Switching from Pressure Tank to Storage Tank - Need lots of Help!

T

ThaChad

New member
Hey all,

I have always used a 20g Pressure tank to store my RO water. But a 20g RO tank only stores about 15g of water and the last 10 gallons takes FOREVER to get out of the tank.

I do 20g water changes on my 90g tank as I also have about a 12g sump.

I was thinking of using a 20g storage bin like this:

http://www.plastic-mart.com/product/8579/20-gallon-plastic-water-tank

or something else if someone has a better suggestion? I do NOT want to use an open container, tote, tub or anything like that. The storage tank is in my Laundry/utility room and there is a lot of dust/lint from the dryer and HVAC.

I also use my RO for Drinking water and ICE maker, so I need to do whatever I need to do to make that work as well..

Obviously I will need a pump for both the drinking water/Ice Maker and tank top off, which are all 1/4" lines.

Obviously I'm going to start with the storage tank. After that, I don't know what all else I need? I assume I'll need a float valve to shut off the RO once the tank is full, I was looking at this: http://www.buckeyehydro.com/horizontal-float-switch/ an electronic float switch that would shut off the booster pump and solenoid valve, thus shutting off the RO, instead of a float valve that just shuts the water flow off, then having an electronic pressure switch to shut off the Booster Pump & solenoid. Thought's on that?

Thanks in advance for the help!

-ThaChad
 
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You are way over complicating this. You won't be able to run your ice maker and drinking water from a non pressurized water tank. You would need to add another pump to pressurize the line every time your ice maker makes ice or you want a drink of water.

Keep the pressure tank to feed your fridge/drinking water and tee off of it to fill the 20 gallon non pressurized as needed for the tank using a float valve to keep it from overflowing.

Does your RO have a built in shut-off valve now or are you turning it on and off manually every time to fill your 20 gallon pressurized tank?

What are you mixing the saltwater in right now for your 20 gal water changes?
 
jamie1981 said:
You are way over complicating this. You won't be able to run your ice maker and drinking water from a non pressurized water tank. You would need to add another pump to pressurize the line every time your ice maker makes ice or you want a drink of water.

Keep the pressure tank to feed your fridge/drinking water and tee off of it to fill the 20 gallon non pressurized as needed for the tank using a float valve to keep it from overflowing.

Does your RO have a built in shut-off valve now or are you turning it on and off manually every time to fill your 20 gallon pressurized tank?

What are you mixing the saltwater in right now for your 20 gal water changes?
Click to expand...


I don't have room for 2 tanks! I could put the small like 3g pressure tank that came with my RO back in service instead of the 20g pressure tank...

I mix the saltwater in 5g buckets. I fill the 5g bucket(s) from the pressure tank, then mix the salt.

My RO has a built in electronic pressure switch, as I a had booster pump, but the booster pump stopped boosting... I took it apart and could not find anything wrong with it, So I will be ordering a new one soon.

I liked the idea of using the electronic float/shut off vs a regular float that just closes off the opening to shut off the water, then the electronic pressure switch shuts off the booster.. But I guess with my auto top off in my sump and the ICE/water, I will have to have an electronic pressure switch, so I will just install a regular float valve in the 20g bulk tank.. The only problem with that setup is that the 3g pressure tank would back fill the 20g bulk tank when I use water from it.. But I guess that's not too big of a deal..

-ThaChad
 
Don't over complicate it your just creating too many fail points and more likely to have problems.

Setup like this
RO unit > 3g pressure tank > 1/4" tee
1 line to fridge/drinking water
1 line with inline manual valve to DI unit to fill 20 gallon storage tank with float valve on storage tank to cut water when its full so it doesn't overflow.

Use the valve before the DI to fill the 20 gallon as needed. It's better to completely purge the 3g pressure tank weekly anyway to keep the RO water fresh for ice/drinking.

I hope you aren't drinking the DI water it's not really that good for you.

What's your household water pressure? If it's 70psi or higher there is no need for the booster pump.

