Will a BRS 4 stage ro/di work for me?

[rbarr110]

So I am brand new to reef tanks, and have an opportunity to get a used 4 stage BRS for about 1/3 price of new. However, I am unsure if the 4 stage will be adequate. I am in Seattle and our water has minimal treatment, so initial thoughts say 4 stage would be ok. Attached is the 2017 water quality for my water district.

 

[JoshH]

I would say you're good with a 4 stage the vast majority of city water a 4 stage will handle. How old is the unit? At the very least I would purchase replacement filters if not to use but to have just in case. And a good TDS meter if you don't alrady have one, I have the dual inline meter and love it but there are tons of other options.

 

[rbarr110]

I would say you're good with a 4 stage the vast majority of city water a 4 stage will handle. How old is the unit? At the very least I would purchase replacement filters if not to use but to have just in case. And a good TDS meter if you don't alrady have one, I have the dual inline meter and love it but there are tons of other options.

So here is the photo that the guy sent to me, it appears to have the TDS meter on it. Claims it has only been used for months and is getting out of the reef lifestyle. However, I will absolutely be getting new filters. Thanks for the info.

 

[JoshH]

Looks like it comes with a dual TDS meter already so I'd hold off on buying that until you receive it. If it was only used for months you might be okay on a couple of the filters. As long as it was installed correctly and had the right amount of flow. Doesn't hurt to have backups but don't replace them right away (although they are cheap enough). Also I would order atleast 1 pressure gauge so you know how your water pressure is.

 

[lolmatt]

The resin that BRS uses should be color changing - I'd try it out before replacing the filters, that sediment filter looks nearly new. Personally, I think it's a big plus to have to DI stages so that you can rotate them - if you have a single DI stage, it can sometimes need replacing at 50-75% utilization. You can get a single DI canister for $40 bucks from BRS (filled with resin...a single cartridge refill is $13 alone so good price IMO). I started out with this exact 4 stage, and when it came time to replace my filters I bought the dual-DI resin (for better DI resin utilization) and added a second carbon block (for better chloramine removal) so I now have the following stages:
1x 1 micron sediment filter
2x 1 micron carbon blocks
1x RO membrane
2x mixed bed DI resin

No reason you couldn't do this down the line. I'm also saving my used DI resin so I can recharge it using lye and hcl - couple decent tutorials out there (can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing), I'll wait until I have a bucket full and it will cost like $10 to recharge a few gallons of resin.

 

[JoshH]

I guess the only other upgrade not covered by Matt would be going to the dual RO upgrade. Best thing I ever did with my system but it really depends on your incoming TDS from the city so that would be something you should hold off on ordering until you know what PSI and what TDS you have coming in from the street. The great thing is you are starting with a solid system that you can just add things to later on down the road.

 

[lolmatt]

Yeah agreed, thats another nice upgrade. I haven't yet had the need for it, I have a 55g drum and a float valve, so the GPD increase of adding a second membrane has not been worth it yet. BRS is definitely one of the nicer RODI out there, though!

 

[mjlash22]

You should be fine. Nice part about the BRS units are that their replacement filters/DI are fairly cheap, and if cleaned out properly, the membranes can last you 2 years (depending on your water creation). I have the 150gpd unit (4 stage) and the replacement kit I believe was under $20.

 

[JoshH]

Yeah agreed, thats another nice upgrade. I haven't yet had the need for it, I have a 55g drum and a float valve, so the GPD increase of adding a second membrane has not been worth it yet. BRS is definitely one of the nicer RODI out there, though!

I have a 5 Gal bucket for mixing lol for me it's more about cutting the waste water in half, in 6 months of using it it will have more than paid for itself. Getting water filtered twice as fast is just a perk

 

[Idoc]

You might want to call your city water office and ask if they are actually using chlorine or chloramine for microbe control. If chloramine, an additional filter is recommended to completely clear out the chloramines. Or, look at the BRSTv videos...there is an excellent video which tells you how to determine if your water contains chloramines...and which filters are best to remove, if present. But, looks like you are getting a nice system...I purchased mine used and it is running awesome almost year later! I have yet to have to change my DI resin...TDS Out is still zero...I did change my other two filters, though.

 

[JoshH]

You might want to call your city water office and ask if they are actually using chlorine or chloramine for microbe control. If chloramine, an additional filter is recommended to completely clear out the chloramines. Or, look at the BRSTv videos...there is an excellent video which tells you how to determine if your water contains chloramines...and which filters are best to remove, if present. But, looks like you are getting a nice system...I purchased mine used and it is running awesome almost year later! I have yet to have to change my DI resin...TDS Out is still zero...I did change my other two filters, though.

If you look down the chart posted it shows amount of chlorine in the water so he should be okay without needing a chloramine filter. But it also doesn't hurt to ask, not sure if they can post it as chlorine when they really use chloramine or not. Would be interesting to see

 

[Idoc]

If you look down the chart posted it shows amount of chlorine in the water so he should be okay without needing a chloramine filter. But it also doesn't hurt to ask, not sure if they can post it as chlorine when they really use chloramine or not. Would be interesting to see

I was thinking the same thing... could they list chloramines as chlorine. But i believe he mentioned he was in Seattle and many of the larger cities have switched to chloramines since cheaper to use. Best to test himself or ask. I called my city and they had no clue what they used... and they really weren't that motivated to put much effort into finding out for me, lol... so I tested myself with some chlorine strips.

 

[Tbell805]

I would dump the filters and toss in some spectrapure ones. For sediment and carbon I would use the .5 micron ones. For resin I use just the brs di resin that is not color changing. It is simple enough to monitor with the tds meter. I would look up how to install a bypass valve that way you can flush the first minute of high tds water and save your di resin which is the most expensive over time

 

[LoneStarReef]

So I am brand new to reef tanks, and have an opportunity to get a used 4 stage BRS for about 1/3 price of new. However, I am unsure if the 4 stage will be adequate. I am in Seattle and our water has minimal treatment, so initial thoughts say 4 stage would be ok. Attached is the 2017 water quality for my water district.

I have the 4 stage BRS and love it. Same story...bought it used for a few months. Had to change the first stage filter early on and helped a ton. Have had 0 TDS for a while now and no problems.

In Seattle tonight for business. Love your city!! Great beer. Awesome people.

 

[PatW]

I have a BRS 6 stage. It is similar to the one you are looking at. Mine has 2 carbon stages instead of 1 and 2 DI resin stages. I use BRS color changing resin. With 2 resin stages. I can run one completely to exhaustion, re pack it, and go again. That way, I do not waste resin.

I find that my sediment stage will turn slightly brown with use. If yours is bright white, it and the carbon stages should be good.

I have been running for 2 years and my RO membrane is still producing 2 water. My input water is about 130 tds. I plan to replace it when its performance declines.

 

[Lgara1303]

If you look down the chart posted it shows amount of chlorine in the water so he should be okay without needing a chloramine filter. But it also doesn't hurt to ask, not sure if they can post it as chlorine when they really use chloramine or not. Would be interesting to see

If there’s chlorine does that mean there shouldn’t be chlromines?

 

[Lgara1303]

So I am brand new to reef tanks, and have an opportunity to get a used 4 stage BRS for about 1/3 price of new. However, I am unsure if the 4 stage will be adequate. I am in Seattle and our water has minimal treatment, so initial thoughts say 4 stage would be ok. Attached is the 2017 water quality for my water district.

Did this ever work for you ? Do you know how much tds you had going in ?