RO/DI Questions!

[pcurry18]

Hello everyone. Once again, im looking for help. Myself and 3 of my buddies are setting up an RO/DI at my house and im looking for some info. Here are my intentions. Mount and hook up an RO/DI machine in the garage, treated water running into two parallel 55 gallon drums. Waste running into drain. Auto shutoff float for the 55 gallon drums as well as taps so the fellas can put down their 10gal containers and open a spicket, filler up and presto, nice saltwater for the taking. Here are my questions.

1. What type is economical, and money well spent (Websites would be nice as well as prices if available)
2. Any special tricks i might want to implement
3. Between the four of us is 75 gpd gonna be good enuff
4. Any accompaning headaches with this setup that you know of.
5. Any further info you can provide, would as usual be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Paul

[pcurry18]

Is this a decent one?

http://cgi.ebay.com/125-GPD-Reverse-Osmosis-RO-membrane-Water-Filter-Reef_W0QQitemZ160066685924QQcategoryZ20684QQcmdZViewItem

[MrMikeB]

Paul,

I recently was in the same situation as you and in fact am setting up something really close to what you are. I evaluated the common setups found on eBay and ended up buying a Water General "RO6102DINT" model due to the TDS output being 0 ($125 shipped). I have recently used it and it is the goods for the price.

A couple pointers -

Carting buckets up and down places is going to get old real quick. When you lay out your install I would suggest you look at the location very carefully so that if you decide to run a pump you can pop a hole in the vent duct and run it through you would be able to without tearing it all down.

When you select your drums, be sure you get ones that are seal-able and have room to drop a powerhead at some later time possibly for mixing your salt and heating. Anything 'open' will invite things to fly in and contaminate your water, and the barrels with only the bungholes are typically not big enough to fit these items in. Also food grade barrels are an obvious choice as some plastics have been known to 'leak' stuff into your water.

As for the GPD, do not put too much stock into what the rating is. Most RO/DI units are rated at a pressure that is simply not going to come out of your faucet. Some folks run pressure pumps to make up the difference, but they are not cheap. Most home lines will run 40PSI and less, so 110 gpd rated at 75PSI vs 90 gpd at the same pressure will not mean much in the way of actual water output when you look at the fact you are coming in at 40psi.

Personal preference, but get the refillable DI chambers. It will help you out in the long run on costs and I think a couple folks here buy the resin in bulk through a group buy from time to time. I also run a prefilter (cheap $30 unit at Lowe's) before it hits my RO/DI just to get more life from the filters (again, save $$$)

Be sure your RO/DI unit you chose can remain 'on' with built in RO membrane flush capabilities and can hook into the floats. Some will have to be turned off at the source which will not work for your scenario.

Don't be tempted with the added costs of the TDS meters and pressure gauges wired into the units. They are nifty, but you could get a portable one that will allow you test at each filter to see where your problem may by (such as bad filters) - and being portable is a nice thing to have when you want to test batches of water already made.

Just my 2 cents...

[pcurry18]

You rock. That is the exact one i was looking at. Thanks for the input. THis is definetely better than buying jugs of water all the time. Ill keep you posted.

Paul

[MrMikeB]

If you wanted to come by and see it before you bought we can set something up. Its not 'installed' in the basement yet as I am struggling with getting the right barrels, but I have it hooked up to a sink faucet for the time being. For this particular unit I can get one of those grey Husky style RubberMaid garbage cans filled in about 14 hours and I use a float valve to keep from waking up to a flooded kitched. Easy to set up and water qaulity is great!

[pcurry18]

Mike,

I have a buddy of mine that works for the city water dept and he can aquire all the 35 or 55 gallon clean as a whislte drums that you need. I can hook you up since you are gonna hook me up with some frags. Ill check on the availability tomorrow. BTW, i just bought that bugger. Thanks for the help

[MrMikeB]

Oh you just made my night! Thanks!!

Good luck with the RO/DI unit! It has made a huge difference in my main tank in just one 15% water change thus far. When you get it all set up, I would love to trade notes on how it worked out. I literally have an almost identical plan for my basement that I am putting in place.

[pcurry18]

Yeah all is good mike until you come home and your basement is full of water. mine will be in the garage and will drain in the drain...lol. Ill email you some diags that i was thinking of. But just like any plan, it will prolly change once i get the unit here and read the directions. Ill chat with you tomorrow.

[Reefugee]

Mike,

There has been a lot of debate between 75gpd and the >75gpd filter. I won't go into any details, but you can find more information at :

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=838851
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=675216

The only thing I don't like about the Unit you are purchasing is the DI chamber. That's a really small chamber.

Minh

[pepe.king.prawn]

The first one you pictured from eBay is the one that I have. I don't think it's 125gpd as stated, but I think they're ALL overstated. we have a 450gpd at work, and it doesn't even do 100 a day. The product of my unit is about 12ppm, but I need to change the DI resin. The product of the $2000 Kent 450gpd is 0ppm. In my opinion, 12 is good enough.

[pepe.king.prawn]

Ah, and on the small DI chamber note, it's okay. You shouldn't need much to clean up 12ppm RO water. It's similar to the fact that you only need a couple tablespoons of activated carbon to get a big reef tank looking sparkling clean.

I think pressure gauges are a nice feature, but not essential. The whole "membrane flush" thing is kind of bogus. Theres water flushing the membrane all the time! Don't worry too much about that feature.

[MrMikeB]

Minh, thanks for the link - very interesting. There is sure a lot of passion concerning RO/DI units. Most folks posted as hating them or loving them, with rather little in between. I do think you can pay too much and you can pay too little. For the price, personally, I love the WaterGeneral model with the dual DI chambers. I would not think them the best, but when you are working on a budget... sometimes a little reality creeps back into the picture. :)

[pcurry18]

If anyone has some pics of their set up i would like to see them posted here. That would be neat

In regards to budget! I wasnt nearly concerned about that as i was to the ease of use. I read a lot abou the watergeneral, so im hoping it lives up to my expectations.

I know I will only be using 10-30 gallons each time i do a water change, so i know with my float valve and completely sealed containers, ill be able to have a full barrel of SW each time i need it. In the winter ill have a heater, and powerhead. in the summer ill just have a power head.

Im excited, i cant wait to get it up and running. Ill post pics once i get the system set up!

[funman1]

I LOVE my unit from http://www.AirWaterIce.com
Typhoon III, It's talked aLOT about on the boards. I have never found someone who owned one and did not like it.

It's $200 and iof you mention RC then they throw in a free float valve, it comes with presure gauges and a handheld TDS meter.

~Steve~