If you go the 20g route just buy a cheap high flow powerhead to mix the salt in the 20g
 
jamie1981 said:
Don't over complicate it your just creating too many fail points and more likely to have problems.

Setup like this
RO unit > 3g pressure tank > 1/4" tee
1 line to fridge/drinking water
1 line with inline manual valve to DI unit to fill 20 gallon storage tank with float valve on storage tank to cut water when its full so it doesn't overflow.

Use the valve before the DI to fill the 20 gallon as needed. It's better to completely purge the 3g pressure tank weekly anyway to keep the RO water fresh for ice/drinking.

I hope you aren't drinking the DI water it's not really that good for you.

What's your household water pressure? If it's 70psi or higher there is no need for the booster pump.

If you go the 20g route just buy a cheap high flow powerhead to mix the salt in the 20g
Click to expand...

No I don't drink the DI water. The DI filter is separate from the RO. The RO fill's the tank, then from the tank it T's off, one side goes to a carbon filter then to the Fridge/Ice and Water and the other to the DI filter, which then T's off after the DI filter to a manual valve to fill a bucket and to the Auto Top off in the sump.

My house hold pressure is only 60 PSI. I was not planning on mixing the salt in the 20 holding tank, but rather to just pump it out into 5g buckets as I do now and mix the salt manually.

-ThaChad
 
If you buy a good pump on ebay it comes with the pressure switch and solenoid cut off.

Have my ro/di set up to a 10G pale for my ATO with a float and it works flawless and fool proof.

Trick is having it set to a 24 timer and it only comes on for 30 minutes a day. In case of electronic or mechanical failure it doesn't make a mess. No issues in 2 years bucket always full. Tank evaporates about 1-2 G a day
 
Your better off putting an inline filter on house pressure for your ice maker and separating the two systems completely.
 
outy said:
Your better off putting an inline filter on house pressure for your ice maker and separating the two systems completely.
Click to expand...

The fridge probably already has a sediment/carbon filter built in. He's wanting to use RO for drinking water not just filtered tap water as your suggesting.
 
jamie1981 said:
RO/DI makes terrible drinking water RO does not.
Click to expand...

I will argue that. My own reasons are of such. Taste like crap for one. Two, its a waste of water.

A quick search shows plenty of contradictory examples.

Drinking RO water


The answer is: you shouldn't drink RO water as a regular form of hydration. It is acidic and natural water is alkaline. Acidic water will, despite what the guys say that are selling RO home water systems, leach minerals from your body.
Click to expand...

http://www.waterbenefitshealth.com/reverse-osmosis-water.html

The following are three of the main disadvantages of drinking R.O. water:

1. The water is demineralized.

Since most mineral particles (including sodium, calcium, magnesium, magnesium, and iron) are larger than water molecules, they are removed by the semi-permeable membrane of the R.O. system.

Even though you may find some contradictory information online about the health benefits of reverse osmosis water, I am convinced that drinking de-mineralized water is not healthy.

The World Health Organization conducted a study that revealed some of the health risks associated with drinking demineralized water.

Just a few of the risks include gastrointestinal problems, bone density issues, joint conditions, and cardiovascular disease. (See reference below to review the WHO study online.)

Removing the naturally occurring minerals also leaves the water tasteless. Many people thus have to add liquid minerals to their R.O. water to improve the taste.

2. The water is usually acidic.


One of the primary reasons R.O. water is unhealthy is because removing the minerals makes the water acidic (often well below 7.0 pH). Drinking acidic water will not help maintain a healthy pH balance in the blood, which should be slightly alkaline.



Depending on the source water and the specific R.O. system used, the pH of R.O. water can be anywhere from about 3.0 pH (very acidic) to 7.0 pH (neutral). Most of the R.O. water I have tested has been in the range of 5.0 to 6.0 pH. The only time I have ever seen R.O. water testing at 7.0 is when the R.O. system had the added remineralization element.

In the natural health and medical communities, acidosis in the body is considered an underlying cause of most degenerative diseases.

In fact, in 1931, Dr. Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for discovering the cause of cancer. In essence, he said it was caused by a lack of cellular oxygenation due to acidosis in the body.


