Better water quality

[OA3B]

Hello fellow reefers

I'm having a hard time trying to achieve zero tds water. The unit I’m using is aquatic life RO buddy 100 gpd. I am using DI resin to make it a 4-stage. I also have the aquatic life booster pump so that I can have good pressure. When I pack the DI resin, I run it for a while and then I’ll check to make sure it’s still packed tightly, no channeling. I even thought by running 2 DI cartridges would help, nope. I also added another carbon cartridge, I read on here that will help, but not in my case. Yet in still I have at least 4 tds reading. I’m burning through DI resin like crazy.
Thanks in advance with y’all suggestions on how to get better water quality.

 

[mattdg]

It sure sounds like you are bypassing your RO filter. Double check to make sure everything came attached in the proper order.

 

[Water Dog]

What’s the TDS out of the tap?

 

[OA3B]

What’s the TDS out of the tap?

~329

 

[Reefnoobz90]

Can you post a picture of how the system is setup? Like tap into the prefilter, then carbon, then ro, then into di stage?

 

[King Turkey]

that's is real high from 329 to only 4. I go from 800 tds to 2tds before I even hit di. I run bulk reef supply 5 stage. but something seems off like others said like it is not hitting the ro stage.

 

[OA3B]

Don’t judge me on my non-colored tubing or photography skills (lol) the date of install on the filters are 10/26 carbon/sediment and 12/8 extra carbon

 

[Water Dog]

Not sure what RO membrane Aquaticlife uses, but a Dow Filmtec 100 GPD membrane has a 98% rejection rate. So at 329 TDS out of the tap, your post RO TDS before it goes into the DI resin should be around 7.

When you initially pack the DI resin and “let it run for awhile”, that’s running with water out of the RO membrane, not with raw tapwater, right?

 

[OA3B]

Not sure what RO membrane Aquaticlife uses, but a Dow Filmtec 100 GPD membrane has a 98% rejection rate. So at 329 TDS out of the tap, your post RO TDS before it goes into the DI resin should be around 7.

When you initially pack the DI resin and “let it run for awhile”, that’s running with water out of the RO membrane, not with raw tapwater, right?

Yeah, after the membrane. At the start of producing fresh water the tds is crazy high, so I would have waste water the first 45 seconds or so, but never hitting 0.

 

[Water Dog]

Have you ever been able to get 0 TDS with your current set up? At 326 TDS out of the tap, I’d imagine that TDS creep would do a serious number on your horizonal DI cylinders, quickly depleting your DI resin. A DI bypass valve would do wonders for your situation.

For an explanation of TDS creep and a DI bypass valve, read this.

 

[OA3B]

Have you ever been able to get 0 TDS with your current set up? At 326 TDS out of the tap, I’d imagine that TDS creep would do a serious number on your horizonal DI cylinders, quickly depleting your DI resin. A DI bypass valve would do wonders for your situation.

For an explanation of TDS creep and a DI bypass valve, read this.

Here is the product features of the booster pump I’m using, could this very well be that my pump is malfunctioning?

 

[Greg P]

Here is the product features of the booster pump I’m using

Please re-read the info Water Dog posted.

I believe he gave you enough info to fix your issues

Have you ever been able to get 0 TDS with your current set up? At 326 TDS out of the tap, I’d imagine that TDS creep would do a serious number on your horizonal DI cylinders, quickly depleting your DI resin. A DI bypass valve would do wonders for your situation.

For an explanation of TDS creep and a DI bypass valve, read this.

 

[OA3B]

Please re-read the info Water Dog posted.

I believe he gave you enough info to fix your issues

I get and understand the info. Sometimes I just over think things. Been battling this issue for some time and getting frustrated.