exhausted di resin recharging on it own??

greg0385 · Dec 3, 2011

I am new to rodi units and have changed out the resin twice. I have put the exhausted resin in a ziploc bag. I spilled some on my work table, it went from brown back to a blueish color. So i place some in a bowl and within two days it changed back to blueish color too, but how and why???
I did figure out that i have high co2 levels in my well water and think maybe that has something to do with it.
Anybody knows why please let me know and if its safe to reuse this way.
Thanks
greg

boehm742 · Dec 3, 2011

Ive noticed that my exhausted resin i put in a zip lock to save turns blue after a while also. I am also on well water.

reefer54 · Dec 3, 2011

di resin turns white when exhusted. it takes me about 4 to 5 months of making 10-15 gallons a week to exhust mine.

CalmSeasQuest · Dec 3, 2011

DI cartridge life is reduced when operated on water with high CO2 levels (aeration or a degassing tower can lower C2 levels.) I seem to recall reading that the color change component of DI media was somewhat unreliable and was one-time use. I don't think the resin regenerated just because the color changed back. Easy way to confirm - place resin in question to a sample of known TDS water and see if it reduces it.

The process of recharging DI resin is a bit complicated and requires the use of sodium hydroxide (Lye or caustic soda) and muriatic acid and it generates lots of heat. I've been saving the stuff for a couple years, but haven't wanted to mess with the recharging process.

greg0385 · Dec 3, 2011

CalmSeasQuest said:
DI cartridge life is reduced when operated on with high CO2 levels (aeration or a degassing tower can lower C2 levels.) I seem to recall reading that the color change component of DI media was somewhat unreliable and was one-time use. I don't think the resin regenerated just because the color changed back. Easy way to confirm - place resin in a sample of known TDS water and see if it reduces it.

The process of recharging DI resin is a bit complicated and requires the use of sodium hydroxide (Lye or caustic soda) and muriatic acid and it generates lots of heat. I've been saving the stuff for a couple years, but haven't wanted to mess with the recharging process.

i am going to add a airstone to a container with ro water then pump it back in. Just waiting on more resin. I am going to test run some tomorrow just to be curious of the results

AZDesertRat · Dec 4, 2011

Resin will not recharge itself. To me as a water treatment professional, recharging is not worth the effort and dange due to the hazardous chemicals used plus you can never recharge it back to 100% at home since it requires heat and conditions you won't find in your house.

I buy good resin from Spectrapure and it lasts 5 or 6 times longer than nay other brand or vendor of resin I have ever used in the past, they blend their own resins based on thousands of hours of bench and real world beta testing and it really pays off in cost savings for the end user. It may cost a bit more initially but the extended life more than makes up for it in the end. Lower cost of ownership.

MBG75 · Dec 5, 2011

greg0385 said:
i am going to add a airstone to a container with ro water then pump it back in. Just waiting on more resin. I am going to test run some tomorrow just to be curious of the results

That's usually the way to go if your water is high in co2.
Once aerated, just pump it through a Di cartridge.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

robert · Dec 11, 2011

AZDesertRat said:
I buy good resin from Spectrapure and it lasts 5 or 6 times longer than nay other brand or vendor of resin I have ever used in the past, they blend their own resins based on thousands of hours of bench and real world beta testing and it really pays off in cost savings for the end user. It may cost a bit more initially but the extended life more than makes up for it in the end. Lower cost of ownership.

I've been using bulk reef supply - color changing resin and have been going through it quite fast. The water here is very hard. I've looked into purchasing resins from other sources, but honestly don't know enough to make an informed purchase. Would you mind sharing the pertinent info on the resin you would recommend?

Thanks -

five O · Dec 12, 2011

Seems like Di is a little to cheap to take a chance on my water quailty.

jordan3548 · Dec 12, 2011

^^^ thats what I am thinking I would hate to crash my tank because of buying low quality resin

robert · Dec 12, 2011

really? - I have an inline tds meter - I kind of figured if it reads "0" I was good to go. I usually replace my resin If I go above 10.

What characteristics of "low quality resin" would give you and acceptable tds and still crash your tank? Seriously, I don't know enough about the stuff, except I go through an awful lot of it. I know increased water pressure helps the efficiency of the RO unit, and that a cracked or ruptured RO unit causes the DI to exhaust faster. I didn't know about the CO2. If there are longer lasting resins, I would like to hear about them. I'm on municipal water in CA and the stuff is really hard.