Medical research has also determined that drinking acidic water (as well as other acidic beverages) will often cause a mineral imbalance in the body.

According to the WHO study, low mineral water increased diuresis (the production of urine by the kidneys) 20% on average and markedly increased the elimination of sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and magnesium ions from the body.

3. Some critical contaminants are not removed.


While reverse osmosis is effective for removing a variety of contaminants in water, the reverse osmosis membrane alone does NOT remove volatile organic chemical (VOCs), chlorine and chloramines, pharmaceuticals, and a host of other synthetic chemicals found in municipal water.

However, some R.O. systems now have multi-stage filtration media (in addition to the R.O. membrane), such as Activated Carbon, which does remove chlorine and certain pesticides.
Click to expand...
 
Well OK then
Yes reverse osmosis water is devoid of minerals, but ingesting mineral-free purified water is not harmful to your body. It's far better than drinking tap water that who knows what is in it.
 
jamie1981 said:
It's far better than drinking tap water that who knows what is in it.
Click to expand...

If we are getting technical, I would say it depends on what tap water.

Mine is better then bottled water out of the tap at 27ppm.

If your in Flint Michigan, then you have a point.

Generally speaking it makes the water taste like crap and can strip minerals from you when hydrating, all while wasting water in the process.

Generally speaking using a sediment filter and carbon blocks is perfectly fine for those worried about most tap water.
 
Okay, Firstly. Outy, Your tap water is better than 90%+ the rest of the country. As we've already established, Mine is almost 400 PPM TDS..

That said, I am not looking for opinions on drinking RO water. I was strictly asking about setting up a bulk storage tank and what I need to do to supply water to drinking faucet/Auto Top Off/Ice Maker.

Looking here: https://filterdirect.com/aquatec-de....html?osCsid=451676173ed499aecece82180e58ed99

This pump should work to supply on-demand water pressure, for Faucet/Ice/Auto Top Off, even for filling 5g buckets to mix saltwater. Yes?

-ThaChad
 
drinking RO water is fine, drinking 0TDS RO/DI water is not recommended , but is usually fine if you eat a healthy balanced diet.
 
ThaChad said:
Okay, Firstly. Outy, Your tap water is better than 90%+ the rest of the country. As we've already established, Mine is almost 400 PPM TDS..

That said, I am not looking for opinions on drinking RO water. I was strictly asking about setting up a bulk storage tank and what I need to do to supply water to drinking faucet/Auto Top Off/Ice Maker.

Looking here: https://filterdirect.com/aquatec-de....html?osCsid=451676173ed499aecece82180e58ed99

This pump should work to supply on-demand water pressure, for Faucet/Ice/Auto Top Off, even for filling 5g buckets to mix saltwater. Yes?

-ThaChad
Click to expand...

Since it appears that you are convinced about using a separate pump/switch/valve just to make ice and get a drink of water instead of the standard RO pressure tank, yes it should work. But the noise of that thing kicking on every time the ice maker cycles or someone gets a drink of water would drive me nuts.
 
You will also need to make sure that your storage container is food grade and designed for drinking water. Run a carbon filter after the storage tank as well.
 
ThaChad said:
what I need to do to supply water to drinking faucet/Auto Top Off/Ice Maker.
Click to expand...

two separate units would be better. One for reef and use the pressure tank for drinking/ice.


Best bet if you will only do 1, is to run a T on output going to pressure tank for drinking/ice side, and use a one way valve before pressure tank to keep tank full when filling the 20G storage.

Use a float on 20G and it will kick off pressure switch and water on/off solenoid.
 
jamie1981 said:
But the noise of that thing kicking on every time the ice maker cycles or someone gets a drink of water would drive me nuts.
Click to expand...

Agreed. They are pretty quiet.

For my top off, I run it 30 min on a timer in the morning. Fills 10g container and remains off.

Not sure I would want it on at all times either.

And Chad you will want a one way valve separately on 20G tank side. just past the T. It will help the pump not turn on and off so much.
 
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