Spectrapure issue

RussellHill

RussellHill

Member
I have a new(2 week old) Spectrapure Maxcap 90GPD. For 2 weeks it has been super consistent at:

TDS IN 123-126ppm
TDS out of RO 3ppm
TDS in to 1st DI 2ppm
TDS out 0ppm

I turned it on today and flushed it but now the last two are:
TDS in to 1st DI 2ppm
TDS out 2ppm

Any idea what's going on?
 
Did you let it run for a few minutes to settle. The TDS on initial startup usually will be a bit above 0 and then within a few minutes it usually drops. If it's not dropping, what is your tap water pressure? What is your rejection ratio? I assume you aren't on well water? Does your water company use chloramines? This is different than chlorine. I did a search and checked out the drinking water reports for Raleigh and they don't list chlorine or chloramines which leads me to believe they aren't publishing the full details of what's in the tap water. They do however mention Co2 which can degrade membranes in a hurry as can chloramines.
 
Pressure is 55-60psi. My main concern is that there is no drop in TDS in the last filters and is above 0 at the outlet. To see if it would settle down I let it run for about ten gallons of product water. Did not drop.
 
RussellHill said:
Pressure is 55-60psi. My main concern is that there is no drop in TDS in the last filters and is above 0 at the outlet. To see if it would settle down I let it run for about ten gallons of product water. Did not drop.
Click to expand...

Again, what is your rejection ratio? You should check and see if there are chloramines in your water. Co2 is listed as being in your water.. All of which can kill a DI cartridge in a hurry.

Lastly, post this in the Spectrapure forum but without knowing answers to the above questions, it will be impossible to narrow down why your DI is exhausted as quickly as it appears to be.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=229
 
The rejection rate is 97.6%, I do believe there are chloramines from info I've read but certainly this would not kill a filter with less than 1000 gallons put through it.

If my out put is 2 ppm should I not use it?
 
RussellHill said:
The rejection rate is 97.6%, I do believe there are chloramines from info I've read but certainly this would not kill a filter with less than 1000 gallons put through it.

If my out put is 2 ppm should I not use it?
Click to expand...

A 1000 gallons?? That's a lot! Especially if you have chloramines in your water. I get less than that out of my first stage DI on my Spectrapure Maxcap UHE unit without chloramines in my water. Also, I would get a Spectrapure 99% rejection membrane next time around. That extra 2% can make a big difference in cartridge longevity.

Since you think you have chloramines, another filter in front of your Spectrapure with carbon will help remove the chloramines before your filter which prolongs cartridge life. Lastly, you really want to replace that first DI cartridge as soon as you start reading TDS. As soon as my first DI reads 1, it's removed and replaced. This prolongs the life of the 2nd DI. You will find that the 2nd DI will climb past 0 TDS really fast if you don't change the first DI once it's exhausted. And just for clarification, once any of the DI's start reading 1 TDS, they are exhausted.

Lastly, when I asked about the rejection ration, I was talking about how much RODI water to waste water.. I.E. 2:1 or 3:1??
 
Well I have only made 200 gallons of RO/DI . Don't know what I was thinking. I have it at 2:1 I believe. This first DI sensor had a reading of 1 from the very beginning. Maybe the DI cartridges had been stored too long at Marine Depot. I read that if they sit too long they will be greatly reduced in effectiveness.
 
RussellHill said:
Well I have only made 200 gallons of RO/DI . Don't know what I was thinking. I have it at 2:1 I believe. This first DI sensor had a reading of 1 from the very beginning. Maybe the DI cartridges had been stored too long at Marine Depot. I read that if they sit too long they will be greatly reduced in effectiveness.
Click to expand...

That is true although MD does go through a lot of cartridges so I doubt they sit there too long. I assume you're using the spectrapure cartridges? I would investigate your tap water a little more. Run a chlorine test and call your water company to see if they have chloramines. You may need to add a chloramine prefilter in front of your RODI which is basically a dedicated carbon pre-filter.
 
It's funny some say chloramine will ruin your Membranes and some say no. I have seen posts from Spectrapure that say it has no affect on the membranes.
 
Skim said:
It's funny some say chloramine will ruin your Membranes and some say no. I have seen posts from Spectrapure that say it has no affect on the membranes.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see those posts. The carbon cartridge helps eliminate Chloramines but the standard one will exhaust it self really quickly when chloramines are present. This is why a separate carbon cannister is recommended for water systems that have chloramines in them. This carbon cannister goes in front of the RODI and eliminates the chloramines before they ever hit the RODI filters and carbon is much cheaper to replace than the RODI cartridges.
 
slief said:
I'd like to see those posts. The carbon cartridge helps eliminate Chloramines but the standard one will exhaust it self really quickly when chloramines are present. This is why a separate carbon cannister is recommended for water systems that have chloramines in them. This carbon cannister goes in front of the RODI and eliminates the chloramines before they ever hit the RODI filters and carbon is much cheaper to replace than the RODI cartridges.
Click to expand...

I just figured this out the hard way.. Went thru two membranes in less then a year and a half..
 
Mayberry said:
Can these units be run on well water? What is the minimum water pressure it can run on?
Click to expand...

They can be absolutely be run on well water just fine. This actually quite common because there are often things in well water than aren't good for tank such as metals and other toxins. There are however some things to take into consideration with well water and RODI's. First and most importantly is that well water typically has a high level of Co2 in it. It would be something you would want to test for in advance because if you have Co2, you will want to setup a cistern (large holding tank) for your well water that will allow the Co2 to outgas from the water. I would add an air stone fed by a high quality pressure rated air pump so that you can augment the outgassing or at the very least some kind of good submersible flow pump to create sufficient surface agitation so you can get rid of the Co2.

This tank would be solely used to stage and outgas the Co2 in your water before feeding it to your RODI. RODI's typically like a minimum of 50-60 psi for best cartridge life. The higher the better as it improves the rejection ration and cartridge longevity. My tap water is about 60 PSI but with my booster pump, I am at 80 PSI and get really long life out of my cartridges despite my extremely high TDS and 1:1 waste to DI water ratio. Even with low water pressure, a booster pump will overcome that and provide ideal pressure for your RODI unit and many of the better RODI units like mine have a booster pump included. You will want a decent feed pump to supply the water from the cistern to your RODI as well as a booster pump on your RODI to maintain decent pressure. All of the above will insure you get maximum life out of your cartridges as Co2 can kill cartridges in a hurry. if you are considering adding an RODI which is a great thing when it comes to these tanks, I would suggest contacting Spectrapure as they will lend some guidance as well. Feel free to relay the info that I passed along here too.
 
RussellHill said:
I have a new(2 week old) Spectrapure Maxcap 90GPD. For 2 weeks it has been super consistent at:

TDS IN 123-126ppm
TDS out of RO 3ppm
TDS in to 1st DI 2ppm
TDS out 0ppm

I turned it on today and flushed it but now the last two are:
TDS in to 1st DI 2ppm
TDS out 2ppm

Any idea what's going on?
Click to expand...

Russell,

You do know that we offer free technical support right? Can you obtain your total water quality report from your municipal water supplier? I will be able to tell you exactly what is going on.

Email the report to support@spectrapure.com

Jeremy
 
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