Question about Deionization

[Anonymous]

Well, if you go DI only, there's no waste water.

 

[dnorton1978]

Well, if you go DI only, there's no waste water.

Very true. That is why I like it. I guess I am going to buy DI only. What is a good brand for DI?

 

[Anonymous]

The folks at Buckeye have a good reputation on their products. Haven't used them personally, though, so I can't comment directly. What I use myself (more out of laziness and convenience then anything else) is Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Tap Water Purifier. It's slightly more expensive then buying resins in bulk, but it's convenient because you can grab their cartridges virtually anywhere. Even most LFS stock them.

Whatever you buy, make sure it comes with or buy a faucet adapter. The old rubber faucet gasket's some units still have are utter crap.

 

[Anonymous]

Quite honestly, my main concern with ro/di is the wasted water. Some of these units claim 4 gallons of waste to one gallon pure. That IMO seems to wasteful for me. If I make 50 gallons of water, then I will have wasted 200 gallons? No way. I pay for my water, and my water bill alone runs about $100 per month. My electric is touching $300. Not to mention my mortgage for $1950..PHEW, man that is just the half.

Although it is getting very old making weekly trips to fill my gallon juggs. I hate that.

There are merit to both camps. Take a look at your water bill. For $100/month, how many cubic yard are you using everyday? Keep in mind that each cubic yard is more than 200 gals.

I collect the waste water from my RO for watering my little yard, and I use a bit of RO since it is use for cooking and drinking, among other uses.

 

[dnorton1978]

The folks at Buckeye have a good reputation on their products. Haven't used them personally, though, so I can't comment directly. What I use myself (more out of laziness and convenience then anything else) is Aquarium Pharmeceuticals Tap Water Purifier. It's slightly more expensive then buying resins in bulk, but it's convenient because you can grab their cartridges virtually anywhere. Even most LFS stock them.

Whatever you buy, make sure it comes with or buy a faucet adapter. The old rubber faucet gasket's some units still have are utter crap.

Does the water it produces test fine. Zero for everything. I looked at one locally, petco I believe. Thought about it, but was not sure if it would produce good water. As long as you have clean water with it, I may jump on the lazy wagon myself.

 

[Anonymous]

Only thing it's ever seemed a little weak on is silicates, but that's from my time out in southern california where the tap had really massive amounts of silicates in it.

What you can always do is buy two and run them in sequence (output from the first goes into the input of the second). Won't really increase your operating costs (you'll still go through resins at about the same rate, as the water going through the second resin will be virtually pure), but will result in even purer water and a little bit of piece of mind for when the resin in the first cartridge is getting close to needing to be changed.

 

[dnorton1978]

Your avatar is cool. I really like that. Very funny.

Do you use 2?

 

[Anonymous]

Your avatar is cool. I really like that. Very funny.

Heh. Thanks. Even with Photoshop installed, there are still times when MS Paint is the right tool for the job

Do you use 2?

When I lived in L.A. I did. The silicates there were a constant problem. I haven't bothered running a second one here in NYC though, it just hasn't been neccessary. Still, until you get good at recognizing when the cartridges are near exhausted (or you add a simple TDS meter to the output, so you can see the quality of the water you make and know that way when it's time to change cartridges) a second cartridge in sequence is nice to give yourself a margin of error.

 

[Buckeye Field Supply]

With a few extra feet of tubing, many people can extend the waste tube the the washing machine - viola - no wasted water.

Russ @ BFS

 

[Anonymous]

If I was running solely DI I would still install a sediment cartridge (usually stage 1 on an RO system) before the filter. Mine gets brown after about 3 months, and it's not stuff that a DI filter would remove as far as I understand. I don't want that crap in my water!

My tap water is unusually bad out here, 500-600 ppm TDS. I know a few nice looking 5 year old reef tanks that use it for their water changes exclusively! They use RO/DI with kalk for makeup water however.

 

[Anonymous]

TWP cartridges have a built in sediment filter and carbon in each cartridge... basically the lower third of each cartridge is given over for that purpose.

 

[Anonymous]

TWP cartridges have a built in sediment filter and carbon in each cartridge... basically the lower third of each cartridge is given over for that purpose.

Those things made me about 10 gallons before they changed the color all the way.

 

[bleedingthought]

I don't see the point in going DI only unless your tank is about 30 gallons or smaller.

Take my tank for example, I've got a total volume of about 90 gallons. I usually top off about 2 gallons daily. My water changes consist of about 20-30 gallons monthly. We're talking about 90 gallons of water I go through monthly, plus the 5 gallons for my nano. 95 gallons total.

I'd probably go through 3-4 TWPs a month! :?

 

[dnorton1978]

TWP cartridges have a built in sediment filter and carbon in each cartridge... basically the lower third of each cartridge is given over for that purpose.

How much do you pay for your cartidges on average?

 

[liquid]

...dumb question but how much longer does a RO membrane extend the life of a DI cartridge?

Shane

 

[shr00m]

depends on how dirty original tapwater is and how many gallons ran through it.... using a RO will greatly increase the life of a RO because it removes so many impurities b4 it even hits the DI ...

 

[Anonymous]

How much do you pay for your cartidges on average?

TWP cartridges? Probably on average around $15.

...dumb question but how much longer does a RO membrane extend the life of a DI cartridge?

Tremendously, Shane. If the RO removed just 90% of the impurities before it hit the DI, the DI-after-RO would last 10 times as long as running just DI would.

 

[bleedingthought]

This might contribute to this discussion:

Coralife released an RO unit with an integrated booster pump for a very reasonable price ($199), so I've gone ahead and ordered it. Previously on this tank I've just been using DI, primarily because my water pressure in my apartment sucks and I didn't want to spend hundreds of bucks on a booster pump. This combination unit should fit the bill nicely.

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... 57#1144757

:wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, true. I won't get -better- quality water this way, it's just a convenience. Mind you, if I got even another, say, 20 gallons out of a DI cartridge on my tap water I wouldn't bother. As it is, it will still take something like two years for the RO unit to pay for itself versus the cost of DI resins that I'd use in that time frame. AND I don't have to pay for my water supply, if I did it would take significantly longer

 

[liquid]

Where I'm going w/ this is that RO membranes cost $90 (SpectraPure). I'm wondering if it makes more sense for me to just stop using RO and recharge my DI resins myself and it be more cost effective. Red Devil lye and muratic acid are relatively inexpensive. I have 2-3 exhausted DI cartridges and the chemicals required to recharge the resins myself (helps being a chemist).

FYI my currenet setup is a 5 stage SpectraPure 90 GPD RO/DI: 20 um carbon prefilter ($5 for 2 pack -- added myself to the original 4 stage SP RO/DI), 0.5 um sediment filter, 0.5 um carbon block filter, 90 GPD RO membrane, color change DI resin cartridge. I could add a second DI cartridge to the unit and stop using the RO membrane. I'm wondering how much water I could make with this setup before I'd have to recharge my resins.

Shane