Rat
Don't mean to "gang-up" up on you but as I have said before your own guy Charles Mitsis from Spectrapure disagrees with you. As has also been pointed out IIRC a std 10 x 2.5 inch cartridge holds 20 oz of resin rather than 24 oz. You keep going by 24 oz which is 15 % less resin.
Repeatedly I have asked you for your pH and Alk of your tap water but you do not seem to want to give it, which will resolve the issue on your tap water and DI resin depletion in relation to CO2.
Form a file I made from a copy paste from an old thread by Charles form Spectrapure about a year ago
4.) When speaking of resin capacity, the MaxCap DI cartridge has a total capacity of approx. 18,000 ppm-gallons, vs. about 6000 ppm-gallons for a high-quality mixed-bed cartridge of 700 ml volume (the typical 24 oz. screw-on DI shell). When calculating the approximate gallons a DI cartridge will process, one must account for the total ionic load, both cationic and anionic, presented to the resin cartridge â€"œ not just the TDS reading. The presence of CO2 can be a huge factor that must be added to the TDS reading of the water presented to the DI cartridge. Many times the CO2 can be far in excess to the TDS reading.
5.) To calculate the effects of CO2 on DI production, divide the CO2 product water concentration in ppm by the sum of the CO2 concentration in ppm plus the product water TDS in ppm. For example, if you have 4 ppm TDS and 4 ppm CO2 in your RO water, you are wasting 4/8 or 50% of your anionic DI capacity on CO2 removal.
For those wanting to know the relationship of CO2 - Alk - pH here is a table. Pay no attention to the green line which is the sought level in FW planted aquariums.
And here is a CO2 calulator for FW, also with another table at the bottom.
http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_co2chart.htm
To add these tables are for pure water. As the conductivity or TDS of the water increases there is a shift in the pk1 and pK2, which will shift the pH and thus CO2 concentration. Meaning, a TDS of 100 ppm, pH 7 and Alk 5 dKH, will not have the same amount of CO2 as TDS of 1 ppm, at the same pH and Alk. Meaning, you would need a different table or calculator but for any of our purposes in RO water or even most FW tanks they are close enough.