My solution for premature DI resin depletion

[AustinB]

I’m no pioneer in the hobby, but I did come up with this for myself. Not saying that this mod hasn’t been done I’m sure it has, but anywho when I burned through my mixed bed resin in like 6 weeks I knew I was doing something wrong. People told me I need to flush the membrane and that it’s probably done for, not likely, it was 6 weeks old and it’s water supply is pre-filtered soft water. Now I don’t own a tds meter and I still have some api test kits, please hold your rotten food and stones, I’m planning on phasing them out and purchasing a meter here soon. I measured phosphates at my RODI outlet in lieu of a tds meter, and I was getting .5-1.0 immediately after turning on the unit, and undetectable readings after 1 minute. This told me that my tds creep was high through the membrane and that’s probably the reason for my short lived resin bed. I read that disposing of the first 60 seconds of RO water is a good idea since tds creep is normal. But that meant I’m sending all those dissolved solids to my resin at first! So with a 1/4 inch tee and a tee valve from BRS this was my solution. Flushing the membrane before it gets to the resin, I have honestly already noticed a dramatic difference in my resin life. If you notice in the picture my resin has only depleted (changed color) that much in about 3 weeks. So I might not have broken any new trails, but it feels good to pretend ha ha. PS if anybody has any suggestions on a good affordable tds meter, not inline, let me know. Or if you have any modification suggestions. Thanks guys, happy reefing!

 

[Philipgonzales3]

I’m no pioneer in the hobby, but I did come up with this for myself. Not saying that this mod hasn’t been done I’m sure it has, but anywho when I burned through my mixed bed resin in like 6 weeks I knew I was doing something wrong. People told me I need to flush the membrane and that it’s probably done for, not likely, it was 6 weeks old and it’s water supply is pre-filtered soft water. Now I don’t own a tds meter and I still have some api test kits, please hold your rotten food and stones, I’m planning on phasing them out and purchasing a meter here soon. I measured phosphates at my RODI outlet in lieu of a tds meter, and I was getting .5-1.0 immediately after turning on the unit, and undetectable readings after 1 minute. This told me that my tds creep was high through the membrane and that’s probably the reason for my short lived resin bed. I read that disposing of the first 60 seconds of RO water is a good idea since tds creep is normal. But that meant I’m sending all those dissolved solids to my resin at first! So with a 1/4 inch tee and a tee valve from BRS this was my solution. Flushing the membrane before it gets to the resin, I have honestly already noticed a dramatic difference in my resin life. If you notice in the picture my resin has only depleted (changed color) that much in about 3 weeks. So I might not have broken any new trails, but it feels good to pretend ha ha. PS if anybody has any suggestions on a good affordable tds meter, not inline, let me know. Or if you have any modification suggestions. Thanks guys, happy reefing!

Nice post, I was planning on doing the exact same thing!

I bought this TDS meter and seems to work fine as far as I can tell.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079DN9DRS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

 

[Daimyo68]

I've been doing the same thing for a long time now. Has saved me countless amounts of money.

Hanna makes a handheld tds meter for roughly $50

 

[AustinB]

Nice post, I was planning on doing the exact same thing!

I bought this TDS meter and seems to work fine as far as I can tell.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B079DN9DRS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_pd_title

Thanks, I was looking at that one, I want a portable vs inline, or at least the portable one first. But if you’re interested in doing this I highly recommend it! The valve is only $20, plus the cheap T fitting, but it works really well, I’m sure it will pay for itself in no time all

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Thanks, I was looking at that one, I want a portable vs inline, or at least the portable one first. But if you’re interested in doing this I highly recommend it! The valve is only $20, plus the cheap T fitting, but it works really well, I’m sure it will pay for itself in no time all

I just ordered this on Amazon after reading your initial post. I already have extra hose.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BJ8MFF8

I also thought about buying another canister and running cation and anion resin separately

 

[AustinB]

I just ordered this on Amazon after reading your initial post. I already have extra hose.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07BJ8MFF8

I also thought about buying another canister and running cation and anion resin separately

I’ve also thought about running the pro series resin, I guess one depletes way faster than the other, and with the mixed bed you of course have to replace both instead of just the depleted one. So yeah that is on my list of upgrades, as well as the dual membrane water saver kit

 

[lordraptor1]

didnt work for me, so my next step is to get my system going just leave it on 24/7. in the past once i had water flowing into the unit i left it on, recently i have been shutting off supply water to the unit when not in use and to day i will have replaced di resin at least 3 times maybe 4 since putting my unit back into service back in april/may this year when in the past i could go 1 year plus on 1 di resin cart.