Which Ro/di unit to get

[BullyBee]

I’ve been doing research and I get what’s going on with RO/DI units, I just have zero idea which one to get. I plan on just hooking it up to my faucet when needed.

edit: I have a 40 gallon breeder. Initial fill might be premixed ro/di water so this will be for water changes mostly.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Depends on what you want! Do you want to save money? Space? Wasted water? All of them are pretty interesting variables, and it's also confounded by the various sizes of RODI filters. I've compiled a spreadsheet of some of the better known 4-stage RODI units below.

 

[BullyBee]

Depends on what you want! Do you want to save money? Space? Wasted water? All of them are pretty interesting variables, and it's also confounded by the various sizes of RODI filters. I've compiled a spreadsheet of some of the better known 4-stage RODI units below.

I just want clean water and at a fast enough pace where my day isn’t ruined because I’m waiting 5 hours to get 4-5 gallons.

 

[Snoopy 67]

IF you have around 70 - 80 PSI water you will get 3-5 GPH from a 90 GPday system in the summertime.
Winter & cold water drops that significantly.

 

[Opus]

First thing you should do is get a copy of the water quality report from your water district, assuming you are not on well water. This will tell you what they are putting in the water. If they are using chlorine then a regular 4 state unit will most likely work. If they are using chloramines then you will most likely want a unit that includes a carbon filter made to remove chloramines. As for which unit, that is up to you. Most of the name brands from one of the sponsors are good. I personally went with Spectrapure because I have high tds. My tds is usually around 450 and their RO membrane gets it down to 3 or 4 before it goes into the di filter. As stated, if you have good water pressure you want have to wait around all day for water. I can fill a 5 gallon jug in about 1 hour in the summer and it takes about 80 minutes in the winter. As long as you don't go with a proprietary system the RO Buddy that requires you to buy their filters, you have a lot more choices in your filters since they are all the same size. I prefer to use better filters so I go with a .2 micron sediment filter and a .5 carbon filter. Most budget systems come with 5 micron.

Another great reason to go with a regular ro system is you can easily expand it as your needs change. If you get a larger tank and need to make water faster you can add another ro membrane to increase the output.

 

[BullyBee]

First thing you should do is get a copy of the water quality report from your water district, assuming you are not on well water. This will tell you what they are putting in the water. If they are using chlorine then a regular 4 state unit will most likely work. If they are using chloramines then you will most likely want a unit that includes a carbon filter made to remove chloramines. As for which unit, that is up to you. Most of the name brands from one of the sponsors are good. I personally went with Spectrapure because I have high tds. My tds is usually around 450 and their RO membrane gets it down to 3 or 4 before it goes into the di filter. As stated, if you have good water pressure you want have to wait around all day for water. I can fill a 5 gallon jug in about 1 hour in the summer and it takes about 80 minutes in the winter. As long as you don't go with a proprietary system the RO Buddy that requires you to buy their filters, you have a lot more choices in your filters since they are all the same size. I prefer to use better filters so I go with a .2 micron sediment filter and a .5 carbon filter. Most budget systems come with 5 micron.

Another great reason to go with a regular ro system is you can easily expand it as your needs change. If you get a larger tank and need to make water faster you can add another ro membrane to increase the output.

Does GPD reflect how fast water is purified?

 

[Silent]

Yes. That is how many gallons per day of reverse osmosis water you could get.

 

[BullyBee]

Here is a link to my water quality report for June of 2020.

I have no idea what any of it means https://www.epcor.com/products-serv...y/wqreportsedmonton/wq-edmonton-june-2020.pdf

 

[Opus]

Looks like Edmonton uses chloramines. You will want to get a system with a special carbon filter designed to break it down. I don't know what your buying choices are in Canada.

 

[BullyBee]

Looks like Edmonton uses chloramines. You will want to get a system with a special carbon filter designed to break it down. I don't know what your buying choices are in Canada.

so a 4 stage ro/di?

 

[cvrle1]

Looks like Edmonton uses chloramines. You will want to get a system with a special carbon filter designed to break it down. I don't know what your buying choices are in Canada.

It was already shown by Randy Holmes - Farley that most RODI systems can remove chloramine fine, even without chloramine specific filter/carbon in there.

Good read here

Chloramine! Let’s talk about it.

So I recently discovered that my municipality changed from using free chlorine to using chloramine to treat our local water. This was back in the fall. I started having all kinds of issues with my SPS tank and my other tank around this time. Lots of unexplained SPS RTN and STN that lead to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Opus]

It was already shown by Randy Holmes - Farley that most RODI systems can remove chloramine fine, even without chloramine specific filter/carbon in there.

Good read here

Chloramine! Let’s talk about it.

