automatic water change

[SpectraPure]

If anyone is interested about learning of the Litermeter3 please let me know. I will be very happy to help.

Shout out to FMAS buddies whom visited me at MACNA. Eddie and John!!!

Jeremy

 

[mrx66699]

What's up Jeremy it was good to see you at MACNA...definitely some exciting new things happening with spectrapure

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[Deahttub]

Does the litermeter3 work with other ato systems? I want to use one as an ato pump. My ato pump just crapped out so im in need of a new pump. I also have my ato hooked up to my apex...

 

[AquamanE]

This thread gave me the confidence and information to take on the challenge of AWC systems. I hope this video inspires others in the same way.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xxurylqY_o

Texdoc- welcome to the AWC club. Your system is awesome. The LiterMeter runs AWC flawlessly.

One bit of constructive criticism. The input to the Ro/DI includes some copper piping. Many believe the introduction of copper into reefs could be detrimental. I realize you have that going into an RO/DI and expect any copper to be absorbed there, but would it not be pretty simple to replace that with non toxic materials? I think so.

Again, awesome job!!

 

[texdoc77]

Texdoc- welcome to the AWC club. Your system is awesome. The LiterMeter runs AWC flawlessly.

One bit of constructive criticism. The input to the Ro/DI includes some copper piping. Many believe the introduction of copper into reefs could be detrimental. I realize you have that going into an RO/DI and expect any copper to be absorbed there, but would it not be pretty simple to replace that with non toxic materials? I think so.

Again, awesome job!!

I had not even considered the copper 90 and on/off switch to be a potential issue... Now as far as how easy that would be to fix, I don't know. That is a plex system and my house is old. I have pretty much no doubt there are copper fittings up line as well so switching those pieces out probably doesn't really help my cause. What I might do is send a sample of my RO/DI water off to be analyzed to see how much copper I am introducing. I mean doesn't that keep the ich away anyhow :spin2: Thanks for the kind words!

 

[jason2459]

FWIW I have all copper piping in my house. I've had water tested many many times by Triton and post RODI I have no detectable Cu. But I have to make sure to keep up with my DI.

To help I run 3 DI stages that I rotate. My last 3rd stage once 90% exhausted I switch it to the 2nd stage. I take the second stage and put it into the 1st stage. I discard what was in the 1st stage and put new DI into the last 3rd stage starting the cycle again until its 90% depleted.

 

[BrettDS]

To help I run 3 DI stages that I rotate. My last 3rd stage once 90% exhausted I switch it to the 2nd stage. I take the second stage and put it into the 1st stage. I discard what was in the 1st stage and put new DI into the last 3rd stage starting the cycle again until its 90% depleted.

If I'm reading this correctly, then you operate with the first stage fully depleted all the time and the second stage starts at 90% depleted, and I'm sure very quickly becomes fully depleted. Effectively you're really not any better off than using a single stage and replacing it when it's 90% depleted. The depleted first and second stages aren't doing you any good at all.

You would probably be better off rotating when the the first stage is fully depleted and the second stage is about 10% depleted. This way the water will always pass through one completely fresh stage (the third stage) and one nearly fresh stage (the second stage, which in the worse case will be 90% fresh just before you rotate it).

 

[AquamanE]

I had not even considered the copper 90 and on/off switch to be a potential issue... Now as far as how easy that would be to fix, I don't know. That is a plex system and my house is old. I have pretty much no doubt there are copper fittings up line as well so switching those pieces out probably doesn't really help my cause. What I might do is send a sample of my RO/DI water off to be analyzed to see how much copper I am introducing. I mean doesn't that keep the ich away anyhow :spin2: Thanks for the kind words!

Good point Tex. And now that I think about it my RO/DI is fed from my garage water heater water input. That pipe and the "saddle needle valve kit" used to pierce it are all copper. :bounce1:

 

[lnevo]

Its gonna be the case for most everyone...most house plumbing is copper.

