Anion Resin Only?

[KenRexford]

I get water delivered. The water is perfect except for high silicates. My wife won’t let me do RODI, so don’t even suggest it. So, instead I used Culligan water, the only downside being silicates, but that’s big. My thought is to use a pump to run the water from the ATO through a single chamber with anion resin and then back. Only one canister because of space. Any reason why that would be bad? It seems like the approach would replace silica with hydroxyl ions — is that bad or ok?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Depending on the tds, it could be terrible in many situations, such as making new salt water.
Do you know the tds?

An anion binding resin releases OH- When an anion such as silicate binds. So you will convert every anion to hydroxide and end up with water that is very high in pH and boosts alkalinity a lot.

Use a mixed bed.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I was a little strong in my first comment and edited it. It likely would not be as strong as kalkwasser, so could be used for top off in some scenarios.

 

[KenRexford]

I was a little strong in my first comment and edited it. It likely would not be as strong as kalkwasser, so could be used for top off in some scenarios

Any thoughts as to how much the pH might rise? Any thoughts on how to assess this before just going all in?

 

[KenRexford]

So could I put this on a controller to raise pH?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Depends entirely in the tds (concentration of anions, specifically).

100 ppm tds of sodium chloride = 100 mg/l = 1.7 mM or 0.0017 M.

Convert all that chloride to hydroxide and get 0.0017 M hydroxide, then the pH is 11.2 and the alk is 1.7 meq/L ( 4.8 dKH)

That would be ok for top off, but not making water change water.

 

[KenRexford]

Depends entirely in the tds (concentration of anions, specifically).

100 ppm tds of sodium chloride = 100 mg/l = 1.7 mM or 0.0017 M.

Convert all that chloride to hydroxide and get 0.0017 M hydroxide, then the pH is 11.2 and the alk is 1.7 meq/L ( 4.8 dKH)

That would be ok for top off, but not making water change water.

I am testing out the approach now. The thought of a resin reducing excess silica with a benefit of higher pH seems really win win. I am tracking the ATO pH levels. If the ATO is at, say, 10, does that seem like a decent level for this to work well? Would you be concerned with calcium dosing in this scenario, like balancing everything with higher calcium dosing levels or just keep everything else the same?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I am testing out the approach now. The thought of a resin reducing excess silica with a benefit of higher pH seems really win win. I am tracking the ATO pH levels. If the ATO is at, say, 10, does that seem like a decent level for this to work well? Would you be concerned with calcium dosing in this scenario, like balancing everything with higher calcium dosing levels or just keep everything else the same?

Do you have a full analysis if this water from the company? If not, Keep in mind that you are giving up in binding things like copper.

If you run some water through it and get a pH value, I can calculate the alk and then we can discuss the implications.

 

[Miami Reef]

My wife won’t let me do RODI

That’s insane. Why? It’s for your reef tank.

 

[KenRexford]

That’s insane. Why? It’s for your reef tank.

Are you married? Wife rules don’t have to make sense. She lets me have free rein on expenses so long as there’s no RODI mess, so I can live with bottled water in exchange for everything else! LOL

 

[KenRexford]

Do you have a full analysis if this water from the company? If not, Keep in mind that you are giving up in binding things like copper.

If you run some water through it and get a pH value, I can calculate the alk and then we can discuss the implications.

I sent a sample in a while ago for ICP. I don’t recall everything except that it looked great except for silicates. As to running through and getting pH, working on that.

 

[ptrick21186]

Are you married? Wife rules don’t have to make sense. She lets me have free rein on expenses so long as there’s no RODI mess, so I can live with bottled water in exchange for everything else! LOL

I know you said to no mention the RO but I have to lol. Is the reasoning behind this an expense thing or a space thing? Because honestly either way the setup I'm picturing is not only going to take up more space but will be more expensive in the long run then getting an RO system. Even the initial startup cost might be pretty close IMO.

Obviously everyone has there own home things they have to deal with but I would maybe try sitting the wife down and going over the pros and cons of purchasing a basic RO from say BRS. I promise you you'll find turning on an RO unit so much less of a hassle then having to transfer water around and constantly having to do (and spend money on) test for various things in your water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Are you married? Wife rules don’t have to make sense. She lets me have free rein on expenses so long as there’s no RODI mess, so I can live with bottled water in exchange for everything else! LOL

lol

 

[KenRexford]

I know you said to no mention the RO but I have to lol. Is the reasoning behind this an expense thing or a space thing? Because honestly either way the setup I'm picturing is not only going to take up more space but will be more expensive in the long run then getting an RO system. Even the initial startup cost might be pretty close IMO.

