RO Container?

[Cathy G]

Just an easy question that I have not been able to find an answer to. I am setting up an RO unit and would like to use a dedicated trash can to hold the water. Is there a particular plastic/rubber I should avoid?

I've been recommended anything from Rubbermaids to only use containers meant to hold food - thats alot of food!

Is a Rubbermaid ok?
Cathy

 

[aquaticclarity]

Cathy,

I’ve used knock-off “Rubbermaid†containers for my R.O./D.I. collection in the past with no ill effects. I’m currently using 3 Rubbermaid Roughneck slim fit refuse containers, 31 gallons each, that I connected together with bulkheads and PVC pipe. It took me a while to find the shape of container I was after. The slime fit shape (31.6â€Âx25â€Âx16.4†rectangle) works very well. They allowed me to get 3 containers in where I only had 2 32 gallon round trashcans before. I got the cans at Farm and Fleet (or Fleet Farm depending on your location). I would recommend rinsing the cans out with warm to hot water before you start to use them for fish water.

A few words of advice…

1) invest in an automatic shut-off system

2) place the container(s) up off the ground-you don’t get as much heat loss/cool gain from the cement
floor and you can then put a bulkhead with a ball valve in the side of the container near the bottom to
use as a spigot to fill buckets

3) use a dedicated heater to heat the collected water and possibly a submersible pump for ease of use
(depending on how many and how large the tanks are that you are using the water in)

Jeff

 

[Rain man]

RO water

Jeff has some very good points, I have the same system with my RO setup
if I may add, be sure you keep a lid on your holding tanks and almost anything that is hard rubber or fiberglass will do for a container.

 

[tx_mike]

RO collection?

It seems to me that for a few more dollars using a "real" water storage tank, available at most farm supply stores, would be good solution. I have a 165 gallon tank and it came w/ bulkhead & ready to plumb. It cost a little over $100. Works exceptionally well in a garage, they're available in 100, 165 & 250 gallon sizes and the 100 has a very small footprint. Add advantages are they are designed to hold potable water and the are made from an opaque plastic so you can see what the water level is.