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I am in the process of hooking up my new RO filter. I nearly gave up and took the thing back for a refund, but came across the test results of our latest water test done by the company we get our water from, dated March 30, 2005 - about the time frame that they flushed the lines killing several of my fish (two with tumors).
Check this out:
Total Coliform (15 samples per month from customer's taps), Pesence of coliform bacteria in 5% of monthly samples, 1 out of 184 pos.
Copper 2004, higest level detected 90%=.4
Fluoride, higest level detected .28
Lead 2004, higest level detected 90%=<.003
Mercury (in one well only), higest level .43
Nitrate, higest level detected, 6.76
Volatile Organic Contaminates 2004:
Ethylbenzene, higest level detected 6, discharge from leaking underground storage tanks; solvents, ppb 10
Xylenes (Total) (in one well only) highest level .02, ppm 10, discharge from leaking underground storage tanks; solvents
Unregulated Inorganic Chemicals 2004
Sulfate, average 2.82, range ND-26.26 ppm
Perchlorate, average 5.7 in seven wells, range ND-8.6, ppb
It says: Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population. Immuno-compromised persons, such as persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AID or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particullarly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.
After all this is states: The EPA has determined that your water IS SAFE at these levels.
What are Ethylbenzine and zylenes?
The RO filter is becoming quite the challenge, but I did make some progress today. Do you thing I should keep working at trying to install it myself? (The plummer wants more that I paid for the thing to start with.)

Luckily my ro system was very simple and the company was more than willing to provide technical support. I think they suggested calling a small appliance repairman instead of a plumber if I needed more help because a plumber would charge an insane amount.

I had not though of that - a good idea. Home Depot would install it but they wanted more that what I paid for the system to start with. The plummer wanted $60.00 just to come out to unstick one of my old lines. If I have any more trouble I will look into it. Mostly, it is getting my old plumbing to co-operated, so I can get the new stuff in. We had an old filter that wasn't doing anything, that had to come out first.
Thanks for the idea!

Sham,
It took some doing as well as time, but I got the RO system in myself! Now I just hope it takes all this junk out of my water.

Now I just hope it takes all this junk out of my water.

If you set it up correctly it should do that. Do you have a tds meter to check that it's working right?

I don't know what a tbs is but it seems to be doing the job. I followed all the directions just like it showed.

A TDS meter measures Total Dissolved Solids and gives a more accurate measure than just using a kh and gh test. Although if you aren't highly concerned with 100% pure water so long as the gh and kh are testing 0 the water should be fine. All the chemicals, bacteria, parasites and other nasties should be removed from the water there just might be a small amount of minerals getting through that a TDS meter would measure. It also helps you know when the cartridges need changed or the membrane needs flushed because more minerals will be getting past. It's useful but probably not a necessity if your just looking to filter out chemicals and such and create softer water instead of going for as close to 100% pure water as you can get.

My filter did not come with a TDS meter, but it does have a battery operated light to tell me when the filters need changing. Is this something I can buy separately and add to the filter? I did some research on the stuff in my water - additives used in jet / rocket fuel (thanks to Fort Bragg, no doubt), petro-chemicals, things used to make styrene and plastic, fertilizer - it's not good!

Sham,
I found a TDS meter on line - neat little gadget and not that expensive. I will look into getting one. Thanks for telling me about it!

To answer one of the questions posed above:

Ethylbenzene is C2H5-C6H5, and Xylenes are compounds of the form CH3-C6H4-CH3.

The molecular structure of Ethylbenzene is illustrated here]http://www.viterbo.edu/nmr/ethylbenzene.htm[/link]. The molecular structure of Xylenes is illustrated on [link=this page dealing with benzene and related compounds. As can be seen, there are three different Xylenes - Ortho-Xylene (1,2,-dimeythlybenzene), meta-Xylene (1,3-dimethylbenzene) and Para-Xylene (1,4-dimethylbenzene).

Ethylbenzene and Xylenes are, basically, petroleum products. They are used in the manufacture of high-performance fuels for racing cars, and as precursors for polymers such as polystyrene.

This page lists some toxicity data for Ethylbenzene. However, to produce the toxic symptoms seen here, exposure would have to be acute, and in doses way in excess of a few parts per billion. We're talking here about direct exposure to the concentrated chemical in a lab setting or a chemical plant, which is the usual scenario for formulating toxicitydata on industrial chemicals. Even so, if your RO unit removes this molecule from your tap water, even if it is only present in a few parts per billion, this is good for you and your fish.

According to this page, Xylenes are suspected of toxicity in humans, but there is insufficient evidence to forge a definitive link between these chemicals and, for example, cancers or other chronic disorders. Again, removal from water courtesy of your RO unit will be beneficial.

One of the problems with toxicity data for chemicals such as this is that very little research has been done on prolonged very low level exposure. What research has been conducted has concentrated primarily upon substances known to be dangerous to humans even in small quanities, such as the various Dioxins (said research having been spurred on by the explosion of an Italian checmical factory in Seveso in 1974, which released 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzenedioxin into the surroundings). Dioxins are known teratogens (they cause disruption of the normal tissue differentiation processes resulting in tumors called teratomas) and are also known to precipitate truly gruesome birth defects in humans if pregnant mothers are exposed to the chemical. A harrowing example of this was provided in Vietnam after the use of Agent Orange as a defoliant to clear jungles in order to make it easier for US soldiers to fight the Viet Cong back in 1974. Agent Orange was a dioxin-enriched defoliant herbicide, which proved not only to be effective at defoliating trees, but persisted in the soil, made its way into the human food chain and precipitated gross malformations of the kind associated with Thalidomide. Even very low level exposures of the order of 10-20 parts per trillion is considered dangerous by most environmental agencies in the case of Dioxins. Sadly, we have no similar data with respect to lesser toxins, so if your RO unit removes Ethylbenzene and Xylenes from your water, consider it worth the money you paid for your RO unit on that basis alone.

Hope this helps.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thank you for your reply and the information you posted. I have done some research of my own on this stuff, and it is pretty frightening.
Back when we were first assigned here and living on Fort Bragg (1981 - 1987), a haz-mat tean was called out to clean up the agent orange that had been sprayed up and down Longstreet Road going out to the jump zones. Since solders frequently went on marches down this road, it was imperative the chemicals be removed. They brought out bull dozers to scrape all the soil up, loaded it up in dumptrucks (where they took it is a mystery) and replaced it with clean soil. It was a big operation taking several months. Our housing development is less than a mile from the back of post, so nothing would surprise me!
I found a lot of information on: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/
Short term effects of Xylenes: potentially cause at levels above the MCL for relatively short periods of time: disturbances of cognititive abilities, balance, and coordination.
Long term: has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys.
The short term effects of Ethylbenzene: potentially cause the following health effects in people exposed to it at above the MCL for short periods of time: drowsiness, fatigue, headache and mild eye and respiratory irritation.
Long term effects of Ethylbenzene, has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the MCL: damage to the liver, kidneys, central nervous system and eyes.
It did not have much to say about Perchlorate, but did say that it was used as the primary ingredient of solid rocket propellant!
The RO filter seems to be doing its job and I am glad I was able to get it installed. The second female betta, with a tumor, died (yesterday)of a bacterial infection unrelated to the tumor.
Thank you again for the information, it is much more informative than what I had found!