EMERGENCY! I dropped the RO/DI unit! Help me folks!

[prissysmom]

Houston I have a problem....


I was hooking up the system and dropped it. It is ok except for one thing.

I snapped off the Flush Valve Handle! and of course the manufacture is closed now. I was going to see if I could reattach it but I can't find it. I have looked and looked. Of course you just know if Apollo (my Great Dane) found it he probably chewed it up and left it somewhere.


What can I do? I have 80 pounds of cured live rock sitting in my living room!!!

Does anyone have a Pure-Flo Premium TFC Reverse Osmosis water purification system?

Should I just say heck with it and use tap? I have NO idea what is in my tap.
HELP MEEEEE!

 

[prissysmom]

Here's a picture of the unit (and my living room)

 

[fishmonkey]

i dont really understand where the hande broke off in the picture... can you describe it? is the ENTIRE handle broken off, or did only a portion of the handle break off?

 

[prissysmom]

In the second picture. See the yellow tube? To the left of it there should be a blue handle that turns it on. It would sit right on top of that black thing (that is round)


I see the threads so maybe I could just screw another one on?

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

Well, aslong as its the flush valve, and its closed, you should be fine. Make some water now and check the tds and if its 0, discard 10 gallons of water, and then start to collect.

 

[prissysmom]

Here's a better picture

 

[prissysmom]

Well, aslong as its the flush valve, and its closed, you should be fine. Make some water now and check the tds and if its 0, discard 2 hours of water, and then start to collect.

I don't know if it's closed. How can I tell?

Also I don't have a TDS kit. I have a API saltwater master test kit and a Red Sea marine lab kit.

Would anything in those tests work? I'm upset because right now as I type my cured live rock is dying

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

Ok, What to do is run the unit and see if the waste line is getting more water or less water than the rodi line. If its getting a substantial amount more, you will know when, then its closed and making rodi water. Discard the first 10 gallons though. Make SURE ALL parts are installed correctly though, especially the membrane. Mine was backwards and didnt make pure water. One option is to measure a batch of sw with all the kits, which should come out 0 for most.

 

[fishmonkey]

so maybe you could just... superglue something onto it lol. your going to have to improvise if you cant find the handle lol.

 

[prissysmom]

I give up...

seriously. I just dropped the faucet adapter down the drain. This is a sign from above I think!

I'm calling my dad and see if he will come down tonight or tomorrow (he lives 30 minutes away)

But what about my live rock? That's the most important thing. Is everything going to be dead by tomorrow?

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

I would suggest opening the drain trap and getting it out. Aswell as getting into the chat room. And by tomorrow your rock will be quite dead.

 

[prissysmom]

My dad is on his way to help me dget it out of the drain. The pipes are really rusted and stuck.


How long do I have till my rock is dead? Can I recure it and somethings will survive or do I have to throw it all out?


Could I use distilled water if the grocery store has it?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Ok... first thing - RO/DI units don't produce water on demand, so even if you got it up and running right_this_minute it's not going to do your rock any good. So no need to stress about the immediate need for the RO/DI unit - if you didn't have the saltwater ready when you got the rock, you were too late to start with.

The rock isn't junk. If you keep it wrapped up in saltwater soaked towels, a fair amount of bacteria should stay alive for 12-18 hours at least. You may have a little ammonia spike when it finally goes in the water, but probably not much.

If you let the rock dry out, or put fresh/tap water on it, then your bacteria will die off. But it's still not junk... you'll just have to cure it a little. If there's nothing in your tank, you can do that in the tank when you get it filled. I'm guessing that's the case because if you don't have saltwater around, I'm thinking you have an empty tank.

Yeah... you can use distilled water from the store to mix up your salt. You could use tap too in a pinch, just make sure you add a dechlorinator to the tap water per the instructions.

 

[BigMike75]

Use a small pair of pliers to turn the flush value on and off, till you get a new one.

 

[prissysmom]

update,

My dad came down but the RO unit worked but we could not if the water was being filtered or not. Dad said it smelled like chlorine.

So first thing in the morning I will buy SW from the LFS. The rocks have dried out so I will have to do a full cycle and hope for the best.

I will call the manufacturer as well and see if the unit can be saved.
I should have had my water ready first. I thought (wrongly) that I could do it at the same time. Hard lesson learned but I won't give up.

Going to sleep now. I'm wiped out!

 

[BigMike75]

Hang in there and good luck.

 

[fishmonkey]

yeah, if you have a protien skimmer, then recuring it will be...well not easy, but not difficult either. do you have one?

 

[Jaybird]

Or.....you could mix up a small batch of saltwater using the tapwater and put the rock in that. Better than leaving it dry out.

 

[CaptainAhab]

If curing the rock in a tub i always just use tap. I let it cure out, when it's cured I make a small batch of RO saltwater to rinse.. then plop in the main.

Not a big fan of curing in the main display. I figure why would I go to the expense, hassle, time of putting 0 tds water in the display and then put rock in there w/ the intention of creating massive amounts of nitrates.

Same thing if you need somewhere to house the rock... reg tap, rinse w/ RO-salt before introduction.