Final questions regarding equipment

[levon15]

First I would like to promise that this will be the last time I ask about which RO/DI to get.


Which would you all decide to get between the two

http://cgi.ebay.com/RO6102DINT-Aqua...hZ002QQcategoryZ46310QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

or this

http://cgi.ebay.com/WaterGeneral-RO...hZ002QQcategoryZ46310QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

I am leaning to the one with the drinking equipment because I would be hard to get all of that equipment for another $20 after the fact and I really see no reason to have two DI filters.

Also I need all suggestions on a return pump for a 70 gallon frag tank. Would liek to go a little overboard simply to maybe not need to upgrade again if this hobby continues to grow in my house. Willing to spend up to or around $100 for it. Needs to be submersible and quiet if possible.

If you have something for sale let me know. In terms of a pump.

Thanks I know you guys can help because you always do

 

[Im Lon 2]

Out of the 2 RO's I would buy the one with everything.. I bought just the RO/DI unit when I was first looking then ended up going out and buying the rest of the stuff because the wife wanted it later.. It cost a lot more than 20. More like 20x3 Should have bought a new RO unit and sold the other one.

 

[latazyo]

and if youre going to pay for all of that waste water, you might as well enjoy some of the filtered water for yourself

 

[levon15]

No comments for a pump i am hearing good things about an eheim pump, any one sell these locally

 

[DrBDC]

I have the one with the tank. I like that because you always have some water already through the ro unit available immediately. When that is done, you're down to the slow trickle you will normally get when you don't have the reserve tank. One note I have on both of those is to get an additional full sized vertical di chamber as a secondary di and in the meantime take off the di chamber(s) that come with them and mount them vertically. It helps ALOT!! Also, when it comes time to change the membrane, there are better membranes you can get that are only 75 gallons/day with better rejection rates. Until membrane change time you just use the di resin faster but it still comes up 0 if you keep on top of it.

 

[latazyo]

the pump depends on a few things

are you planning a closed loop? if so then a smaller return pump would be ok, slower movement through sump

if you 're not planning a closed loop and you're using this for frags, then isn't water movement important, so you'd want a larger pump, even though its causing too much flow through the sump

either way, I have only heard of good things from eheim, I have never used one....in fact the only return pump I have ever used was a Laguna Pondmaster, and it was AWESOME

 

[DrBDC]

A cut and paste from another similar question thread. It won't completely apply in a frag tank though:

The main return pump gph doesn't need to be much more than what the skimmer will process and maybe just a little extra depending on whether you divert some of the flow to a refuge or not. Inside the fuge, you should have about a 15X flow. i.e. if the fuge holds 10 gallons then send about 150-200gph through that and if the skimmer processes 300 gph per hour then send about 350 gph through that area.

Then on the main display. For ease of numbers pretend it's 100 gallons. Then you need to decide what type of flow you are using. i.e. small output style powerheads like maxijets or larger flow distribution outputs like seio, vortech, tunze's, closed loops with multiple outlets like a calfo style manifold. With a larger flow output like the later, 30X softy, 50X mixed and up to 100X + sps. With smaller output powerheads you will be limited on those numbers by quite a bit unless you can find creative ways to bounce/distribute the flow and those numbers would have to be reduced considerably.

As an example I still have (for now) a mixed tank that has some anthelia, xenia, and 1 leather still in the tank and I run 2 1500 seio's along with the 600 gph return pump on approximately a 68 gallon display. Which is about 52.9X turnover. If it were too much the xenia and definitely the anthelia would have some issues. On a natural reef the water is moving at some unreal high number that we could never even attempt to recreate in a tank. That number I don't recall but it was over 100,000 gph equivalent per 3 ft section of reef. If you even try that your ceilings will be soaked and you'll blow the water out of the tank in seconds.

Sorry multiple tunze guys, I know you're trying but it can't be completely recreated! :lol:

 

[levon15]

Well my fuge will be water pumped from the sump right by the overflow output up to the fuge. I will be using a maxi900 for this. My Fuge will hold about 15 gallons, It will overflow back to the sump past the skimmer.

The Sump which will feed the skimmer is about 20-25 gallons with the baffles and such. Ao I am thinking maybe a Mag 5 or 7 but would like something quiet and my present mag 5 is anything but quiet.

For the frag tank (70 gallon rubbermaid) I think I will get one seio 1500 to sort of create a flow ie.whirlpool effect to take advantage of the shape of the tank. And in the middle I will add one maxi 900 and one maxi 600 to create enough distubance to make things interesting.

I plan on growing Zoo's, mushrooms, ricodea, and maybe place some SPS frags closer to the flow devices. I have two levels in the tank on mid way up and the other is the bottom.

I will be using 1 250 watt MH and am still debating electronic or magnetic ballasts and the pros and cons of each. Am leaning to the magnetic but would like more input. I will be using a lumenarc reflector. Let me know point on this as well.

 

[levon15]

Also does anyone know of one store locally that I could get the seio and the mag tonight. I am pretty sure Gateway has them but I would like other option only becasue of the drive.

 

[superfirefly]

When I purchased my RO/DI from FilterDirect, I asked if they would change out the membrane to a dow filmtec 75GPD which they did at no extra charge.

 

[levon15]

Should I try to switch out as well.?

They are currently using this

4th stage: TFC-100/TFM-100 Premium membrane we have done extensive testing among different brands of membrane, and we recently have switched to a higher rejection membrane GE Desal membrane, (even better than Filmtec membrane), it removes 97% to 98% of all chemical, dissolved solids in tap water. (replace every 2-3 years)

 

[superfirefly]

After reading many posts by AZdesertrat (Water/Wastewater Operations Consultant ), many of the other membranes are junk compared to the dow membrane. He actually bashes the ebay units mainly because of the membranes. Either way it is not going to cost you a penny to do the upgrade. If you do a search for him and check out some of his posts you will see what I mean.

 

[superfirefly]

Sorry I missed were it said even better than filmtec. You may want to ask him directly on that. I remeber reading posts about the GE membranes but I do not remember exactly what was said.

 

[levon15]

So I got this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/WaterGeneral-RO...hZ002QQcategoryZ46310QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

called them up and they switched to a 75gpd membrane for no cost. I got the two white vertical canisters switched to clear for an extra $6 (just cause I think they look cool). I added a dual inline TDS meter with a before and after meter thing.

In all it came up more than I wanted to pay which was somewhere just above free.

I will be looking for a Mag 5 or 7 tonight and a seio 1500. Anyone know any one store that sells them both......