reverse osmosis or deionized

[PON]

Hey my RSM250 has been ordered and I'm completely new to this hobby (though i have been stalking the boards for a very long time) a friend of mine whos on the board informed me that i cant use straight tap water to make my salt water mixture (had no idea) When i asked my LSF owner about getting a reverse osmosis set up (thats what my friend has and recommended) he was trying to convince me to pick up a deionizer instead. I understand the process of both and not a fan of having to wait all day for the RO to get me enough water and i dont like the idea of all that water waste. Do you guys suggest one over the other does it matter. Im gonna have a lot more questions over the next few weeks so be ready

thanks

 

[masterswimmer]

Welcome to MR.

Using RO/DI is the way to go. The proper waste water to processed water ratio is 4:1. That is the expected and acceptable ratio. Many people reuse the waste water and run that line into their washing machine, water plants or the garden, etc. It doesn't have to be wasted down the drain.

Good luck with your new RSM
Russ

 

[PON]

i see, well if anyones got one for sale let me know lol

 

[Awibrandy]

i see, well if anyones got one for sale let me know lol

Check out the 4/sale forum!!

 

[TimberTDI]

Doesn't Randy (Prattreef) use only DI? Pm him, he's always generous and helpful with advice.

Steven

 

[saltygeek75]

I use RO/DI its the way to go.

 

[cmor1701d]

DI only can get expensive. Constant need to replenish the material. Running through a RO unit removes most of the TDS and the DI does the rest. e.g. Tap water at 215 ppm tds, 15 after RO, 0 after DI. So the DI has less work to do and lasts far longer.

 

[TimberTDI]

Di is rechargeable. Only takes about a 1/2 hour to do 5lbs of resin. I will definitely go Di only when I finally put water in my 180.

 

[Imbarrie]

DI doesn't remove the undesirable chemicals that RO does. You will just be using water that has no ions in it. Wouldn't that depend on how stable and clean your input water is?
Correct me if I'm wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

 

[SevTT]

Hey my RSM250 has been ordered and I'm completely new to this hobby (though i have been stalking the boards for a very long time) a friend of mine whos on the board informed me that i cant use straight tap water to make my salt water mixture (had no idea) When i asked my LSF owner about getting a reverse osmosis set up (thats what my friend has and recommended) he was trying to convince me to pick up a deionizer instead. I understand the process of both and not a fan of having to wait all day for the RO to get me enough water and i dont like the idea of all that water waste. Do you guys suggest one over the other does it matter. Im gonna have a lot more questions over the next few weeks so be ready

thanks

You can just use DI canisters, which will provide higher throughput. However, this will run through expensive DI resin very quickly. What you -could- do is use a RO/DI unit with a two-stage RO membrane -- basically, the waste from one gets run through another to recoup some of the wastewater loss. I've heard that these are more efficient as far as wastewater loss and produce more in the way of GPH. I don't have any actual experience with them, though.

In this hobby, you -can- exchange money for time, but it's a crappy conversion ratio.

 

[SevTT]

DI doesn't remove the undesirable chemicals that RO does. You will just be using water that has no ions in it. Wouldn't that depend on how stable and clean your input water is?
Correct me if I'm wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Reefs

Effectively they're pretty similar, though RO is less efficient than DI as far as rmeoving everything goes. This isn't much in most municipal water which -isn't- an ion, unless it's a particulate. However, the RO membrane doesn't 'run out' nearly as quickly as the DI resin will, and DI cartriges are expensive. So, we basically use the RO membrane to remove -most- of the crud from the water and use the DI to polish it off, removing the little bit that was left from the RO membrane and, at the same time, extending the life of our DI cartridges by about 20x. (With a 75gpd, 95% rejection membrane.)

 

[TimberTDI]

Effectively they're pretty similar, though RO is less efficient than DI as far as rmeoving everything goes. This isn't much in most municipal water which -isn't- an ion, unless it's a particulate. However, the RO membrane doesn't 'run out' nearly as quickly as the DI resin will, and DI cartriges are expensive. So, we basically use the RO membrane to remove -most- of the crud from the water and use the DI to polish it off, removing the little bit that was left from the RO membrane and, at the same time, extending the life of our DI cartridges by about 20x. (With a 75gpd, 95% rejection membrane.)

again recharging DI negates most of the expense:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1144161