Obviously everyone has there own home things they have to deal with but I would maybe try sitting the wife down and going over the pros and cons of purchasing a basic RO from say BRS. I promise you you'll find turning on an RO unit so much less of a hassle then having to transfer water around and constantly having to do (and spend money on) test for various things in your water.

The expense is not the issue, because RODI is MUCH cheaper. There's history. When I started way back when, I used the method of some sort of a canister on a green hose hooked up to the sink. I don't even know if they make those any more. It was a disaster. So, because we had bottled water delivered anyway, I was told to never do that nonsense with the hose again. Fine. We don't even have a water dispenser any more, and the water delivery is solely for the fish tank. When my first tank bowed out (technically, this is the second tank, but same rocks, transferred fish/corals) and I had to do a rapid change, she managed to get a delivery of water that day while I was rushing an hour away to get a new 125g tank on the fly, and she takes pride in saving my fish. So, if I mention anything about RODI, she has flashbacks to the stupid green hose thing. I could mention a nice install in the basement, but that invades her laundry room (the logical place) or forces it into this weird room in a corner (perfect spot as an alternative), but then I would need to plumb into the floor, and that's a no go for sure, because, well, because.

 

[ptrick21186]

The expense is not the issue, because RODI is MUCH cheaper. There's history. When I started way back when, I used the method of some sort of a canister on a green hose hooked up to the sink. I don't even know if they make those any more. It was a disaster. So, because we had bottled water delivered anyway, I was told to never do that nonsense with the hose again. Fine. We don't even have a water dispenser any more, and the water delivery is solely for the fish tank. When my first tank bowed out (technically, this is the second tank, but same rocks, transferred fish/corals) and I had to do a rapid change, she managed to get a delivery of water that day while I was rushing an hour away to get a new 125g tank on the fly, and she takes pride in saving my fish. So, if I mention anything about RODI, she has flashbacks to the stupid green hose thing. I could mention a nice install in the basement, but that invades her laundry room (the logical place) or forces it into this weird room in a corner (perfect spot as an alternative), but then I would need to plumb into the floor, and that's a no go for sure, because, well, because.

LOL....understandable. I have mine in the laundry room as well. I just put a 3-way splitter off the fitting that goes to the cold water supply for the washing machine. It's got a little valve on it so I can just turn it on and off pretty easily. The RO unit itself it mounted to the concreate wall (unfinished part of the basement). It's out of my old ladies way for laundry. Only problem I have is lugging a 5 gallon bucket of water upstairs, but that's my problem not hers.

 

[KenRexford]

lol

I checked my old ATI test results for my Culligan water, and everything possible was "not detectable," except for silicon at 168.9 µg/l, which seems high. Culligan itself claims that it adds "trace amounts" of calcium, magnesium, and potassium to the water for taste, and obviously silicates per testing, but that small amount of trace seems OK to have, obviously, and nonetheless is "not detectable" per ATI at least. I switched to Triton a while back, and everything looks good except silicon, most recently 386.00 µg/l, which is wow.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I checked my old ATI test results for my Culligan water, and everything possible was "not detectable," except for silicon at 168.9 µg/l, which seems high. Culligan itself claims that it adds "trace amounts" of calcium, magnesium, and potassium to the water for taste, and obviously silicates per testing, but that small amount of trace seems OK to have, obviously, and nonetheless is "not detectable" per ATI at least. I switched to Triton a while back, and everything looks good except silicon, most recently 386.00 µg/l, which is wow.

Do you have a diatom problem? If not, Si is not a concern.

 

[KenRexford]

Do you have a diatom problem? If not, Si is not a concern.

I always have some gunk somewhere. My concern was more getting a Triton test result back with the speedometer buried into the red on silicates. That seems to make red gunk more common, right?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I always have some gunk somewhere. My concern was more getting a Triton test result back with the speedometer buried into the red on silicates. That seems to make red gunk more common, right?

Well, many of us regularly dose silicate (I did), and diatoms are not typically described as gunk (sounds more like cyano or dinos).

In any case, folks should not be concerned about any level of Si unless they have a demonstrated diatom problem.