New to RO/DI

tjnorthdakota

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just purchased a 4 stage ro/di unit from brs. couple different questions
I have a well so I dont need to worry about chlorine/chloramines in the water but is there any special considerations I need to consider using well water? My tds level coming out of the well is around 3.0+.

what do I need to add to the water to buffer and prepare it for the tank?

thanks for any input
 
You never need to add buffers to RO/DI water.

The biggest concerns with well water are excessive CO2 in them, which will rapidly deplete a DI unless you remove the CO2 prior to the RO membrane by degassing, and the potentially high levels of metals which must be removed (and are) by the RO/DI.

If you know the pH and alkalinity of the well water, you can determine if CO2 is an issue.

This has more on CO2:

http://spectrapure.com/frequently-asked-questions#calcc02
 
I will take a sample of water to work with me and test it. I work at a water treatment plant so I can test it for virtually everything. I do know the ph coming out of the tap is around 8.2 not sure on alk though
 
I will take a sample of water to work with me and test it. I work at a water treatment plant so I can test it for virtually everything. I do know the ph coming out of the tap is around 8.2 not sure on alk though

That does not seem likely to have a lot of CO2 in it at a pH that high. :)
 
So I didnt test the water last night like I was going to, will have to do it tonight instead, filled the jar full of my water and left it on the counter when I went to work, oops.
 
so here's the standard test of my well water done with lab grade equipment and chemicals:
PH-7.64
calcium-108
hardness-150
carbonate alkalinity-0
bi carbonate alkalinity-388

anything else I should test for? the ph I thought was higher, but I was using a api test kit to do it at home, so I trust the lab grade ph probe over that. I will say though, and not sure it will make a difference, the reading for for the ph I thought my water was is straight out of the tap, whereas the sample I took to work had been sitting in a jar for 4 hours.
 
There is a fair amount of free CO2 in that water, which easily penetrates an RO membrane and depletes the DI unusually fast.

So I'd suggest you look into degassing the water before the RO membrane.
 
Sure. There are many ways, Just search on degassing RO/DI. You can aerate a barrel of water, or buy a device intended for that purpose. Then you'll need a pump to drive the water into the RO/DI.
 
Randy

Will a ph probe for salt water accurately determine the ph of RO/DI water?

No, and it isn't useful to do so anyway.

I discuss it here:

Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.htm

from it:

Final Effluent pH

Aside from the issues discussed above concerning the effluent’s pH when the DI resin becomes depleted, the final pH coming out of an RO/DI system should not significantly concern reef aquarists. Many aquarists with low pH problems have asked, for example, if their aquarium’s low pH may be caused by their replacing evaporated water with RO/DI water that they measure to have a pH below 7. In short, the answer is no, this is not a cause of low pH nor is it something to be generally concerned about, for the following reasons:

1. The pH of totally pure water is around 7 (with the exact value depending on temperature). As carbon dioxide from the atmosphere enters the water, the pH drops into the 6’s and even into the 5’s, depending on the amount of CO2. At saturation with the level of CO2 in normal (outside) air, the pH would be about 5.66. Indoor air often has even more CO2, and the pH can drop a bit lower, into the 5’s. Consequently, the pH of highly purified water coming from an RO/DI unit is expected to be in the pH 5-7 range.

2. The pH of highly purified water is not accurately measured by test kits, or by pH meters. There are several different reasons for this, including the fact that highly purified water has very little buffering capacity, so its pH is easily changed. Even the acidity or basicity of a pH test kit’s indicator dye is enough to alter pure water’s measured pH. As for pH meters, the probes themselves do not function well in the very low ionic strength of pure freshwater, and trace impurities on them can swing the pH around quite a bit.

3. The pH of the combination of two solutions does not necessarily reflect the average (not even a weighted average) of their two pH values. The final pH of a mixture may actually not even be between the pH’s of the two solutions when combined. Consequently, adding pH 7 pure water to pH 8.2 seawater may not even result in a pH below 8.2, but rather might be higher than 8.2 (for complex reasons relating to the acidity of bicarbonate in seawater vs. freshwater).
 
No, and it isn't useful to do so anyway.

I discuss it here:

Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-05/rhf/index.htm

from it:

Final Effluent pH

Aside from the issues discussed above concerning the effluent’s pH when the DI resin becomes depleted, the final pH coming out of an RO/DI system should not significantly concern reef aquarists. Many aquarists with low pH problems have asked, for example, if their aquarium’s low pH may be caused by their replacing evaporated water with RO/DI water that they measure to have a pH below 7. In short, the answer is no, this is not a cause of low pH nor is it something to be generally concerned about, for the following reasons:

1. The pH of totally pure water is around 7 (with the exact value depending on temperature). As carbon dioxide from the atmosphere enters the water, the pH drops into the 6’s and even into the 5’s, depending on the amount of CO2. At saturation with the level of CO2 in normal (outside) air, the pH would be about 5.66. Indoor air often has even more CO2, and the pH can drop a bit lower, into the 5’s. Consequently, the pH of highly purified water coming from an RO/DI unit is expected to be in the pH 5-7 range.

2. The pH of highly purified water is not accurately measured by test kits, or by pH meters. There are several different reasons for this, including the fact that highly purified water has very little buffering capacity, so its pH is easily changed. Even the acidity or basicity of a pH test kit’s indicator dye is enough to alter pure water’s measured pH. As for pH meters, the probes themselves do not function well in the very low ionic strength of pure freshwater, and trace impurities on them can swing the pH around quite a bit.

3. The pH of the combination of two solutions does not necessarily reflect the average (not even a weighted average) of their two pH values. The final pH of a mixture may actually not even be between the pH’s of the two solutions when combined. Consequently, adding pH 7 pure water to pH 8.2 seawater may not even result in a pH below 8.2, but rather might be higher than 8.2 (for complex reasons relating to the acidity of bicarbonate in seawater vs. freshwater).

You da man! Thanks. You must love posting... you've been on R2R for 14 months and have 9100 posts? Whoa!
 
You da man! Thanks. You must love posting... you've been on R2R for 14 months and have 9100 posts? Whoa!

You're welcome!

I do love posting. I topped out the counter at RC for a while (it would only count up to a certain number then stop, before they upgraded a few years ago). So I have no idea how many posts I've made, but certainly more than 100,000. :D

Happy reefing. :)
 

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