I bought a used coralife Pure-Flo II 4 stage 50gpd RODI unit. I know different people have different feelings on what brand to buy, but I beleive for the $40 I spent, the guts alone are worth $40, and I can make it what I want. I was told he modified the flow restrictor to make it a 90 GPD system. I can see he did, because there is a new elbow coming out of the membrane housing. This is where coralife stores their restrictor. So now the elbow is wide open with no restrictor. The person I bought it from inserted a capillary flow restrictor in the 1/4" line. I have it set up and started to run it. I have new filters and membrane. I am getting a 1 to 1 ratio waste to pure water. I am going from 186 PPM to a 7PPM TDS. I want to put a flow restrictor to get to about a 4:1 ratio. I live in Buffalo. Does anyone know where I can get a restrictor locally? I am having trouble finding somehwere. I talked to a couple LFS but nothing so far. I do not wnat to pay the rediculous shipping charges for something you can send in an envelope for $0.45.
RO/DI help
- Thread starter lyrad7791
- Start date
I don't live in WNY, so I'm not sure what you have out there available to you, but you can usually get these parts from any water purification company (check the yellowpages/Google search). It'll probably be more than it would cost to buy one from the internet and have it shipped.
I just checked BRS, you can get a 75GPD one from them for $5.99 with a $2.95 shipping charge. Unfortunately they don't have a 50GPD. Might be worth upgrading to a 75GPD membrane anyways though, if it's a standard 10" housing. 50GPD is painfully slow! For the price you paid, even with a new membrane you're going to be ahead of the game. Definitely fix that 1:1 ratio, in my travels of researching RO systems I've seen multiple vendors talking about 4:1 waste/product ratios being a manufacturer spec. Not enough water flow over the membrane causes scaling and fouling/failing prematurely.
I just checked BRS, you can get a 75GPD one from them for $5.99 with a $2.95 shipping charge. Unfortunately they don't have a 50GPD. Might be worth upgrading to a 75GPD membrane anyways though, if it's a standard 10" housing. 50GPD is painfully slow! For the price you paid, even with a new membrane you're going to be ahead of the game. Definitely fix that 1:1 ratio, in my travels of researching RO systems I've seen multiple vendors talking about 4:1 waste/product ratios being a manufacturer spec. Not enough water flow over the membrane causes scaling and fouling/failing prematurely.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Wht brand/model/rate of membrane is in there? Do you want to keep that membrane or put something else in? How old is it?
What brand and type of prefilters are on it?
What brand and type of prefilters are on it?
They r the coralife prefilters and the membrane is a new 90 gpd spectra pure. I would like to keep it. Just don't understand the 1:1 ratio. It has a ristrictor in it I am just not sure what it was rated for. I took the membrane out and placed it back in to make sure it was in right. But I am still getting 1:1 ratio.
der_wille_zur_macht
Team RC
Either the membrane is hosed then or the flow restrictor is wrong (or you have some really odd off the wall condition in your tap water). I'd suggest working directly with Spectrapure to get the right flow restrictor as a starting point:
http://www.spectrapure.com/st_replac_p3.htm#flow
I'd also take the carbon prefilters out and look for model numbers or other identifying info on them, then ask Spectrapure if they were appropriate for that membrane.
http://www.spectrapure.com/st_replac_p3.htm#flow
I'd also take the carbon prefilters out and look for model numbers or other identifying info on them, then ask Spectrapure if they were appropriate for that membrane.
