I bought a ro/di unit!!! Cuple of pointers please

alfieferenzo84

alfieferenzo84

Member
cuple of quick things they say to hook it up to cold water well that is about 55F and the membrance calls for 77f at 50psi so how do you make that happin?
Sense this unit will strip the water down to lower then 5tds would i need to use extra stuff or would the salt be good enough for trace stuff? What salt do you all recommend?
For the first water change should i do like only 25% or just do a major change to get the tank on track? And there on how much should i do? Its a 75 fowlr .15 ammonia, nitrates are 15 the only things i can test now
How long can water be stored for?
Should top off water have buffer or just let it go?
Just some questions off the top of my head sense this is new and i am reding back and forth stuff so i figure i would ask you all for your personal thoughts and what you do! Thanks
 
acrylic51

acrylic51

Active Member
Yes you want to hook it to a cold water source.....You can take your input or feed line to the unit and extend the line and coil it inside a bucket and put water and a heater in the bucket and drop a heater in that bucket set at 78 degrees and it will warm the input water to that temp.....
As far as TDS readings from your output water....wherever the figure of 5TDS came from is wrong IMO.....The unit should produce 0TDS at the end process....At 5TDS I'm changing out my filters, because it should and can be zero....my initial water quality input is up around 150-170 at times.
The RO/DI water shouldn't need anything added to it directly other than salt....That is where all your elements are coming from.....What you can do after the salt has been mixed and aerated you can check your levels to make sure they match your tank water parameters as far as Alk,Ca, and MG.....
As far as top off water some people drip kalk, but that's dependent and what your tank readings are as well....it might be possible to just top the tank off without buffering anything....HTH
 
alfieferenzo84

alfieferenzo84

Member
well 5tds was my guess but maybe 0 maybe 20 we will know soon just looking for pointers now
Thats a great idea with the coil feedline, How long would you say i should go i mean you could prolly get 50ft coiled up how long should i shoot for? Thanks
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
I have 25 feet or the input line coiled in my sump. I'm just lucky that the filter is near my sump.
Common mistakes:
Don't hook up the entire unit up and run it. The first several gallons of water out of the RO filter need to be discarded (read instructions). RO membranes are coated to protect them until used. Don't send this water through your DI filter or you're wasting a lot of capacity. All that goop will be cleaned out by the DI but what a waste that is. Set up the RO and run it first. Once the first 10 gallons (see instructions) go through the RO then you can hook up the DI.
Once the filter is running measure the waste output against the good output. 5:1 is a good ratio but look up what the expected ratio for your membrane is in the instructions. Don't just assume that it's working fine.
 
alfieferenzo84

alfieferenzo84

Member
thanks i got a tds so that should help also
About wasting the first 10 gallons is that total water or just water from the pure line?
Im sure it will have directions but you know thanks again
 
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