
world, where my city water comes from wells sunk into
limestone, the TWP lasts for somewhere between 10-20
gallons of water. At around $13 + S&H mailorder for a
replacement cartridge, I began to question whether
this was economically justifiable compared to bottled
water. Incidentally, the current price for a TWP at
http://www.thatpetplace.com/ is $25.99.
I use somewhere around 40-50 gallons of purified
water a week to run misters and watering in my
greenhouse as well as for aquarium use. I have found
a cheap R/O unit to be well worth the price, and I use
the waste water from mine in the garden (It was easy
to set up a system using a length of drip irrigation
tubing and some drip irrigation soaker hose).
As for purity, I do not believe that carnivorous
plants require water of the extreme purity required
for reef aquariums. ( The water for my reef aquariums
goes through and R/O unit and THEN through the TWP.
The TWP lasts around 100 gallons in this case because
the water is already very pure ) I have found that a
simple hardness titration test is all I need to make
sure the purifier is working correctly for my plants.
One last thought about the TWP I have is a reminder
that not all of the little granules inside the tube
change color when the TWP is exhausted. Only the ones
which were originally green change to purple. I did
not realize this when I was first using the TWP, and I
ran 50 gallons through it waiting for the tan granules
to change to purple. I ended up watering my CP
collection with liquid rock for a few weeks. Luckily
they all survived after a good flushing with pure
water.
--Albert
=====
Albert Huntington San Jose, CA U.S.A.
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/1436
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