 

[jason2459]

If I'm reading this correctly, then you operate with the first stage fully depleted all the time and the second stage starts at 90% depleted, and I'm sure very quickly becomes fully depleted. Effectively you're really not any better off than using a single stage and replacing it when it's 90% depleted. The depleted first and second stages aren't doing you any good at all.

You would probably be better off rotating when the the first stage is fully depleted and the second stage is about 10% depleted. This way the water will always pass through one completely fresh stage (the third stage) and one nearly fresh stage (the second stage, which in the worse case will be 90% fresh just before you rotate it).

Just because its allowing 1 or 2 or etc TDS through doesn't mean it can't be effective. It's still reducing the TDS lower then what's entering the stage.

Here this will explain from my tank journal


http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23574755

Zoa's really haven't changed at all. Still tiny and not looking great. Will keep watching for any changes.

I added a third DI stage to my RO/DI. So, I now have upgraded my 75gpd 5 stage plus BRS unit yet again.

Stages
1. 1 micron Sediment
2. 5 micron Carbon
3. .5 micron Carbon
4. Dual 150gpd Membrane piggy backed
5. 1st DI stage which has the oldest DI resin
6. 2nd DI stage which has the 2nd oldest DI resin
7. 3rd DI stage which has the newest DI resin

Stage 4 details
Basically this cuts down on waste water having the dual membranes with a single membrane flow restrictor. So, basically it's still flushing the waste across them in serial at 150gpd but the filtered water coming out of each in parallel. This cuts back on waste water but doubles the output. Win/Win right? So, I theoretically with a good membrane, over 65psi, and right temp will get about 300gpd production with half the water waste.

The downside is it's only flushing the waste water across the membranes at 150gpd rate cutting down the waste water. What this means is that this will most likely reduce the life of the RO membrane. Having soft water will help reduce this reduction. I have water softener supplying my RO/DI unit but can see the reduced life still. RO membranes should be able to last around 3 years. Then end of this year will be the 3rd year mark for these membranes but I'm seeing a drastic decrease in production rate so need to replace the membranes to get back my full production rate almost a year earlier.

DI Stages details
Having a single detectable amount of TDS can mean just about anything. Could mean nothing at all. But IMO if you're running a RO/DI system you should always try and get 0 tds out of the unit. If you register a 1 out of your DI stage it's time to replace the DI resin.

Unfortunately, this is a waste of a lot of life left in the DI resin. So, I added a 2nd DI stage. So, I would take the last stage DI resin cartridge out and swap it into the 1st stage. Then add brand new DI resin into the last stage. Now, I have that 1tds still coming out of the 1st stage and 0 coming out of the last stage. This will also increase the life of the last stage DI resin because even though the RO membrane reduces the TDS a lot (usually anywhere between 96-98%+) the TDS going into the 1st stage DI is still higher than what's coming out of the 1st stage DI so the last stage is having to reduce fewer TDS. This also allows you to use even more of that old DI resin that was still reducing the TDS even though not to 0 but at least to 1. I have no numbers on how much DI is being saved but it's saving some. Some is more than none.

I've found over the past couple years doing this by the time my last stage registers 1 and it's time to swap it to the first stage the first stage was still registering a decent reduction in TDS from the RO membrane meaning that 1st stage old DI resin still have some effective life in it.

TDS reduction example is going into my RO/DI TDS is around 280 and after the RO stage going into the 1st DI stage is around 7-10. Then after that 1st DI stage I was still seeing 2 TDS and my 2nd DI stage just started showing 1. So, I took the last DI stage and put it into the 1st DI stage and dumped the old 1st stage resin. To me that was a waste as it was still able to reduce that post RO stage TDS down to 2.

So, in comes a 3rd stage. I'll be curious what that 1st stage old old DI resin will register by the time the 3rd DI stage registers 1.

January 10th
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=23402806

So, this is why I love this log so I can look back on this stuff because I certainly can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago.

