Awful Well Water: your help needed!

[TheHarold]

Has anyone found an inline RO degasser, to remove all that excess CO2 from well water before it hits the DI resin?

I get under 75 gallons of RODI per canister of DI before the TDS gets to above 3, and with ~400 gallons of reefs, it is very tiresome and expensive to constantly replace resin. I go through about 100 gallons of water a week.

First I talked to @Bulk Reef Supply, and bought their very fine carbon blocks to bring incoming TDS down. Did not work at all. Then, they suggested a booster pump to improve membrane performance- it brought the TDS down one or two, but was not effective. After that, they suggested their Pro Cation/Anion/Mixed resins, with which I had even worse results. Their last suggestion was buying another DI canister, to make sure I am utilizing all of the prior resin to its full extent- no effect. I’m not complaining about their customer service- they are excellent and knowledgeable, but clearly this is not working.

Overall- I have spent a few hundred bucks trying to improve the RODI performance and have nothing to show for it.

After prefilters the TDS is ~500. Post membrane is 11. 50-75 gallons of RODI until the tds is above 3 and I need to change it.

Help me, RODI gods!

 

[Ubergroover]

google Membrane Degasification....some options...At my job we use either heat or vacuum. sounds expensive also...good luck

 

[TheHarold]

google Membrane Degasification....some options...At my job we use either heat or vacuum. sounds expensive also...good luck

I would be fine with running a vacuum pump, those aren’t too expensive... but I just see commercial membrane degasification units which are gigantic and very expensive.

 

[mfinn]

@Reef-junky posted some info that might be of some use on a thread I did.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/playing-with-different-di-resins.505592/

Also, I've seen tips where you setup a de-gassing barrel.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

Has anyone found an inline RO degasser, to remove all that excess CO2 from well water before it hits the DI resin?

I get under 75 gallons of RODI per canister of DI before the TDS gets to above 3, and with ~400 gallons of reefs, it is very tiresome and expensive to constantly replace resin. I go through about 100 gallons of water a week.

First I talked to @Bulk Reef Supply, and bought their very fine carbon blocks to bring incoming TDS down. Did not work at all. Then, they suggested a booster pump to improve membrane performance- it brought the TDS down one or two, but was not effective. After that, they suggested their Pro Cation/Anion/Mixed resins, with which I had even worse results. Their last suggestion was buying another DI canister, to make sure I am utilizing all of the prior resin to its full extent- no effect. I’m not complaining about their customer service- they are excellent and knowledgeable, but clearly this is not working.

Overall- I have spent a few hundred bucks trying to improve the RODI performance and have nothing to show for it.

After prefilters the TDS is ~500. Post membrane is 11. 50-75 gallons of RODI until the tds is above 3 and I need to change it.

Help me, RODI gods!

brs is not a water purification company.

https://spectrapure.com/manuals/CO2_SYSTEM.pdf

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

btw, your rejection is 97% right now. that’s getting low.

 

[theMeat]

Would recommend a whole house water filter first. Then take it from there

 

[TheHarold]

btw, your rejection is 97% right now. that’s getting low.

It’s a new spectrapure membrane; I was going to call them tomorrow. It’s advertised at 99% at my pressure/temperature parameters.

 

[TheHarold]

Would recommend a whole house water filter first. Then take it from there

It goes through a water softener first, is that what you mean?

 

[TheHarold]

brs is not a water purification company.

https://spectrapure.com/manuals/CO2_SYSTEM.pdf

I have a spectrapure membrane. I would be interested in an already-made version of that, a degassing tower.

 

[Pntbll687]

It goes through a water softener first, is that what you mean?

I have well water that is heavy in sediment. I run my house water through a Culligan fine sediment filter before going to the unit. It made a huge difference in di life.

If it's c02 gas, you can always have the RO pump to a holding container, run a power head in there with plenty of agitation for a day or two before pumping to the di canisters. Some people set the holding barrel above the di and gravity feed it through.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

It’s a new spectrapure membrane; I was going to call them tomorrow. It’s advertised at 99% at my pressure/temperature parameters.

It goes through a water softener first, is that what you mean?

they meticulously test their products and their rejection rate is 99%. so no worries there. do you have new sediment and/or carbon? what micron?

yes, a softer before is beneficial.

have you tested your water?

 

[theMeat]

It goes through a water softener first, is that what you mean?

Water softener does just that. Doesn’t necessarily lower tds, sometimes can make it worse. Was is your tap water tds?

 

[TheHarold]

Water softener does just that. Doesn’t necessarily lower tds, sometimes can make it worse. Was is your tap water tds?

Post prefilters is 500, I don’t have the meter on the tap. I’ll check in a bit.

 

[TheHarold]

they meticulously test their products and their rejection rate is 99%. so no worries there. do you have new sediment and/or carbon? what micron?

yes, a softer before is beneficial.

have you tested your water?

Sediment 1 micron, then a 1 micron and .5 micron carbon block. They’re not old at all but I do have new ones on the way.

I have tested my RODI water without the ati ICP test, which was a waste. Should have done my tap or post membrane.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

Sediment 1 micron, then a 1 micron and .5 micron carbon block. They’re not old at all but I do have new ones on the way.

I have tested my RODI water without the ati ICP test, which was a waste. Should have done my tap or post membrane.

what rodi unit is this? how many di cartridges do you have?

i usually recommend people have their well water tested for co2, vocs, bacteria, metals and inorganic chemicals.

 

[Chrysemys]

I can’t find it in the thread are you certain that CO2 gas is your issue? Have you tested for CO2. Maybe I just missed it. Curious what ppm you have. The higher any gas saturation is the easier it is to degas. This could help direct your plans for fixing it.

 

[theMeat]

If you have 500ppm pre membrane, curious to see what tap has.

Putting a 1 micron, followed by another 1 micron not useful. Better off doing 5, then 1 so they last longer. Takes a lil experimenting to see what size contaminates you have.

How do you know you have c02 issue?

 

[badsmitty]

You need to make a CO2 reactor it's cheap and easy to do inspect your peers website they have a blueprint on how to make it I live in an area with well water and I was tearing through d I cartridges after I made my own CO2 reactor I was getting 10 times more life out of my d i cartridges

 

[Water Dog]

While prefilters protect the membrane, they do very little in terms of reducing your incoming TDS... that job is for the RO membrane. So let’s assume your incoming TDS is 500, the 99% rejection rate Spectrapure membrane should be yielding you around 5 TDS, not the 11 you’re getting. So something clearly seems to be off. When you change prefilters, do you flush each prefilter properly for 3 to 5 minutes each downstream, starting with the sediment filter, then the first carbon block, followed by the second carbon block, all while bypassing your membrane throughout the flushing process? I’m wondering if your membrane is fouled somehow.

As far as preserving DI life, you’re on a well so CO2 will be an issue. Is it posible for you to store your RO water in a bin, degas it with an air stone overnight, then gravity feed it or pump it through your DI canisters? That will go a long way towards preserving your DI resin life by protecting it from CO2.