Question TDS Meter yes or no?

[Iko2thdk]

Hi. I am returning to reef keeping after a long hiatus. Was in the hobby and worked in the business over 40 years ago. A lot has changed. I am enjoying reading posts and trying to gather as much info as I can. I am setting up a Reefer 350. Slowly...I know I will make some mistakes along the way. My R/O set up does not have a TDS meter. How important is that meter? If my product water doesn?t read close to zero after the process, what could I do about it? Thanks

 

[reefiness]

which ro unit do you have? how far from zero are you getting out of the unit? any idea what you tds at the tap is?

 

[Iko2thdk]

I have a vertex 100 gpd unit. It did not come w a TDS meter. So, no idea what my incoming TDS numbers are. Guess it pays to monitor that..but what if the unit still leaves dissolved solids behind?

 

[Chefjpaul]

Pick up a hand held one, the in-line are not as accurate over time.

Even though we NYC has great water, testing for filters consumption is must have.



Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

 

[Iko2thdk]

Thanks for the info. Will wait to fill the tank until i know the water is good

 

[Reef Trends]

Testing your input isnt that important. Instead before DI and after. This will tell you when to replace cartridges if your DI has to do extra work.

 

[Donewiththisplace]

Can get the handheld from homedepot..like $12

 

[Geraud]

Yep, really worth it, especially when the town decides to change your water supply from TDS ~ 40 to TDS ~100

 

[reefer4eva]

Personally I always use an inline TDS meter.best $39,99 piece of mind.like reef trends had said before and after the DI always tells me when its time.i also have a clear chamber for the DI resin so I can see the color go from blue to brown

 

[jjfriscia]

Yeah i was going to say i use a hand held TDS meter from amazon. I think its better then having an inline TDS meter, but definitely need something to monitor what you RO unit is putting out. You don't want to do all that working making RO and find out your putting dirty water in your tank.

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Zero is always a good number coming out

 

[Actinic Atoll]

I find both a handheld and inline TDS meter to be useful for the reason mentioned above.

If you don't have a inline one for a RODI, you can put a "T" with a shutoff after the RO stage to draw samples similar to that of the inline meter.
For this reason, if I could only have one TDS meter, it would be the handheld.

The handheld is also handy for checking water in storage containers, water from other places, hot vs cold water TDS. I've even used it in other non reefing hobbies like measuring nutrients for the garden.

My RODI came with the inline meter. If I bought a new RODI without one I wouldn't panic. I would probably buy one eventually because they are useful and not too expensive. I like being able to check whats going on there when I'm making water and also to watch the TDS drop when backwashing the RO membrane.

 

[Geraud]

The inline meters you can buy for the hobby are actually really good since most have 2 readings: before/after.

It is a good way, depending where you install them on your RO/DI system, to know if something is amiss (example: I detected the reservoir change in my area of Manhattan thanks to mine being on the input, and I know when my resin needs to be changed due to the second one being on the output)

 

[Josh]

They are cheap, definitely invest in one.