I need a large-volume RO/DI unit; suggestions?

[Flame_Angel]

I've finally convinced the powers at be at my store that using RO water on our salt wall is a good idea. Problem is, we'd need a unit that does 200-300gpd for it to not be a pain in the butt (we'd be using a reservoir for it, obviously).

Any suggestions for the brand/source?

[Gandolfe]

get 2 or 3, 100GPD units. Probably be less expensive than a 300 GPD system, and if you have access to the water supply line make 3 different supply points,1 for each ro/di unit. you won't lose that much pressure off the main

[Flame_Angel]

But more of a pain in the butt to set up, plus 2-3x the membranes/cartridges and more space taken up. Price isn't really a huge consideration for the most part.

*edit*

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/292/p1030888u.jpg

This is what we need it for. Each unit, 7 in total, (not counting the displays) is ~200g; add in two 180g displays, and a 400g display...and you can see how much water we actually need for water changes. I recently took over control of this fish room, and the salt wall is in a terrible state of affairs. It's going to take a lot of work to get it back to where it needs to be, and having RO/DI water for changes is going to help tremendously.

[Gandolfe]

try contacting an LFS that sells ro/di water and ask where they got their unit

[Flame_Angel]

There are none for a few hundred miles.

[Gandolfe]

If you don't mind a long distance call, this store near me sells RO water by the gallon out of a big unit! their number is (813) 242-7600, Pet City

[Orcrone]

How about your distributors? I'm sure they have access to large units. Both stores I deal with have systems capable of much more than 300 gpd. In fact there's good money to be made in selling RO water (especially if there's no LFS within a few hundred miles). It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a larger system and sell RO and premixed saltwater. Large markup and something everyone without their own system needs.

[tkeracer619]

Your going to want a commercial unit. Im pretty sure airwaterice carries them. As the previous poster said setup to vats with spickets and sell pre mixed and strait ro. You can also sell those handy 5g jugs. Water is cheap but the merlin system is not. It is worth it. If you dont want to sell it a simple hobbyist unit with dual 150 gpd membranes is all you need. Two large seperate cati ani di cartridges will be rechargable and very cost effective in driving the water down to 0tds.

[Gandolfe]

I agree the store i was talking about sells ro water for $1 a gallon and ro/saltwater for like $1.49 or so

[tkeracer619]

Your going to want a commercial unit. Im pretty sure airwaterice carries them. As the previous poster said setup to vats with spickets and sell pre mixed and strait ro. You can also sell those handy 5g jugs. Water is cheap but the merlin system is not. It is worth it. If you dont want to sell it a simple hobbyist unit with dual 150 gpd membranes is all you need. Two large seperate cati ani di cartridges will be rechargable and very cost effective in driving the water down to 0tds.

[bobears03]

Like someone else said commercial units work best for lots of water. My buddy has one they use at work. It's made by 3M and the place they rent it from changes the cartridges when it's time, part of the rental agreement. It comes with a TDS meter and when he gave me 150 gallons it only took 30 minutes to fill it up. It puts out like a garden hose. I don't know how much it costs. But if it breaks they replace it very quickly.

[VivaBorg]

Not sure if it's overkill or not,

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_Producer.htm

[plantastic]

Flame_Angel-

You definately want a SpectraPure Unit. These guys have been setting the standard for water purification for many years. They are at the top of their game when it comes to engineering systems for the type of production that you will be facing. They engineer units that are specifically for the commercial production of pure water. You also want the unit to produce not only RO, but DI as well.

As a side note, the posters who mentioned the sales of the water you will be producing are spot on. It will not only create a regular customer base, but it also aids in the ability for you/ your staff to help them realize a greater degree of success, when you can start ruling out the multitude of variables that go along with this hobby. And, that all starts with the composition of the medium that these animals are forced to live in. Also, with the regular sales of production water, there is a high liklihood that the on-going cost associated with water in general will become absorbed, and potentially create a new source of revenue.

It won't be inexpensive, but the money invested will be returned within a year, most likely, if you start selling this water.

Another note, is the use of the waste water. Generally speaking, for every one gallon of pure water produced, four gallons is being sent down the drain. If you have a freshwater section, specifically Cichlids, or other hard water loving fishes, then this waste water would be perfect for them, and now is not waste water, but your water for freshwater systems.

Hope this helps some...

Scott

[Chris27]

Contact a local water treatment company, as there has to be one somewhere close. My guess is that you'll be looking to spend anywhere from $1K to $20K depending on the quality of the source water and the desired daily consumption.

I would strongly advise against shopping "on-line" for a system that will be used commercially, as you'll need local support for things like preventative maintenance and media / membrane change-outs.

When it comes to profit margin, you can't beat selling filtered water. For example, you may spend $8K on a system that is good for 50,000 gallons. Let's say 60% of that is for store use, and 40% is for the consumer. That leaves 20,000 gallons for sale....if it's fresh water sold at $0.25/Gal, you're looking at $5K in sales...if it's SW sold at $0.75/Gal you're looking at $15K minus the cost of the instant ocean mix you'll be using to salt it.

[Plato]

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_MaxCap_UHE400.htm
This will not only give you 400 gallons per day but it produces 2 gallons of good water while dumping only one gallon down the drain. Most system to get 2 gallons will dump eight gallons down the drain. Make sure you get not only a ro unit but one that has di as well. Thats what is in demand. My unit is a MaxiCap with an extra membrain (2 x 100gpd) with a booster pump. At 100 psi my unit makes 350 gpd.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu286/ftccbrianmiller/40a0443a.jpg

[moondoggy4]

I would check the sponsor's on this site first and then look for a commerical unit compare the two your boss may not want to spend a lot of money of this unit. Don't charge too much money for the water it will force your customers to buy their own units, you want your customers in the store as much as possible not shjopping on the net.

