View Full Version : ro/di pre filters turning green...
psyrob
08/19/2006, 07:39 PM
I have a Kent Marine RO unit with a corallife DI canister added on. I hook it up to a faucet on the side of my house (it has the best water pressure) and usually I just make 5 or 10 gallons in a day and unhook it and bring it back to my tank room inside. Last weekend I got lazy and left it outside and still hooked up for three or four days. It got direct morning sun all those days. Now, the carbon prefilter and the .1 micron prefilter have turned green on the side facing the sun! I assume this is algae, but my question is, do I throw these out and replace them, or will the algae die off if I keep the unit in the dark? This is not a big money expediture, but I was wondering if this is worth correcting or should I just buy new filters...
Thanks
psyrob
08/19/2006, 07:41 PM
Oh, on a different RO/DI note, every once and a while I get a spider in the carbon prefilter chamber! They must crawl up one of the hoses somehow...I can't figure out how they get in there. I unscrew the canister and flush the spider out...Anyone else have this happen?
Reeses
08/19/2006, 08:09 PM
I found a terrestrial snail in mine. He was bigger than the diameter of the hoses, so I can't figure out how it got in there. The best we have figured out was that it was in the garden hose and somehow managed to make it through the lines. (?)
I'd rely on your TDS meter to tell you if your unit is filtering correctly. I figure there is no sense in spending the money for replacement filters if your meter isn't picking anything up that's different. I have some sort of algae or something growing in mine also because of the very warm weather, but both my meter and my phosphate test tell me everything is still alright.
Cheers
AZDesertRat
08/19/2006, 09:25 PM
Toss the filters and disinfect the housings with a bleach solution before installing the new ones. You should never use a RO in direct sunlight or you run the risk of just what you are seeing along with potential bacteria and virus growth which you can't see. I would find a place inside to install it so you don't have this happen again.
Thefilterguys
08/19/2006, 11:22 PM
You need to replace the filters this can only get worse and foul the purity of your water.
Jim
Reeses
08/20/2006, 02:16 PM
Allrighty then,
water treatment people, please educate me. :)
Are there any bacteria/viruses that are able to harm our aquariums because of our RO units? Shouldn't any fouling of the water be able to get picked up by a TDS meter and/or other tests such as phosphate, ammonia, nitrate/nitrite?
I apologize to psyrob if my thoughts were wrong.
I was thinking from a more frugal point of view, and from the fact that I'm not drinking the water from RO unit. This reminds me a bit of the "can you use rainwater" debate.
AZDesertRat
08/20/2006, 03:12 PM
Algae and bacteria will foul your membrane once it takes hold and no amount of flushing will help it. It can eventually tear or rupture the membrane and break through and then you and your tank have catastrophic problems.
Reeses
08/20/2006, 03:53 PM
I can see how if you have a replenishment system how that could be a major problem.
So, in a case like mine, where I make water outside into buckets, flush my unit and test for TDS every time, why is this a problem? I would catch the batch of bad water, and then change the membranes because they obviously are no longer working.
I'm also still trying to figure out if there are any freshwater algae/bacteria that are still harmful in a salt environment that may grow in our RO units from this.
I suppose I am failing to see a reason to replace the membranes early if they are still doing their job.
AZDesertRat
08/20/2006, 07:01 PM
Don't replace the membrane but do replace the prefilter and carbon ASAP.
Reeses
08/20/2006, 08:10 PM
Thank you for the info/help. :)
psyrob
08/20/2006, 10:52 PM
Thank you for the discussion. It is silly to take a chance and not replace the pre filters, I know, the replacements just cost me 20 bucks on Marine Depot. I never had this happen before, and I was thinking that the prefilters and the membrane would strain out any algae, bacteria or viruses, just like my filter I use for purifying water from a river when I am backpacking...
But no matter, I am changing the filters and not taking chances...
AZDesertRat
08/21/2006, 08:33 AM
Once a slime bacteria gets started on the membrane you can't stop it. I have seen membranes clogged with the stuff and that was indoors in a proteted location but the owner/renter had never changed any of the filters, they didn't even know where the little faucet came from!
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