RO for Tank water

Nu2SW

New member
Hello, Got a question folks.

My mother in law has a Home RO unit from www.aquakleenproducts.com. I emailed there support team and asked them why my mother in law has to put some sort of "salt" in the tank.

this is what they said.

Dear Mr. Edwin,


The Aquakleen water refinement system, as is the case with most refiners,
use salt (or in some cases potassium), to regenerate the unit. Basically,
the way it works is that the refiner system, which is the tall chrome one,
has resin beads inside of it, along with carbon, gravel and other media. The
resin beads are the one that reduce the hardness in the water, but while
doing this, hardness particles are attached to the beads, preventing the ion
exchange process to work properly, by serving as a barrier between the resin
and the incoming hardness particles. It is for this reason that the systems
must regenerate. When regenerating, the system takes in salt from the brine
tank (the black tank by the refiner), and uses this to remove the attached
particles of hardness from the resin. Once regeneration is completed, the
resin beads are essentially clean, and capable of capturing hardness once
again. In other words, lack of salt (or potassium), would prevent the system
from doing its job.

Now, the question is do you guys think this is OK for tank water. Would the salt be taken out of the carbon and such filters.

???

thanks
 
I am a little confused. The system that they are describing is a a water softener - not a RO system. I have a water softener, and my TDS reading is any where from 700-900 ppm.

It is possible that your mom also has an RO system. It may be possible to use just RO system without the DI. The only way to know if test the water with a TDS meter. In Davis, I would not use just an RO system because our water is way too hard. However, Rich has just an RO system, and his tank is gorgeous.

Bring a sample of water to the meeting the MARS meeting on Friday. The topic will be water chemistry/ water quality. I am sure someone will have a meter there. Make sure you store the water in a clean container.

Minh
 
OK thanks minh.

Just to clarify its a water softner system outside the house and then inside the house it has and RO system hooked up under the sink. I also belive that the outside unit has a RO system attached to it also.

I was just kinda curious what kinda issues i may have with this "Salt" they use in the tank. I should stop by home depot and see what kind it is.
 
Edwin -

The salt they use is just plain on NaCl (table salt). Only thing is that it's course or in pellet form. BTW - the salt in ocean is also mostly NaCl.

The real question is will the RO remove enough of the other unwanted stuff in the tank. I can tell you that my TDS reading after just a the RO is somewhere around 35 ppm. It's my DI that brings it down to 0 ppm. BTW - I believe Shawn (sagitariuscbc) uses just a Culligan whole house RO system for his tank (another gorgeous tank). So it is possible to use solely RO in some cases. But you need to test your water and make an educated guess. Just because your TDS is 10 ppm, it doesnt necessarily mean that it's bad. 10 ppm of NaCl is no big deal. But 10 ppm of phosphate can be dangerous. Most of us strive for 0 ppm because we know it doesnt have anything.

Minh
 
Ok great, thanks minh your the best. You are always full of so much information.

I do have a water sample from her house in a plastic baggy but I will get a fresh one friday and see if I can make it on friday and get the water tested.

As for the phosphates, What is considered bad levels. Anything above 0. :-) How does that ROWAphos remover work. Anyone ever use it?
 
I don't know what is considered bad level for phosphate. But I know most of the advanced reefkeeper try to keep their phosphate level at zero.

In regard to testing for phosphate, I heard the the Rowaphos test kits are MUCH more accurate than any other test kit. I personally use the Salifert test kit because I have one.

Rowaphos is a iron based phosphate remover. (Ferrous is iron). You can read more about it at http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2004/review.htm . In my opinion, there is no significant different between RowaPhos and Phosban phosphate remover. With either product, you will want to get a fluidized bed reactor. Two Little Fishies Phosban Reactor 150 is $35 from MD. I have seen some at yourreef.com. If you add in shipping, they will probably be able the same price.

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TL4311

In my opinion - running a phosphate removing media in a just a bag is not very efficient. I probably wouldn't eben try it.

Minh
 
The system you are talking about is much like mine. I also have a neutralizer. I used to just RO water. When I switched to RO/DI algae went down as well as TDS. The DI is where the phosphorus is removed.

From what I remember Shawn uses just a DI unit without RO.
 
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