New to the Hobby

TomStill

New member
hello everyone. I have been reading the posts on this forum for a few months now and I have really learned alot. I have slowly collected alot of the equipment to start my reef tank. I still have a few questions and some things that I need to buy before I set up my tank. I have a 90 gallon reef ready tank. One of the pieces I am missing is a RO/DI filter. I have researched these online and I need some assistance on what to look for or any recomendations. Can anyone recomend a good RO/DI filter and also a good place to buy from? This will be the first of many questions I have, and I appreciatte any help. I am also looking at joining MTRC and excited about getting involved and learning alot. I live in Murfreesboro, and it seems there are alot of people in the hobby around that area.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
Welcome to ReefCentral and MTRC! Glad to have another from the Boro. :)

Personally, I really like the AirWaterIce.com units. They also support our club every year by donating to our frag swap.

There are other places that are good to buy from, though, including Buckeye Field Supply and some others.

As far as what to look for, I would simply recommend looking for a 5 stage RO/DI. This includes 3 pre-filters, the RO membrane, and the DI to polish the end result. :)

Brandon
 
I've had a Reefkeeper from airwaterice.com for a couple of years now. Nothing but good things to say about it and the company. I just did a big maintenance job on it this weekend.

In any case, I would consider an RO/DI an indispensable piece of reefing equipment, especially once you get tanks above about 50 gallons...

Welcome to the hobby!
 
I went with a cheap one on e-bay don't have the link and it has been doing great. I could show you how I did mine to make it last longer. So far it has worked 0 tds and I think we have had it close to a year and I do a lot of water :)
 
btw....when they say e-bay they are referring to emerald bay (in bellevue) not ebay the auction site

i know that confused me when i started hanging out in here LOL
 
thanks for all your help! both websites seem to have a good fare priced product. Like I said im sure there will be more questions to come. btw, when is the feb meeting? has that been set, i saw another thread that didnt seem to be definative yet.
 
Yes, we did mean E-Bay the auction site. sorry for the confusion, and I think we are still waiting for approval from Cory for the exact time, but it is supposed to be this coming weekend.

Angela, when is the meeting??????? :)
 
ok, cool , I am traveling for work, but should be back late friday, so if its not a friday meeting, then I will definately try to come.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14358034#post14358034 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fallinapart
Yes, we did mean E-Bay the auction site. sorry for the confusion, and I think we are still waiting for approval from Cory for the exact time, but it is supposed to be this coming weekend.

Angela, when is the meeting??????? :)

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<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

the meeting is on the 22nd :) hope you can make it!

I had the unit from ebay...cheap and a OK unit for a budget on a real pinch but my auto shut off kept going bad on it and not stopping the water going down the drain when the tank was full (unit with the drinking tank add on) I went thru 2 valves from the same guy so maybe a valve from a better source would fix the problem... The housing that holds the canisters rusted pretty bad also, cheap primer & paint on the unit.
A RO/Di I have found is only as good as the person maintaining it. I failed to change my prefilters often and made the membrane go bad. 2x real fast before I learned the importance of keeping prefilters changed! Chlorine ( I think it was) will eat up a membrane no mater who makes the filter so #1 most important thing is to keep the prefilters changed especially the carbon.

If you want to go cheap, get the ebay unit. They all work the same...prefilters...membrane...DI and upgrade the components as needed. I switched to a better membrane and good prefilters when the time came. Most all brands are interchangable with that kind of stuff. But personally I would go with a little better brand since my metal housing holder is a rusty mess. Oh and the adapter they sent was a peice of junk and took a few trips to the hardware store to get parts and adapters to get it going so factor that into your final unit cost :). And the instructions were not great but easy enouph to figure out.

Actually I gave the junky cheap unit away and have a kent pro maxima only because it was a real deal from the selling forums. Having a pressure gauge and in/out TDS meter is nice but I totally wouldn't spend retail on it if I hadn't picked it up at a good deal used. Add ons are nice but totally not necissary.
 
The meters tell you when your filters need changing, So in my opinion are the reason you should have them!! Other wise your just guessing when to change them. As I have had problems with my RODI I would suggest the best unit you can afford, Pressure gauges,meters, auto off and a back flush will help extend membrane life. Replacement filters are not cheap if you buy quality ones so knowing when to change them is crucial to quality water 0 TDS keeps you from having Algae problems that are very hard to get rid of once established.
 
Those meters comes with the units off AirWaterIce! I bought my unit from them, easy to install and easy to use!!!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14376573#post14376573 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mikeyjer
Those meters comes with the units off AirWaterIce! I bought my unit from them, easy to install and easy to use!!! Welcome to the Forum
 
Well I have a meter and it is on a shelf not installed :( I use production to tell me when to replace my filters which I brought extra when I got my unit for under $100 at www.purewaterclub.com and would say I have ran more then 2 years of water for the normal reefer and still not replaced my filters and still have 0 tds. Now I did do a few things to extend filters and the membrane the only expensive one. From my understanding is there is not very many filter manufactures and a lot of one are the same just have a different lable on them.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14355385#post14355385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
I just did a big maintenance job on it this weekend.

When I said this, what I meant to say is I replaced every filter but the DI (which I have done 'fairly recently').

Honestly, it was the first RO change I ever did :o

And I have had that unit almost since joining the club. I'd have to check the date on it, but suffice it to say I've had it more than 2 years for certain and in those two years I've been working with tank volumes adding up to at least more than 180 gallons up to about 300 gallons. Aside from water changes, I was evaporating about 25+ gallons per week. Figuring a conversion of about 1 gallon RO/DI for each gallon of water put through, that's 100 gallons per week through the first phases of the filter or in the neighborhood of 10,000 gallons in 2 years just from evap.

I regularly replace my sediment and charcoal filters and if I notice my TDS of the RO output bumping up to 1 or 2 TDS (before the DI), I just change them because they are cheap (usually they have some visible evidence that they are getting old, particularly the sediment filter which starts to noticably color pretty quick... and I definitely change that most often). Usually, that knocks that number back down to 0. When I noticed it didn't and knowing how long the RO was in there, I figured I should change it out.

I am assuming that the first 3 filters and the RO are doing most of the heavy lifting because my DI has never shown anything but 0 TDS and its never changed colors (and yes, I have verified that TDS reading with other meters). I did replace it a while ago figuring it had to have run its lifecycle, but who knows if that is wasted money.

I'm living in an older house now, so I'm expecting to get more junk out of the pipes, but it certainly seems to me that filters may not need to be replaced as often as people think, especially if you stay on replacing the sediment (particularly) and charcoal filters. I would also guess that running them more often will extend RO life as opposed to having them sit and using the fast flush thing whenever you do let it sit. Because of how much water I make, mine never sits for more than a few days without water going through.
 
Ok, so... I'm fairly sure this is just my ignorance of the filters, but Brian you said that you didn't replace your filters for two years... and then you went on to say that you changed some of them out regularly.

Can you clarify a bit? I'm thoroughly confused. ;) :D

Brandon
 
Sorry if not clear...although I might blame the reader on this one ;)

I didn't change my RO since buying it. The DI, I only changed 1x. The sediment I change probably every 2-3 months and the charcoal filters I've been changing every 4-6 or so. They are cheap, so I just do them more regularly and try to spare the expensive parts... this tactic seems to have worked so far.

Both my hand held and inline TDS meters almost always read 0 TDS output (until very recently) and I've never tested any nasties like phosphates, nitrates, or copper (which my house water most definitely has in it) in the output.
 
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