Do you add "Trace" minerals to your water

[waynotcars]

On the RO/DI, more $ , IMO, does not make BETTER water. I myself have a BRS 5 stage, 75gpd unit. It was $190 new but I got a deal on it used on line for $100. My point is, if you use a TDS meter, and 0 TDS water is being made, then that is ALL you'll ever get, 0 TDS water. You cannot get PURER then 0 TDS and spending MORE $ on say a 6 stage isn't going to get you ANY better water. For your size tank, a 50 gpd ro/di unit is MORE than sufficent. The only thing additional filter canisters will do, perhaps, is make the time between having to change the filters longer. For instance, running TWO DI units won't get you purer water then running 1 but it will make the 2nd DI resin last longer but big deal. Just run one and have a pouch of DI resin for backup. I HIGHLY recommend the BRS 5 stage plus system for about 190 to 200. It has built in 2 way TDS meter (going on and coming out). It has built in flush valve and very high quality fittings. I am NOT connected to BRS in ANY way but since I heard of them on this forum I buy a lot from them because items are HIGH quality, service is awesome and prices are FAIR. Check em out at Bulk Reef Supply.com.

 

[DJYoshi]

On the RO/DI, more $ , IMO, does not make BETTER water. I myself have a BRS 5 stage, 75gpd unit. It was $190 new but I got a deal on it used on line for $100. My point is, if you use a TDS meter, and 0 TDS water is being made, then that is ALL you'll ever get, 0 TDS water. You cannot get PURER then 0 TDS and spending MORE $ on say a 6 stage isn't going to get you ANY better water. For your size tank, a 50 gpd ro/di unit is MORE than sufficent. The only thing additional filter canisters will do, perhaps, is make the time between having to change the filters longer. For instance, running TWO DI units won't get you purer water then running 1 but it will make the 2nd DI resin last longer but big deal. Just run one and have a pouch of DI resin for backup. I HIGHLY recommend the BRS 5 stage plus system for about 190 to 200. It has built in 2 way TDS meter (going on and coming out). It has built in flush valve and very high quality fittings. I am NOT connected to BRS in ANY way but since I heard of them on this forum I buy a lot from them because items are HIGH quality, service is awesome and prices are FAIR. Check em out at Bulk Reef Supply.com.

I completely hear you on that. 0 should be 0. I actually went with a smaller system from Crystal RO/DI. It's cheap ($110 shipped w/ all types of fittings), effective, and can handle what I'll be doing once I move to the bigger 100+ tank in a year or so. I opted to not have the in-line TDS meter and just got a hand held. I'm sure in the future I'll probably want one just to make life more simple, but I don't mind sticking a probe into water to test. Thanks everyone for your advice on the water situation I've been having. The machine gets here from Cali in a few days...and I honestly can't wait till about 2 months from now when all of the dirty tap water is out of there and I'm on clean water.

 

[rookie07]

You might want to have 2 TDS meters...incase the one you use breaks and gives false "0" ratings. Once a month or so I use my backup TDS meter to test the water and confirm the accuracy of the 1st TDS meter. This may be overkill, im a worrier.

I have a 34 gl tank and I do not add any trace elements either. I use ESV salt, and do weekly, sometimes biweekly, water changes and I have good growth from all corals except ricordia which have melted away(they have literally shrunk until they were so small I lost sight of them, then they detached from the rocks and got lost.

Good luck

 

[DJYoshi]

You might want to have 2 TDS meters...incase the one you use breaks and gives false "0" ratings. Once a month or so I use my backup TDS meter to test the water and confirm the accuracy of the 1st TDS meter. This may be overkill, im a worrier.Good luck

Thanks for the advice on the 2 TDS rook.... I didn't even think to be redundant