Do you replace antifreeze?

Dargo · Mar 15, 2005

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Most fish stores and some food stores will have RO water. Some also have RO/DI water, which fiosh stores will have. For the benefits of it, it is worth the small price..around $1.50 - 2. per gallon for Ro/Di water. )

Since my wife has a 200 gallon salt water tank (and has had for many years) I found it was cheaper to buy her a RO/DI unit and pay for the filter replacements than pay for her buying the water. What's with the incredibly expensive (I think she calls them "compact" or something) lights for the reef tanks?! I mean, c'mon on, $800 bucks for fish tank lights that only last a year or two!! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Sorry for off the subject. Water is not my cup of tea, but I get the stinking bills! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

gsxr1100 · Mar 15, 2005

Yup, a finally upgraded to a Kent maxxima HI-S RO/DI filter & it is way cheaper in the long run. I pay about $80 for the RO membrane (lasts about 2.5 years = 3,000+ gallons) and the the DI "cart" lasts about 1 year since city tap is not too bad. The carbon ($9) and 1-micron sedment ($5) gets done every 6-months. They take a killing from iron/copper.

But yes, you can have Power Compacts (PC), VHO, T5 bulbs and MH bulbs. MH last about 9 to 11 months and can range from 70 to $120 per bulb (I need 2) but also have PC in there for $30 per bulb. So it is around $260 per year on bulbs. T5's last about 15 months but you need about 8 for a reef tank @ $30 each. The MH are the best but you get what you pay for. If you want cheap you can't have "nice corals", you want better coral you need better lights. Everything has a price. Better lights means more kelvins & intensity (light can go deeper). Many people think light is light which is wrong. Try to grow a clam or LPS deeper then 24 inches down with PC, not gonna happen. MH means more amps to run ballast = more watts= more $$$$.

Sorry to go off topic but salt water gets me going more then oil here! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Been doing that for a long time. You need to be a part time chemist with all the tests, food, water movement, skimmer, etc .....

So in the end this is how I found out long ago that tap is junk, distilled and bottled was better and RO was even better but RO/DI was the best of the best of the best. I know RO works great in coffee.

Junkman · Mar 15, 2005

I went to my local pet shop and asked for a few gallons of RO/DI water. They told me that they no longer carried in in gallons, but gave me some instant RO/DI bottles that had a small amount of powder at the bottom. They called it instant RO/DI water. All you do is add water to reconstitute it. I haven't sent it for testing yet, but I know that the people down at the store are good people and wouldn't sell me something that didn't work..... Junk

AlanB · Mar 15, 2005

If you can wade through the "stuff" there is actually some good info there.

Any good "fully Formulated" antifreeze Fleetgaurd is widely respected mixed with a good "clean" water.

You can also now buy it ready mixed, but as someone else pointed out, You will always have a bit of residual left in your system so it is often better to buy the concentrate and then balance to achieve your desired freeze protection.

RO is Reverse Osmosis. Think of it as a really super duty filter. How fine a filter? Filters the color out of antifreeze and that is pretty darn fine. (and yes, I know that is not a tech description of RO but for this boards purpose I think it is close enough)

DI is De Ionized, this is not something I get into much, but it is a Cleaner type of water. Someone else can (and I am sure will) expound on this.

TDS or Total Dissolved Solids, means how much solid crap is in your test sample. While there are some meters etc. out there to test TDS, they normally work on the conductivity of the liquid. I describe TDS as taking a test tube, boiling everything out of it, the crap you have left in the bottom that did not boil out is your TDS.

This is where you start to have problems with Antifreeze, and the add water and why folks are reccomending DI/RO or distilled waters.

Short version, high quality fully formulated antifreeze, mixed with clean, high quality water, whether DI/RO Distilled, or reasonable tap water, changed every two years or so in your tractor and you will probably never have a coolant induced problem.

I will throw into the mix that using a good refractometer type tester instead of one of the little floating balls dealies will probably do you more good than all this discussion of which water you add.

And as a side note, when you run TDS on new antifreeze it is usaully fairly high.

NY_Yankees_Fan · Mar 16, 2005

Mike,

What Fleetguard antifreeze product do you suggest for a BX?? Looking at the web site many choices, not sure which one. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

gsxr1100 · Mar 16, 2005

looking quick I would go with the Universal EG premix or Concentrate. Without knowing the OAT in Optimax I can't say get Optimax. There Compleat also looks good but it is a mix of OAT and normal EG (makes hybrid). Plus it has SCA in it which Kubota does not need.

There Fleetcool looks good.

These are other coolants that would work well: DO NOT BUY Prestone yellow bottle. It is high in silcates and phosphates.

Navistar FLEETRITE, Prestone Heavy-Duty, Old World's FLEETCHARGE, Detroit Diesel POWERCOOL, Caterpillar Heavy Duty Antifreeze, Fleetguard COMPLEAT, Quaker State antifreeze, Pronto antifreeze, John Deere Antifreeze, Autoguard, and Trust.

MikePA · Mar 16, 2005

Looking at the web site many choices, not sure which one. 
I had the same issue. Solved it by visiting TSC and buying a gallon of the only FleetGuard antifreeze they had. No sense making these decisions more complicated than they need to be. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

slowrev · Mar 16, 2005

Mike,
Never seen any RO/DI water in my area. Used to have fish and saw none in the pet/fish stores in my area either. Dasani is just filtered tap water , but people seem to buy it because it is bottled water ?? Did not see the RO/DI down in FL fish stores either when I lived there. Maybe a regional thing.
Ben

Dargo · Mar 16, 2005

( Dasani is just filtered tap water )

I don't remember which one it is, RO or DI, but one of them makes the water taste awful! I've gotten me a glass of water from my wife's filtering system before and it tasted terrible. She told me which one made it taste bad, but I don't remember which process it was. Which ever it was, I'm sure that bottled drinking water companies won't use that method. Nobody would drink it! /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

SkyPup · Mar 16, 2005

I only use Type I water for everything I do, my Barnstead NANOpure Ultrapure water sytem was about $6,000 new:

NANOpure DIamond life science (UV/UF)

The most complete water system on the market today. Includes the latest advances in ion exchange and filtration technologies as well as a dual wavelength UV lamp and ultrafilter. This system has demonstrated the ability to remove nucleuses such as RNase and DNase as well as DNA from challenged feed water.

The water exiting the system is ideal for your most demanding molecular biology applications including; PCR, electrophoresis, as well as cell and tissue culture.

The system includes automatic sanitization as well as automatic and manual ultrafilter flushing. The system produces ultrapure water containing < 0.005 Eu/ml of pyrogens, TOC values < 3 ppb, resistivities up to 18.2 megohm-cm and no detectable RNase, DNase and DNA.

•Product water will not degrade RNA...ideal for DNA amplification (PCR) and electrophoresis.

•Removes RNase, DNase and DNA from concentrated feed soures.

•Produces low cost pyrogen-free (<0.001 Eu/ml) water for tissue and cell culture and monoclonal antibody production.

•Water exiting the system has <1 CFU/ml bacteria levels.

http://www.barnsteadthermolyne.com/index.cfm

P.S. It tastes real good too! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif