Have an issue with my RO/DI

[Infinitereef]

I posted this in the Spectrapure forum as well, but see whether you guys can help me out...

I have my CSP 90 Spectrapure RO/DI unit for about a year. It was working fine until now. The water pressure is around 62 psi and my Tap water is about 350ppm. It normally last me about 3 mths for my 180g tank before I have to change the cartridge.

About 4 weeks ago, I change the Cartridge and after a week of operation, I notice that the Carbon filter (middle Cartridge) start to get brown first. At this time, the water pressure start to decrease. After about 3 weeks of operation, the water pressure goes from 62 psi to 40psi.

Thought that I may have a bad set of cartridge, I order another set of Spectrapure cartridge and change out the sediment and the carbon filter. Now, after a week with the new filter, today I saw that the Carbon filter get brown again and the 1st sediment filter is still clean and white. My pressure at this point is going down from 62psi to 58psi.

What is wrong with my RO/DI??

 

[RandalB]

Could be a couple of things, IMO
You could have the wrong size prefilters

There could be water main repair or installation going on in your area or something similar.

What's happening is the sediment levels in your water supply have increased suddenly or the particulate size has changed. It's bypassing your first filter and getting stuck on the second.

HTH,
RandalB

 

[Unresistible Blue]

Randal - you hit on the two things I thought of first as well.

 

[Infinitereef]

I am using the 0.5 Pre-filter Sediment and the 0.5um Carbon filter as indicated in the Spectrapure unit. So, ideally they are the same micron

 

[RandalB]

Well, It's entirely possible one was mismarked at the factory. It happens.

IME, 0.5 Micron is way too small for water supplies in the North Burbs and will have a real short life even on Chicago Tap. If you were making more water you'd be replacing those suckers monthly or even more frequently.

DOW Filmtec's warranty only requires 5 micron prefiltration before their membranes, so I find a 10,5,5 array will last a lot longer unless you have large sediment particles in your feed water. I was changing mine ever 6 months and making 75-150 gallons per day for my discus. Things are different now (tadpoles in the water...) and I've been having to replace them monthly. Looks like a 25 micron prefilter is going to be needed for well water....

HTH,
RandalB

 

[Bryan89]

Wouldn't it be better and cheaper to add a second sediment filter and have a 5 micron sediment, 1 micron sediment, .5 micron carbon than RO? I have to use such a setup in Rockford due to our fine well water and it works great. I get a much longer use of my pre filters this way and the 5 micron filter are cheap.

HTH

Bryan

 

[RandalB]

You don't need the more expensive 1 and .5 micron filters. a 10 and 2x 5's is cheaper and all that's needed. A second carbon depends on how much chlorine they put in your tap water. If you have your own well a single is just fine.

RandalB

 

[Bryan89]

Randall - I believe it also depends on your iron concentration and TDS. We have 5 ppm iron that is suspended in solution via polyphosphates that Rockford injects so they do not need to remove the iron from the water. 5 ppm iron is beyond the warranty from Spectrapure.

 

[RandalB]

Yeah, Depending on the iron type, RO may have trouble dealing with it no matter what the Prefiltration....

RandalB

 

[raaden]

Another thing along the same lines as the Water Main would be a bloom of some sort in a main. When I lived in Virginia Beach we would get about 3 weeks in October where the water was disgusting and there was nothing the water company would do about it. They said it was due to inflow into the water supply

 

[Infinitereef]

I talked to the Spectrapure guys and what they suspected is that some water is leaking through my pre-filter and thus get caught by the Carbon block. They also commented that they have report that showed my area water has many sediments.

They will be sending me a few different kind of pre-filter and have me test out which is the best one for my system. Something bout pre-filter with a foam cap on top to ensure leak proof.

Anyway, great customer service and they asked me to help them by testing out different filter and give them feedback.