Recommended RO/DI unit

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MrMasoner

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Sep 21, 2017
Messages
9
Location
California
1. I've got a 29G reef tank I've had for a month. I've been hearing that I definitely need a RO/DI unit. Up until now I've been conditioning tap water with Top Fin water conditioner. What unit do you guys reccomend? I plan on expanding later in this hobby so I rather buy an expensive unit now rather than upgrading later on.

2. Do you guys keep the RO/DI water stored somewhere for when you need it next? A little confused how the process might work foir myself.
 
The water from an RODI unit comes through at a drip. So you need to drip the RODI water into a container of some sort. It can be something as simple as a 5g water container or as complicated as multi-stage 1000g water containment system. Personally, my RODI unit fills a pair of 50g barrels in my garage. It all depends how much water you need available at any one time.

You will want to use a float valve or equivalent to shutoff the flow of water when then container fills up. Often the RODI units made for reef keepers include these.

There are two pretty common recommendations here. The first is the Reef Keeper units from AirWaterIce. The second is the 5-stage or 6-stage RODI units from Bulk Reef Supply(BRS).
 
You really need rodi for a reef tank. All the crap in tap water will ultimately crash your tank and fuel rampant algae growth. Brs has some good units, I use a coral life. Make about 15 gallons at a time into my brute water barrel add salt and mix with a cheap Sun Sun power head for a few days before using. I usually make a batch every couple weeks. Like to have on hand. It has to stay very agitated while being stored. Temp match as well. You'll spend $300 anyways when it's all set up but its a must imo
 
You really need rodi for a reef tank. All the crap in tap water will ultimately crash your tank and fuel rampant algae growth. Brs has some good units, I use a coral life. Make about 15 gallons at a time into my brute water barrel add salt and mix with a cheap Sun Sun power head for a few days before using. I usually make a batch every couple weeks. Like to have on hand. It has to stay very agitated while being stored. Temp match as well. You'll spend $300 anyways when it's all set up but its a must imo
Agitated meaning like having a powerhead in your RODI storage?
 
Agitated meaning like having a powerhead in your RODI storage?

Unless you are adding something directly into your rodi storage container I don't think there is much value in keeping it agitated.
 
What do you recommend for water storage? I'm thinking a 55g plastic drum. I wonder if I can pick something up at Lowe's or Home Depot.
 
What do you recommend for water storage? I'm thinking a 55g plastic drum. I wonder if I can pick something up at Lowe's or Home Depot.

55g drum is what I use. Technically, two of them.

Old picture but this is the general idea:

rodi_setup-3408.jpg
 
Unless you are adding something directly into your rodi storage container I don't think there is much value in keeping it agitated.
Would be adding salt. Definitely want to mix that up good.
What do you recommend for water storage? I'm thinking a 55g plastic drum. I wonder if I can pick something up at Lowe's or Home Depot.
Brute 22 gal serves my 45 gal system weekly
 
Would be adding salt. Definitely want to mix that up good.

I use my water for both fresh and salt water purposes so I don't mix it in the rodi container. Even if I was using it for salt water only I probably would still mix outside the container. It would be too hard too keep the salinity right since I don't consume all the water at once.
 
I use my water for both fresh and salt water purposes so I don't mix it in the rodi container. Even if I was using it for salt water only I probably would still mix outside the container. It would be too hard too keep the salinity right since I don't consume all the water at once.
You must have a dedicated salt mixing container? It takes a couple days to properly mix??
 
You must have a dedicated salt mixing container? It takes a couple days to properly mix??

There is a pump and a hose permanently attached to the RODI storage drums.

For freshwater applications we pump the water straight into the tank. For saltwater we pump it into a container for mixing. My wife uses brute trashcans. I use 2 2.5g water containers. Her marine tank is bigger than mine. ;)

With the salt I use, I find it is mixed at around ~24 hours. We also have 4 cheap sunsun power heads to mix the water. As a side note, there is no way I would risk putting one of those in a tank with fish in it.
 
There is a pump and a hose permanently attached to the RODI storage drums.

For freshwater applications we pump the water straight into the tank. For saltwater we pump it into a container for mixing. My wife uses brute trashcans. I use 2 2.5g water containers. Her marine tank is bigger than mine. ;)

With the salt I use, I find it is mixed at around ~24 hours. We also have 4 cheap sunsun power heads to mix the water. As a side note, there is no way I would risk putting one of those in a tank with fish in it.
The sun Sun power heads?? Utter garbage. I got an 800gph just for mixing, it's like a boat prop haha
 
IMG_1508890384.704478.jpg

Here is a picture of my set up that came with me when I bought my new house. Much more spacious.
Make sure you have a tds meter so you can tell when it’s time to change out your resin and filters to keep the reading at 0.
You’ll also see a pump at the start of my system too. My water pressure isn’t high enough to run the system efficiently. I added that and a gauge to read where the pressure was going into the system. You want it to be around 9. I got these parts from bulkreefsupply.
 
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