AZDesertRat · Dec 12, 2011

Spectrapures SilicaBuster is custom blended to be a reef specific mixed bed resin. It is excellent on waters with phosphates and silicates which the membrane is not particularly good at removing.

If you have dual DI I recommend the MaxCap/SilicaBuster combo, it's what I use myself and my water is hard as rocks and the TDS is always over 530.

If you have a water softener, all membrane manufacturers recommend softened water, in fact none will warranty a membrane if a softener has not been used.

Spectrapure has all their resins on sale and have even come out with improved versions of their MaxCap and SilicaBuster which I have not tried yet, towards the bottom of the page here:

Untitled Document

cdness · Dec 12, 2011

I followed the recommendations of AZDesertRat and I am 100% happy with my decision. I took off my DI and replaced it with the MaxCap/Silica Buster and will never go back.

CalmSeasQuest · Dec 12, 2011

AZDesertRat said:
Spectrapures SilicaBuster is custom blended to be a reef specific mixed bed resin. It is excellent on waters with phosphates and silicates which the membrane is not particularly good at removing.

If you have dual DI I recommend the MaxCap/SilicaBuster combo, it's what I use myself and my water is hard as rocks and the TDS is always over 530.

If you have a water softener, all membrane manufacturers recommend softened water, in fact none will warranty a membrane if a softener has not been used.

Spectrapure has all their resins on sale and have even come out with improved versions of their MaxCap and SilicaBuster which I have not tried yet, towards the bottom of the page here:

Untitled Document

I'm intrigued by the new hi-cap and silca buster products. Softened well-water using BRS bulk resin in dual DI canisters post RO. I'm very happy with the BRS RO (runnning at 100PSI with a booster pump.) ~225TDS into the RO, ~1 TDS going into the DI (inline and held-held meter confirm.) I still seem to exhaust a DI canister every ~40 gallons.

What specific Spectrapure DI resin(s) would you suggest for this setup?

AZDesertRat · Dec 12, 2011

I would talk to them first but it looks like you do have CO2 problems so their CO2 specific resins may be your best bet. Look towards the bottom of the page here:
DI REPLACEMENT

For me in Phoenix, we do have CO2 in our water and the normal MaxCap/SilicaBuster combination gets me right at 1000 gallons per MaxCap and 3000 gallons per SilicaBuster, I have owned my MaxCap UHE system 3.5 years now and replaced my very first SilicaBuster cartridge two months ago.
Here is a review I did over a year ago on our local reef forum:
Spectrapure MaxCap UHE- after 2 years use..

robert · Dec 14, 2011

I get nothing like these volumes - I run a two chamber BRS reactor full of the color changing resin + the 2 smaller units that came with my RODI unit - and I'll exhaust them all within 500 gallons. Somethings very wrong.

I just ordered more resin - I guess I'll be doing some troubleshooting this weekend.

Thanks AZDesertRat for the info.

AZDesertRat · Dec 14, 2011

There are major differences in resin blends and quality. I have tried many over the years and all from well known vendors and none comes anywhere close to the stuff Spectrapure blends. I don't know what brands and blends they use but it really works and saves me money and landfill space too when you think about it. I would be throwing 8-12 cartridges or more away a year compared to 1.

CalmSeasQuest · Dec 14, 2011

I ordered a few Max Cap and Silica Buster DI cartridges and refills to do some testing. I'm also going to test pH and Alk of my well water (post softener) to determine how much CO2 is present.

I think I may have figured out why my last few BRS DI resin cartridges have performed so poorly (while in the past I've had great success with them.) I use refillable canisters and buy resin in bulk. My last few sat around for a couple of months prior to use. Although I have them sealed in plastic bags, I'm sure there was still significant amounts of air. I'm thinking this may have degraded the DI resin over time.

Also, In speaking with Gibbs at Spectrapure, he indicated they don't really have a resin for high CO2, and that a degassing tower would be the most economical solution when dealing with elevated CO2 levels. I'm hoping my CO2 levels aren't that high and that the problem was due to resin exposed to air for an extended period of time.

I'm looking forward to testing the Spectrapure DI resins.

mixer911 · Dec 16, 2011

Great thread Greg. Thanks for starting it. I have been burning through BRS resin like crazy. I get maybe 90-120 gallons out of the 1.25 lb refills. So were talking every 2-3 months changing it out, so about $60/yr. Might have to look at the spectra pure resin cartridges.....