RO/DI Unit...

[mandarinlove]

Hey guys-


Was thinking about buying a really solid RO/DI unit. I am tired of going back and forth to my LFS to buy RO water. Any suggestions?

Thanks and Happy New Year!


P.S. check out my profile and look where my tank has gone in 3 months!

 

[kdogg85]

I bought a 5 stage plus chloramines unit from bulkreefsupply.com
it cost $207 but i figured the extra money up front would save me in the long run the trips to the store.
works great for me

 

[mfdrookie516]

are you wanting one just for the nano or do you want one that will be able to keep up if you upgrade to bigger tanks in the future? You can get a 100gpd unit off ebay for about $100, this one being a good example 6 stage RO/DI , but if you dont plan on upgrading, something quite a bit smaller would work fine

 

[Bige]

I have a kent 35gpd unit. I started off with 2 stages then added two more with DI. I like mine but it takes forever to make the water I need. I also didn't realize the amount of "bad" water there is. But what rookie said, how much do you need? If you are making 5g a week then go small to save money. It takes longer but you dont need much. If you dont want to wait get a 100gpd. But I would get ro/di. Not all are DI too.

 

[cjldad]

Wow.. There are so many options on these things... Any options that would really help out? I see some come with pressure gauges and some with TDS meters..

And this system that has refillable DI resin.. Plus I just like the looks of it better.. Thoughts?

Any down side to using an RO/DI system? I have a few plants in one tank.. No issues there??
Thanks!!

 

[melosu58]

Reverse Osmosis Aquarium Water Quality: Maxxima RO/DI Units

This is the one I use. A little pricey but a very good one.

 

[mandarinlove]

How long does that Unit take to produce 10 gallons of water?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

are you wanting one just for the nano or do you want one that will be able to keep up if you upgrade to bigger tanks in the future? You can get a 100gpd unit off ebay for about $100, this one being a good example 6 stage RO/DI , but if you dont plan on upgrading, something quite a bit smaller would work fine

I have a really old 3 stage unit in our house, and it dumps water down the drain constantly because it has no auto shutoff. I also have a 3 stage I got with a tank setup, same deal. No idea on the filter conditions of either.

The eBay listing you posted seems like you get a whole lot for the $ - 6 stages, with the filters and the hardward, all ready to go. It's expired but they have a whole myriad of possible setups, $104 w/free shipping gets you everything you need, is this a system that you have?

I totally want this one

0 ppm 6st Reverse Osmosis 2 OUTPUT RO +DI Water Filters - eBay (item 110389485420 end time Jan-07-10 21:49:51 PST)

Because I can use it for home and aquarium, at 100gpd I can use it for my personal tanks as well as the 2 systems I maintain and save myself the trip to Wal-Mart to load up 8-10 5 gallon buckets with Culligan water at 37 cents/gallon. It would literally pay for itself so quickly, my municipal water costs $0.0041/gallon (0.41 cents/gal) so after about 300 gallons of water changes for my customers (that'll take about 1 month) it will have paid for itself. But I want to know how good of a system it is, since it costs absurdly little.

Anyone using this system?

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

How long does that Unit take to produce 10 gallons of water?

Just take the # of gallons/day of the system (let's say 100) and divide by 24 (hours in a day) and you get the # of gallons per hour. So a 100 GPD system will produce 10 gallons in about 2.5 hours.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

I also found this one on bulkreefsupply
75 GPD RO/DI 5 Stage *PLUS* System - English
for $200, it seems like they use quality materials, which leads me to believe that the eBay one might not be?

 

[Bige]

Floyd you always do and show your math. I like that. TDS and pressure guauge are not that important. The pressure tells you when system needs to be flushed or even change filters. TDS kind of does same thing. Total dissolved solids indicates when filters are not performing allowing an increase in TDS. If you are only making 10g a week you will be fine for a long time. I agree with melous. The maxxima is the unit I have been looking at.

 

[Salukis97]

I bought this 5 Stage unit from Melevs Reef.

Melevsreef.com - Reef Store

It seems to work great so far and the detailed instructions on his site helped alot as well. The guy who owns the site is also very helpful and was quick to answer any questions I had. It always feels good to talk directly to the owner.

 

[Floyd R Turbo]

Floyd you always do and show your math.

I'm an engineer. I can't help it.

Wondering if you could take a look at this thread and comment.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f60/running-2-ros-on-same-system-124905.html

The more I look at it, the more it seems like it doesn't matter if you have a TDS meter in line, just put a T and a ball valve on the supply side and use that to pull water to test before and after with a handheld meter. As for pressure, I've read that flushing the membrane doesn't really do anything, it's more of a sales tactic and really not useful.

So what it comes down to is which filters are used. The BRS system seems to use name-brand filters (and a few that are better quality, 0.6 micron vs 5 for second block) and better quick-connect fittings, but the ones you get at home depot or lowes work just fine and are way cheaper. The eBay system seems to be a lot for the $ and then when the filters need changing, you can go with others if you want.

I like the advice from melevsreef on heating up the source water in the winter - great idea. His setup falls under the same category, I can get this 150 GPD system from eBay

150GPD 0ppm Reverse Osmosis+(2)DI Aquarium Water Filter - eBay (item 110476027641 end time Jan-05-10 19:42:05 PST)

for $114 that makes 50% more water and has 2x DI and costs over $50 less.

So is there anything that I'm missing here about this system on eBay vs the BRS or Melevsreef sites, except the price tag and the above mentioned items?

 

[melosu58]

How long does that Unit take to produce 10 gallons of water?

On mine it depends on the weather. In the summer it will do 10 gallons in 4 or five hours. In the winter it will be about 8 hours.