@Randy Holmes-Farley thanks for replying. Last I heard you were pinned down on a new job opportunity... hope it is going well.
To answer your questions first and then describe everything in as best detail as I can. I am getting 0 at all three points in my TDS. So i don’t trust it. Another should arrive Wednesday.
We have well water in Central PA with a 5 micron sand filter for the house. The inline goes through two 5 micron sediment filters, then a 1 micron sediment filter, then 0.5 micron sediment filter to the 1 micron carbon filter prior to the RO unit. All of these were changed recently. After the DI the water goes to a 50 gallon drum that is used for ATO and other needs and has pumps and hoses in it to get the water out. Previously I was using BRS Pro part 1 resin (
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/anion-single-bed-color-changing-bulk-deionization-resin-brs.html) followed by BRS Pro part 2 resin (
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/anion-single-bed-color-changing-bulk-deionization-resin-brs.html) followed by a BRS mixed resin. The Parts 1 and came from unopened bags that were likely as old as 2 years. This worked fine. About 2 weeks ago I ran out of the mixed resin and switched to BRS Pro part 3 resin (
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/cation-mixed-bed-color-changing-bulk-deionization-resin-brs.html). Since then when taking water from the storage drum, I began to have an issue. Below is an image of the soda ash in the water. Calcium chloride behaved similarly. Then I tested water prior to the DI and everything dissolves just fine as it also does from the tap. What I haven't done is test the water after the DI and before the storage tank. I have emptied the water from the tank down to when the pump runs dry (~90%) and then refill. The issue remained for 3 emptyings… so roughly only 0.1% of the original DI treated water would have been in the storage tank. So either it is a really strong effect or there is a source in the storage tank.
Pulled and cleaned the storage tank. Found a dead millipede at the bottom and a fair bit of slime inside too. Cleaned all that out and refilled the storage tank. Everything is fine now. Only thing left to test is adding resin and testing again. Will do that tomorrow.
The two hypotheses I have are that the parts 1 & 2 were too old to be effective and the part 3 is intended to be used post parts 1 &2 and thus is introducing very large quantities of ions that are causing the effect… this doesn’t make sense as I thought the resin absorbed ions and would not discharge them… though I'm only a mathematician/engineer, so this is way off my knowledge space… and have no idea about the chemistry of how resins work. The other hypothesis is that something contaminated the storage tank,,, most likely culprit is the dead millipede I found at the bottom…