So I recently discovered that my municipality changed from using free chlorine to using chloramine to treat our local water. This was back in the fall. I started having all kinds of issues with my SPS tank and my other tank around this time. Lots of unexplained SPS RTN and STN that lead to...

www.reef2reef.com

Depends on the quality of the carbon block you are using and the type. It all depends on contact time. Also the DI will remove it also from what I've read so yes a plain RODI will remove it. I have read horror stories of people using regular carbon blocks and chloramines were getting thru and it killed things in their reef (they were not using DI).

 

[Opus]

so a 4 stage ro/di?

Yes, 4 stage or 5 if you want to be extra cautious. You want a sediment filter, carbon filter, ro membrane and then di. If you go 5 stage then you would throw in a second carbon filter to make sure as many chemicals are out of the water before they hit the ro membrane. I personally run 2 carbon filters but I'm conservative and I know our water district is known to hit the water with extra chemicals from time to time to "clean the pipes out".

I believe Spectrapure is available to you and they are a very respected brand. I use their 99%+ rejection membrane and it has worked great.

 

[DaddyFish]

I've had extensive experience with chloramines in the past 12-14 months. My community well system was purchased by a private utility company, from the individual owner who originally built the neighborhood many years ago. The new company started out chlorinating as much as 10x the Federal recommended levels. I was killing fish with every water change.

My recommendations with RO and chloramines can be summed up as...
* Do not rely on water conditioners like Seachem Prime or anything else to dechlorinate your water. Regardless of how many stages of pre-filtering you pass through, dechlorinators only bind the chlorine for 48-72 hours before it's re-released as free chlorine and kills everything.
* If you don't want to invest in or don't have the space for a 5-stage system, use very high quality sediment filter (0.5 micron) followed by two(2) carbon block filters (5-micron preferred), then the RO membrane, and finally the DI cartridge.

That should get you down to zero(0) TDS. Plan to change the first carbon block at half-life (50% of rated life). Change the second carbon block at rated life. Change the sediment filter based on pressure differential, same thing for the RO membrane.

All RO/DI units require maintenance with use (filter changes). The key to RO membrane life is to block as much upfront before it gets to the membrane. The key to filtering chloramines is all about dwell time in the carbon blocks.

P.S. I wouldn't believe anything that water report says as far as levels. What they say about the "types" of chemicals they use, Yes. But as to the levels, pay for your own independent testing or do what I have done and make sure there's zero chance anything gets past your filtration.

 

[siggy]

Hey if you want water fast Skip the membrane. Speed is money, 35 gallons in about 20 minuets.
I would get around 75 to 100 gallons per cartridge, I ran 1 pre filter, 2 carbons and 2 di-resin before I built the mix station

 

[DaddyFish]

Hey if you want water fast Skip the membrane. Speed is money, 35 gallons in about 20 minuets.
I would get around 75 to 100 gallons per cartridge, I ran 1 pre filter, 2 carbons and 2 di-resin before I built the mix station

Valid solution IMHO. Here's what my incoming water now hits before it goes anywhere in the house. The two opaque canisters are 20" 5-micron carbon blocks.

After the above, there's a 0.5 micron sediment followed by two more 5-micron carbon blocks before it goes to freshwater tanks. I still use the RO membrane followed by DI for saltwater. But the RO membrane is mostly there because it's part of the original system, not because it's actually necessary. I could see replacing the RO membrane with a DI.

 

[Opus]

Hey if you want water fast Skip the membrane. Speed is money, 35 gallons in about 20 minuets.
I would get around 75 to 100 gallons per cartridge, I ran 1 pre filter, 2 carbons and 2 di-resin before I built the mix station

With the OPs 240 tds they would get about 20 gallons of good water from a di catridge.

 

[Mena]

Depends on what you want! Do you want to save money? Space? Wasted water? All of them are pretty interesting variables, and it's also confounded by the various sizes of RODI filters. I've compiled a spreadsheet of some of the better known 4-stage RODI units below.

Thank you for doing this! Very nice and simple enough even I can understand it!

 

[Opus]

Does GPD reflect how fast water is purified?

Yes, that is at a specific incoming water temperature and water pressure.

 

[BullyBee]

Yes, 4 stage or 5 if you want to be extra cautious. You want a sediment filter, carbon filter, ro membrane and then di. If you go 5 stage then you would throw in a second carbon filter to make sure as many chemicals are out of the water before they hit the ro membrane. I personally run 2 carbon filters but I'm conservative and I know our water district is known to hit the water with extra chemicals from time to time to "clean the pipes out".

I believe Spectrapure is available to you and they are a very respected brand. I use their 99%+ rejection membrane and it has worked great.

how is this unit?



I’m American, I am just in Canada because my wife is Canadian. When I can get a good deal on Amazon’s US site I go for it