I noticed tonight my second stage DI with color changing resin looks like it's fully changed colors. That took almost exactly 3 months from when I added that in as new resin and added a third stage with new resin. My third stage is still completely blue and brand new

My now first stage that was "exhausted" visually 3 months ago and was registering 1 on my TDS meter that would normally be tossed in a single stage setup is now registering a whopping 2. So, its still able to take my 10 TDS post RO membranes and effectively reduce the TDS with supposedly exhausted resin.

My second stage that just fully changed colors is registering 1 TDS and on a dual stage setup I would be tossing the first stage resin and placing that second stage into the first stage and adding new resin.

Well, here I am now three months into adding that third stage and going to keep it all in place. Pre-first stage 10 TDS, after first stage into the second with 2 TDS, and from the second to the last stage 1 TDS and looking like new leaving the unit with 0 TDS.

That's awesome. This will save on quite a bit of resin. I will have to update again when I'll eventually have to swap stages.

 

[TheReefKeeper]

If anyone is interested about learning of the Litermeter3 please let me know. I will be very happy to help.

Shout out to FMAS buddies whom visited me at MACNA. Eddie and John!!!

Jeremy

I have some questions you have a number we can call on a business day?

 

[Retzius]

There is a new player to AWC's and I'm not sure if people are aware...

Its the new GHL 2.1 Doser. They have replaced the peristaltic pumps to be able to withstand continuous duty. I am wanting to know if anyone is running one for this particular application, and what their thoughts on this dosing pump are?

I believe it also has the calibrating features and can run with iphone/android.

 

[biecacka]

I'm thinking of getting a litermeter to do auto water changes and ease the work load on my 240. Not that they are hard, I just like the automation aspect.

Corey

 

[ClownsRCoo]

Now that I have been testing my mixed water after a few days I'm seeing that my Alk/Ca drop significantly after just 24 hrs of being mixed. How are you guys dealing with that or are you doing such small amounts compared to the overall volume hat you just don't notice it?


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[spdjnky]

Hi are you still running this system? I hope so can you give us any updates on things I'm in the process of hooking a Stenner pump up for my aquarium and had to change some plans due to the 25 foot rule,I called Stener and the said do not go over 25 feet.
You say you are running 35 feet and just wanted to know how it worked.
Thx Phil

 

[DRThompson]

Hi are you still running this system? I hope so can you give us any updates on things I'm in the process of hooking a Stenner pump up for my aquarium and had to change some plans due to the 25 foot rule,I called Stener and the said do not go over 25 feet.
You say you are running 35 feet and just wanted to know how it worked.
Thx Phil

25 foot is the vertical limit. My system uses about 50ft of tubing but only an 8 foot vertical difference. I've been running it for years now with no issues using my dual head stenner

 

[mrx66699]

There is a new player to AWC's and I'm not sure if people are aware...

Its the new GHL 2.1 Doser. They have replaced the peristaltic pumps to be able to withstand continuous duty. I am wanting to know if anyone is running one for this particular application, and what their thoughts on this dosing pump are?

I believe it also has the calibrating features and can run with iphone/android.

I have the ghl and slave ...Works great and will even run in reverse if you want to dose frozen foods ....

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[AquamanE]

Hi are you still running this system? I hope so can you give us any updates on things I'm in the process of hooking a Stenner pump up for my aquarium and had to change some plans due to the 25 foot rule,I called Stener and the said do not go over 25 feet.
You say you are running 35 feet and just wanted to know how it worked.
Thx Phil

My stunner is still going strong three years later. Haven't even changed the tubing yet but considering.

Have you changed tubing Dr Dave Thompson?

 

[iced98lx]

Still running my stenner, haven't yet changed any tubing either, though I do need to flush out the salt -> Tank circuit as it gets a little funky. I'm changing 3-4 gallons a day (35 minutes of run time) 5 days a week.

 

[firemedix911]

Stenner as well here. Installed outside. Still great. Work horse.