RODI question

EpicWin · Sep 2, 2013

Alright. I need to get some opinions from peeps smarter then me

. So I have a 6 stage rodi. It works great but is costing me a fortune. Brs and I concluded that my do is being used up by the high levels of co2 in my water. My TSS going into my ro is 300 and out is 4.

What I want to know is how much potential damage am I doing if I'm not putting 0 Tds water in my system? What if I keep using the cart rages until they read 10? There is a guy around here that just uses a to and no do and has a gorgeous tank. He puts in 25 Tds water. Give me some opinions on this.

Cheers!

redfishbluefish · Sep 2, 2013

I'm going to make a leap of faith and guess you are on well water and not city water. High CO2 is common to wells in certain areas of the country. It will eat up DI resin quicker than you can blink an eye. Your best bet is to draw the water, bubble it overnight (that gets rid of the CO2), and then run it through your RO/DI unit. Obviously you'll now need a pump to do this and they can be had specifically for this application.

Your other option it to look into in-line bubbles to rid the water of CO2....but now at more expense.

AZDesertRat · Sep 3, 2013

Here is a nomograph you can use to calculate your CO2 level or Spectrapure also sells a kit you can test it with. There are also directions on how to build a CO2 degassing column out of common PVC parts. Run your RO only water through the chamber then gravity feed it through your DI afterwards or use a small powerhead to pump it through slowly.
FAQ
Also some resins are better at CO2 than others, I get much longer life out of the MaxCap and SilicaBuster resins than I ever did out of any other resin I tried and I tried them all, even wholesale suppliers who only sell to industry.

EpicWin · Sep 3, 2013

Yeah. I may have to look into this. But on that note is it really that bad to non 0 Tds water into the tank?

AZDesertRat · Sep 4, 2013

Since TDS is not a measurement of anything specific, it only indicates that something or things that are electrically conductive are present. It could be phosphates, silicates, nitrates, iron, copper, calcium, who knows and who wnows how much is each?

To me with thousands invested in my tank it's not worth the risk.