kk i have a rodi buddie aquatic life i made 30 gallons and throw away so it was fine i made 10 gal of rodi with the resin and i was getting 0 tds but now its going on 1 tds can i still use the water ? Or will it case hair algea idk what to do please help my tap water is 295 tds
Rodi help
- Thread starter edmond
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saltyphish
Certified Sand Groomer
Depends on what that 1 tds is. IMO since there is little way short of having it analyzed by triton or something similar of knowing exactly what that 1 tds is I would not use it. I here those units have problems like this. My tap water runs about 265 and I have no problem achieving 0 tds from it with my aquafx barracuda ro/di system. Might try and replace the filters and di resin and see if that helps.
My bubbles
Community Member
If your resin is toast after 10 gallons- did you find out if your water company treats with chloramines? The carbon block will still pull out the chlorine but you don't have enough reaction time to get rid of ammonia. The ammonia won't hurt your membrane but will blow through the DI
Unfortunately you got what you paid for.
The so called portable RO and RO/DI systems will never equal a real full size reef quality RO/DI.
What is your tap water TDS, RO only TDS and final RO/DI TDS? What are you testing these with and how? What is the exact measured waste ratio? What is your water pressure and water temperature?
These pieces of information are critical to know with any RO/DI system and the only way to troubleshoot them.
Carbon blocks do not remove ammonia. The carbon ONLY removes the chlorine portion of chloramines and breaks the bond with the ammonia which is mostly removed by the RO membrane and polished off by the DI resin. If you do have chlormines it is important you have no larger than a 1 micron extruded carbon block which the portable probably does not have. Coarser carbon does not work well with chlormaines, or free chlorine for that matter either, another reason to invest in a much better reef quality RO/DI. Real reef quality RO/DI systems start at only $125 or so and are much more efficient since they have larger filters with more surface area and better retention time so they work better, last longer, cost less and give you better water quality. I hate seeing reefers get led down the wrong path and have to spend even more hard earned money to make a purchase really work.
The so called portable RO and RO/DI systems will never equal a real full size reef quality RO/DI.
What is your tap water TDS, RO only TDS and final RO/DI TDS? What are you testing these with and how? What is the exact measured waste ratio? What is your water pressure and water temperature?
These pieces of information are critical to know with any RO/DI system and the only way to troubleshoot them.
Carbon blocks do not remove ammonia. The carbon ONLY removes the chlorine portion of chloramines and breaks the bond with the ammonia which is mostly removed by the RO membrane and polished off by the DI resin. If you do have chlormines it is important you have no larger than a 1 micron extruded carbon block which the portable probably does not have. Coarser carbon does not work well with chlormaines, or free chlorine for that matter either, another reason to invest in a much better reef quality RO/DI. Real reef quality RO/DI systems start at only $125 or so and are much more efficient since they have larger filters with more surface area and better retention time so they work better, last longer, cost less and give you better water quality. I hate seeing reefers get led down the wrong path and have to spend even more hard earned money to make a purchase really work.
My bubbles
Community Member
I didn't say that carbon removes ammonia, they react out- after all chloramine filters are still using carbon- albeit a high grade carbon
Catalytic or so called"chloramine" carbons are a waste of money and not needed. Any name brand 1 micron or smaller acid washed extruded carbon block is more than capable of removing the chlorine portion of chloramines and breaking the bond with the ammonia. The chloramine carbons were developed for special industrial applications with residual disinfectant levels many times higher than the 4 mg/L allowed as a MRDL by the EPA in drinking water. Don't waste your hard earned money on anything other than a single 1.0, 0.6 or 0.5 micron carbon block.
My bubbles
Community Member
Luckily I don't have to worry about chloramines (yet)!
Only about 30% of the utilities in the US use chloramines and many are looking at better ways to treat and disinfect drinking water to reduce disinfectant byproducts.
My bubbles
Community Member
Yeah, I know most don't. But utilities can change whenever they feel like it- and notify you of course. ;-)
Actually they don't have to notify you. Consumer Confidence Reports are generated once a year per EPA regulations but the problem is the information they provide is already a year old when you receive it. You may get notification a year after a change in the process has taken place. The best thing is to have an insider at the water utility. When I supervised and managed large public water systems I had a lot of people contact me because they had heard I was a reef hobbyist and could answer their questions. People within the city government would refer me to customers all the time, I still get calls like that to this day even though I retired from municipal service and joined an environmental engineering firm 10 years ago.
