RO/DI Help

[rread16]

Im currently cycling a 65 gallon tank with ro water that i got from a friend. Ive tested my houses water supply and my city water was 286 TDS, but also have a well that i use to water my garden and stuff and that came up as 15 TDS. I can easily hook up my well to a slop sink in my basement. SO my question is when Invest in a RO/DI unit should I hook it up to my city water or well water? Also if I should do well water would i not need as many stages since the input would only be 15 TDS?

 

[tomreefer]

with regarding TDS 286 verse 15 TDS. THe 15 actually could be worse than 286. Without actually knowing what the contaminants are in your case. I check my towns water source test chart by law they need to supply one. With this you can tell what is actually in the water. Usually well water has a lot of iron and Co2 which would make your resin deplete faster their is a fix for that though if this is your case.

I would hook up to the city water. Like I said well water usually has C02 in it and will deplete your resin awful quick. I would get a 4 stage RO/DI unit from spectrapure. I would get .5 Micron sediment, at least a 1 micron carbon and 98% rejection membrane as well as DI.

THe sediment filters and carbon filters remove particles first than to membrane so the better micron filters protect the membrane. The best option would be .2 sediment filter with a .5 carbon block but the sediment filter would need to be changed more in that configuration. I recommend the .5 micron and .5 carbon block.

 

[hkgar]

The TDS level you want for your reef water is 0 - zero. The higher the TDS level of the input water to the RO/DI the tougher on the filters. I would hook up the well, if, in fact, it is 15 TDS. Seems very low for water coming from the ground. I have a well and the tds is 500.

The minimum filters you need are:
Sediment filter
Carbon Block
RO membrane (50 gpd may be all you need)
DI cannister - 2 would be preferred.
I would get a dual in line TDS meter to measure the TDS after RO and after 1st DI cartfridge. When the sfter DI TDS reads 1 move the second DI into 1st position and change the resin in what was DI 1 and put it in second position.

 

[tomreefer]

The higher the TDS level of the input water to the RO/DI the tougher on the filters actually not true. A high tds can be a result of hard water. TDS only tells us the total solids in the water period. 15 can be far worse than 286. Sure the more solids the filters need to take out can lead to filters being replaced more maybe again depending what the RO needs to take out

 

[Member No. 1]

If you go the well route, you will need to degas the Co2 from the water after it goes thru the RO membrane, but before it goes into the DI. If not you will burn thru DI resin. I have a well and if I don't degas, I might get 100 gallons before the resin is shot. Now, I've made over 300 gallons, and the resin doesn't show any signs of changing color. TDS still 0
Here is how I do it:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2548783