I Do Not Understand RO/DI Setups-Can Anyone Help (?pics)?

[WhiteCloud]

I have finally come the the realization that I will need a RO/DI setup.

Water out of the well tap is 7.8, FW tank has been giving me nothing but Algae problems, and I will be setting up a marine tank soon.

Plumbing is my worst fear in home "repair", and know little about it. How do people set up their RO/DI systems?

My understanding is that I need:

The acutal Filter aspects (2 to 6 stages)
a holding tank
a means of getting the water into the filter
a means of getting water out of the holding tank into a bucket for fish tank
a drain line for continuous waste water from the process

How do people set these up? I would love to see pictures!!

My problems are that I live in a 1 floor house with a well and septic tank. The wife will NOT let me install anything under any of our 3 sinks, and this setup must be done in the basement. My problem is that I have no way to pump the water UP to the septic tank drain from the basement.

How much waste water do you get from this? I am thinking of just having it drain into my sump hole in the basement. I would just like to make sure we are not talking gallons of water going into the hole.

Does the RO/DI filter stop working when the holding tank is full?

I would love to hear how other people with similar setups handled their systems!

Thanks

[fishfreek]

Your holding tank can be as simple as a rubbermaid trashcan or some other kind of tub. Many of the RO/DI kits that come with pressurized holding taks are intended for 'drinking water' installs. This is where a faucet is mounted at your sink and the pressurized tank delivers RO water under some small amount of pressure to the tap. Else the user might have to wait 3-4 minutes to fill a glass of water vs a few seconds with a pressure tank.

The absolute simplest method of getting water to the RO unit is to use what they call a sattle valve. This valve clips onto your cold water PVC plumbing. THere is a small needle that puts a little hole in the PVC valve to supply the RO unit. There is a seal around this needle to prevent leaks. Another method is to use a 3/4 hose to 1/4 tubing adaptor. This would screw onto a faucet (like on the outside of your home or in your basement by the washer hookup) and then you would use a compression fitting to attach the 1/4" tubing that runs into the RO unit.

To get water out of the holding tank you simply scoop it out like I do or if you want to be fancy you can elevate the holding tub with blocks and then afix a faucet to the tub and use that to drain water into a bucket.

The RO unit will come with some drain line. Dependingon your setup you might need longer. If this is teh case its just 1/4" tubing that you can get at any home improvment store.

The RO drain can be elevated to some degree. You can even shoot the drain out a cracked open window onto the yard in the back. I have mine doing into a sump pump that then pumps the water up to the house drain that is so convently located half way up the basment wall.

You should have a 1:4 ratio of good to waste water.

You would need a shutoff valve to have it turn off so to speak when the holding tank is full.

I would recommend looking at http://www.aquariumwaterfilters.com They are not only a sponsor but have a load of useful information on RO filters in general.

[loganj]

Rather than try to type up a couple of pages that will most likely confuse you to death, I'm going to PM you with my phone #. If you wish, give me a call and I'll try to answer your questions and explain how all this works.

[Brad]

I'll go with the "picture is worth a thousand words". This is about the simplist setup I could imagine. The nicest thing about this is that the bottle that catches the RO/DI water sits in the sink. That way, when the bottle is full and I'm not there to shut off the water....the bottle just overflows into the sink. No floods.

Yellow line is "water in" from the tap. Blue line is filtered water. Orange line is unfiltered water going down the drain.

[seaham358]

Do you have a washer in the basement? If you do you can get a hose adaptor and just hook up to the water for the washer. If you have a washer in the basement then you have a waste water line... Just put the waste line from the DI into that.
Saddle hook up can be used on copper lines....
in the picture you see he has a hose type adaptor on the faucet....... There John Gurst fittings that you can buy on the net....
i use the waste water from mine to fill up the washer and do a load of wash with it. I fill up 5 gal plastic gas jugs to hold my fresh water and a 32 gal rubber maid garbage can to make salt water and hold it.

[darb2]

My setup is the exact same as Brad's. Make sure you get a tds meter. Either internal to the ro/di or I have a hand held meter. I picked up the link to ebay and it was like $20-$30. This lets you know how the filter is working, and when it needs to be changed.

[WhiteCloud]

Thanks for the Pics Brad!!!

I am starting to get a clearer picture of what I need what I need and how I can do it.

Unfortunately I do not have washer/dryer or a sink in the basement...it is on the first floor...so I do not have that option.

I think will tap into the garden hose cold water line (I need to put in a shut off valve anyway)...and I will attach it before the valve. I will be pulling out the torch and solder for the shut off valve anyway...so I will probably put in a permanent 1/4" hose adapter of some kind (or maybe I will still use a saddle).

I will drain waste water into the sump hole...as I really won't be producing a lot of RO/DI water.

My storage tank is still up in the air though. I like the look of the AquaFX 40 gallon storage with automatic shutoff:
http://www.captiveraisedcorals.com/reverseosmosis.htm
Thanks Logan for Fishfreak for the info. How do you get the water out of this storage tank?? I wish there was a Spigot that you could use.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[loganj]

A powerhead and piece of vinyl tubing works well...or you can just siphon it out into a bucket.