Eating Up RO Membranes

I admittedly didn’t read all 8 pages….

your chlorine report doesn’t look bad IMO. Regular carbon blocks should take care of that. Always test for chlorine breakthrough as chlorine will destroy the RO membrane.

I have a Spectrapure maxcap 180gpd. I installed a big blue carbon after my sediment filters. I’ve processed around 15,000 gallons, producing 7,500 gallons of RO through the big blue and my two RO membranes. Rejection is still 99.99%.
Thats awesome and considerably more than I'm producing. You have your unit in a climate controlled environment?
 
I would love to hear from other Florida reefers and have them share their experience with this problem I'm having. Is it an isolated incident which would then rule out the chlorine issue and we would then assume the heat or faulty equipment.
I ment just anion before everything to just strip chlorine. The usual resins after. I would have to crunch some numbers but if you did it that way you could probably get at least 1000 gallons before it exhausted. All other issues aside.

Edit: Also just thinking about some of my trips to Fl. If I remember right you guys have really hard water. Some people have to dedicate a water softener system before filtration. How long did membranes last for you in the past?
 
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I'm going into my 4th Membrane in just over a year. Anion is about the same cost as the other resins from what I see online. Trying to see the savings and how it would translate other than protecting the Membrane. I'm trying to think back several years and I don't recall having this issue. I'm really thinking it could be equipment malfunction, meaning a warped housing or something similar. Just guessing again. Will know soon enough when the new system arrives
 
I'm going into my 4th Membrane in just over a year. Anion is about the same cost as the other resins from what I see online. Trying to see the savings and how it would translate other than protecting the Membrane. I'm trying to think back several years and I don't recall having this issue. I'm really thinking it could be equipment malfunction, meaning a warped housing or something similar. Just guessing again. Will know soon enough when the new system arrives
Without being to actually look at at troubleshoot with you this is where I'm at too. We pretty much ruled out chlorine, but more accurate testing wouldn't hurt for the future, and with this being a new issue and not something you've experienced for years and years with your unit, it's more than likely equipment related.

Once your new unit arrives and you determine how much space you've got for canisters you'll have it working with normal results again!
 
Thanks again. I greatly appreciate your guidance. Now I’m just bored.
LOL
DOWN TO MY LAST 30 Gallons of good RO/DI water so I have to save it for ATO
Im rationing
Hahaha
image.jpg
 
I ment just anion before everything to just strip chlorine. The usual resins after. I would have to crunch some numbers but if you did it that way you could probably get at least 1000 gallons before it exhausted. All other issues aside.

Edit: Also just thinking about some of my trips to Fl. If I remember right you guys have really hard water. Some people have to dedicate a water softener system before filtration. How long did membranes last for you in the past?
We do have very hard water here.
 
Here is my take based on what you have, and if you purchase the Puratek Deluxe from marine depot.

Use the Puratek as a 1 micron sediment, followed by 2 carbon blocks, lead that into a RO, followed by another RO (in series) take that out to your current 3 DI cartridges (not sure how your running these, all mixed?, cation, anion, mixed?)

Since you will have extra housings from your old build, you could even run another sediment like a 5 micron, but if you do this I would go with a reusable 5 micron like this one. It's pricey but you shouldn't really ever have a need to replace it, just periodically back flush it and clean it up. This way large particulates can be caught in the 5 micron, and it will save your 1 micron.

Another thing you could do is use a 4 stage DI since again you have the cartridges, if you were doing this I'd say run a cation, followed by your anion, then 2 stages of mixed bed. If you monitor each stage and replace as needed, the 4th stage (mixed bed) would hardly need replacing and would act as a super clean polishing filter since it would hardly be pulling any TDS out of the water by this stage. Or if you know you run through cation cartridges quicker, you could run 2 cation cartridges, followed by anion, and then a mixed bed, if anion depletes quicker you could do it the other way with cation, anion, anion, mixed bed.
Read this again and measuring the space.
This could happen….
 
I
I don’t think the connections are set up correctly. I had higher tds then normal when i swapped membranes because I didn’t put it back the same way. I think we should address each connection
 
I

I don’t think the connections are set up correctly. I had higher tds then normal when i swapped membranes because I didn’t put it back the same way. I think we should address each connection
okay... I'm game. How would you like to address this?
 
I may have reversed the order of the 5 micron and the 1 micron sediment and carbon filters in video but the install is 5 micron sediment to 5 micron carbon then 1 micron sediment to 1 micron carbon then to the membrane
After the membrane one chamber cation another anion and then the mixed
 
I

I don’t think the connections are set up correctly. I had higher tds then normal when i swapped membranes because I didn’t put it back the same way. I think we should address each connection
While this isn't a bad thought nothing really changed from before @flyfisher2 started having this issue to before. Just one day the membranes started dying early. I'm not sure how long total this system was running prior to the issue but I gather it was years, and from what I gathered it didn't seem like he made any plumbing changes.

Going step by step doesn't hurt as a general first rule of thumb though for anyone having issues with RO/DIs incorrectly setting up plumbing leads to a lot of first time mistakes.
 
While this isn't a bad thought nothing really changed from before @flyfisher2 started having this issue to before. Just one day the membranes started dying early. I'm not sure how long total this system was running prior to the issue but I gather it was years, and from what I gathered it didn't seem like he made any plumbing changes.

Going step by step doesn't hurt as a general first rule of thumb though for anyone having issues with RO/DIs incorrectly setting up plumbing leads to a lot of first time mistakes.
System ran flawlessly for over three months and then the TDS creeped up last week and that's when we checked the water post membrane which gave us the 98+ reading. This has been the same for the last three membranes.
 
I may have reversed the order of the 5 micron and the 1 micron sediment and carbon filters in video but the install is 5 micron sediment to 5 micron carbon then 1 micron sediment to 1 micron carbon then to the membrane
After the membrane one chamber cation another anion and then the mixed
It shouldn't make a difference but when you setup the new unit I would do both sediments followed by double carbon. Going 5 to 5 shouldn't introduce anything to clog the carbon but it wouldn't hurt anything either way just my thoughts.
 
System ran flawlessly for over three months and then the TDS creeped up last week and that's when we checked the water post membrane which gave us the 98+ reading. This has been the same for the last three membranes.
How long total have you had this unit it seems to be at least 5+ years old, but that Florida sun and heat may just make it look older than it is.
 
System ran flawlessly for over three months and then the TDS creeped up last week and that's when we checked the water post membrane which gave us the 98+ reading. This has been the same for the last three membranes.
How long was the membrane prior to the last 3 installed for? 1 year, 2 year, 3 year, etc?
 

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