Hi everyone. Thank for taking the time to read my post. I decided its time for me to mix my own saltwater rather then to keep buying it. I have well water and i have a RO system set up to mix my salt. When i went to read my TDS meter just now my water is between 4ppm -5ppm. Without the RO system it read almost 172ppm. Is the number sitting at 4ppm-5ppm safe to mix salt water still. I know the ideal number is zero. Should I be looking into a new RO system. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
First Time Mixing Salt water need help with TDS Meter
- Thread starter ScottyD36
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Flippers4pups
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Does this RO unit have a DI chamber?
ZoWhat
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4-5 is still very acceptable. Its really hard to get to 0.
I'm running 1-2 and I dont even give it a 2nd thought.
Think of it this way.... most salt mixes come from evaporation pool of saltwater where the water is 100% evaporated out. Now during the evaporation process Birds in the area are flying over taking poop-dumps in the pools.... so yeah, every bucket of salt mix is not 100% pure. So you shouldn't expect your water to be 100% pure.
0ppm TDS is awesome but very hard and expensive to maintain
Evap Pools:
I'm running 1-2 and I dont even give it a 2nd thought.
Think of it this way.... most salt mixes come from evaporation pool of saltwater where the water is 100% evaporated out. Now during the evaporation process Birds in the area are flying over taking poop-dumps in the pools.... so yeah, every bucket of salt mix is not 100% pure. So you shouldn't expect your water to be 100% pure.
0ppm TDS is awesome but very hard and expensive to maintain
Evap Pools:
dbowman5
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Hi Scotty, i agree that it would be helpful to know what your RO system is and what it is capable of. i get 1 ppm tds out of mine but prior to mixing i add Prime to the RODI which raises the TDS. I have had no problems with it. I also notice that the container that i put the water in needs to be rinsed to get a true reading.
DSEKULA
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Hi Scott,
Great to see you making your own water
The ideal reading is 0, a 4-5 may be safe it depends on what the tds is. You may just need to add an additional filter to get to zero not buy a whole new system. I run on well water as well here's my setup. What filters do you have? Many systems come with recommendations for city water and there's a chance we can swap them to something different using the same housing to get you to 0.
Great to see you making your own water
The ideal reading is 0, a 4-5 may be safe it depends on what the tds is. You may just need to add an additional filter to get to zero not buy a whole new system. I run on well water as well here's my setup. What filters do you have? Many systems come with recommendations for city water and there's a chance we can swap them to something different using the same housing to get you to 0.
4-5 tds from the membrane is good... sounds like you don't have the last stage to scrub the remaining tds from the water. Do you have a DI (deionization) cartridge as you last step?
Bosreef
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You need a di cartridge to get to zero. The ro is world better than Just using well water so applauds for that, but if you want 0 your gonna need to add a di
That's not a traditional unit sold in the hobby, more for under sink applications that has the 5 gallon storage container with the built in bladder.This is my current set up. I am beginning to think I should have bought a different set up.
No big deal, looks like all you need to do is add a mixed bed DI canister at the end and you'll be getting 0-1 tds.
dadnjesse
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If I was you and you can afford it I would buy a better RO/DI set up. Those cartridges are small I don't think it would be worth adding to that system. If you don't start with clean water who knows what kind of problems you will have
It'll do the job, strongly urge a DI stage for better results.
The units traditionally sold in the hobby use common 10" canisters so that filter replacement is a breeze, they're usually interchangeable and you don't have to purchase from a specific company everytime.
I'm the long run it ends up being cheaper. But when the time comes you can easily retrofit that one to accommodate 10" canisters if you want, or purchase a complete new system.
None of that is pressing. The big take away is that you'll want to get a DI stage and you'll be on the right track.
I personally have a 10 year old BRS sys with spectrapure membrane, filters and DI resin. If I ever need to get a new unit, I would go with all spectrapure.