[Plato]

The retail price on the UHE400 by spectra pure is around 2200.00. Of course your store will get wholesale prices which is less and they can give that to you. My system pictured above cost me about 500.00. Its not nearly as nice as the UHE model but for my needs of installation and maintenance it is sufficient. If I had a store then with out a doubt I would have their UHE just because of the excellent product to waste ration. My system actually recycles the waste water back into the system until it hits 300+ TDS then it dumps that out a holding vat, loads up with fresh and starts the cycle again. It keeps my waste to being able to filter 200 gallons of city water with 65 TDS with only having 25 - 40 gallons being wasted. When the water hits a concentration of 300 TDS after the membranes it's 4 TDS. 98.67 rejection rate. Economical but not a piratical as a turn key system.

[Opus123]

Wow, that is some great city water. Mine can range from the high 200's to close to 500 depending on the time of year.

[wildman926]

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_MaxCap_UHE400.htm
This will not only give you 400 gallons per day but it produces 2 gallons of good water while dumping only one gallon down the drain. Most system to get 2 gallons will dump eight gallons down the drain. Make sure you get not only a ro unit but one that has di as well. Thats what is in demand. My unit is a MaxiCap with an extra membrain (2 x 100gpd) with a booster pump. At 100 psi my unit makes 350 gpd.
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu286/ftccbrianmiller/40a0443a.jpg

Are your lines 1/4" or 3/8"? Nice set up to make a lot of water.

[mm949]

you dont need a large fancy unit....i use a maxcap 5 stage 180gpd from spectrapure and it can handle all my store's needs plus the customers....i have (2) 100gl upright containers for holding

[Plato]

Wow, that is some great city water. Mine can range from the high 200's to close to 500 depending on the time of year.

My water pressure is produced by the booster pump with no city water pressure. The city pressure (60psi) just fills the a vat. All of the pressure comes from a procon 60 gpm pump and a 1/4 hp motor.

[Plato]

@ wildman926 it's fed by 3/8, into the filters, pump, but after carbon it splits from a Y 3/8 to two 1/4 to feed each membrane.

[Plato]

you dint need a large fancy unit....i use a maxcap 5 stage 180gpd from spectrapure and it can handle all my store's needs plus the customers....i have (2) 100gl upright containers for holding

I agree. With a store you have space for a normal unit to fill vats. The 180 MaxCap is great. For me I work out of a 40 x 40 garage. I have a 200 gallon vat that water is pump into and two 100 gallon vats that ro/di goes into. I have a 525 gallon on the way. I need small space but quick fill.

[Opus123]

My water pressure is produced by the booster pump with no city water pressure. The city pressure (60psi) just fills the a vat. All of the pressure comes from a procon 60 gpm pump and a 1/4 hp motor.

I was referring to your TDS. Unless I'm not understanding, you stated the tds was 65 to start out for the city water. My city water can have a tds between 400 and 500 during the summer when there is very little rain.

[doctorgori]

But more of a pain in the butt to set up, plus 2-3x the membranes/cartridges and more space taken up. Price isn't really a huge consideration for the most part.

*edit*

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/292/p1030888u.jpg

This is what we need it for. Each unit, 7 in total, (not counting the displays) is ~200g; add in two 180g displays, and a 400g display...and you can see how much water we actually need for water changes. I recently took over control of this fish room, and the salt wall is in a terrible state of affairs. It's going to take a lot of work to get it back to where it needs to be, and having RO/DI water for changes is going to help tremendously.

uh...erh ah...hold on a minute...is it me, or did everyone just gloss over noticing those tanks? WOW....
if thats a LFS, that is one nioce shop....
if thats your house...holy sholy thats is bad arse...!!!!
either way :thumbsup:

[Flame_Angel]

It's my shop, lol. There's about 3 times as many tanks for freshwater that you don't see in the pics; around 14,000g of water total for the entire fish room, 4-5k of which are in displays.

Thanks for the lead on Spectrapure guys, I'll check them out right now and forward the information to my boss.

[Squint]

I have a residential-sized RO that has been measured at 240 gpd before. It consists of 3 sediment filters, an Aquatec 8800 booster bump, 5 carbon cartridges, two 75 gpd RO membranes in series, and 3 DI stages. I didn't buy all the parts but I'm sure it costs about half of what a SpectraPure UHE unit costs while not requiring a complex double reservoir setup.

[lockus]

I have owned this unit for a long time, 9 years I think. Has never failed me and produces 300+ GPD. Depending on what RO filters you install it can produce anywhere from 60-450 GPD. Since this pic was taken I have added TDS meter, flush kit and replaced the lines and added auto shutoff. It is the earlier version of the Great White RO/DI on their website.http://www.aquariumwaterfilters.com/

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g173/lockus13/000_0346.jpg

[mtnbiker44]

Where R U located in Sunapee? I'd like to come visit sometime. I'm from Nashua.

[Flame_Angel]

The store is actually located in West Lebanon. www.nhpets.com for the address. Send me a pm if you're going to come up so I can let you know whether I'll be there or not.

[rkaires]

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/300-gpd-tds-spartan-water-saver.html

[BHHOWARD]

I think a good 20" cartridge solution would be appropriate. Spectrapure has a 20" solution.

You might want to review the following two posts (from the same thread):

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17957382&postcount=5412

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17960938&postcount=5438