ro or ro/di
 

hello all,

brand spankin new here and was wondering if anyone can make any recommendations regarding ro/di.

do i need ro/di or is ro enough? i read about aquasafe systems...opinions on these anyone? i've only got a 25g tank so i really only need small amounts of water to start with but looking at j&l it's at least a $200 venture! yipes!

anyhow, i would appreciate any insight on this if you can help a newb!

just ordered the Aquasafe one off of E-Bay...
from a firm in n. van. as you'll find out they come highly recommended

do you mind me asking what you're paying for it? also i wonder if it would be any easier/ cheaper going directly to the source...since i live in van.

is it ro/di? is ro all one needs or do you need di as well?

appreciate any more info you can help me with :smile:

they won't sell directly to you. belive me weve tryed. start a thread and see if anyone else wants to get in on an order to save on shipping. seahorse just did one but im sure someone needs something from them.

The deionization stage is needed if you want a trouble free water source. Not only that, if you tell Ed from aquasafe to give you a unit that doesn't come with a deionization chamber, you'll be saving 10 bucks at the most!? I don't see any point in doing that. My bet is that he'll force to you pay the shipping. He generally doesn't allow pick ups. I guess some of his shipping subsidizes his ro/di units. They are still a great value regardless.

ok, i just looked aquasafe up on ebay.ca and there's a few of them, aqua home, aqua aquarium, aqua maximus and aqua safe. some have tanks, some not, some look like you can buy right away, others you have to bid. PITA or what?

so what's the diff? also, can someone tell me do i need ro/di or is ro good enough?

thanks

you don't need it but its great to have. imo it's well worth the extra bit of money you spend getting it. you don't need the reserve tank but you should grab extra inserts and possibly a tds meter you so can see how depleted your inserts get over time.

Get the ro/di for teh extra couple of bucks. Also get the tank. find with my tank I get near full 5Gal bucket in about 15mins. Its fills up 1/2 way fast then slows to a dribble. In about 15 mins I'm just low enough that I can throw in a powerhead, heater , and salt and let er rip without making a mess. Within 45min - 1 hr the tank is full again and I've got another bucket. This is perfect for my 10% water changes on my 90Gal.

Invest in the unit. Its worth the money. At $5.00 per jug, buying water from a store, it doesn't take long to get to $200.00. JMO

Fishface,

The only series from Aquasafe that doesn't come with a DI chamber is the Aquahome. His Aquarium, Aquasafe, and Maximus models all come with DI. Some DI chambers are transparent, some are not, but both are DI. If you're not mounting this as a dedicated auto top off system, the water tank is useful when you need a few gallons on hand really fast or if you intend to use this for drinking as well. You just cannot drink from this unit if it's part of your auto top-off plumbing. If 10-20 dollars is not a big deal to you, just get the ro + di units. I've actually never seen anyone with a salt tank who doesn't want DI. I don't think running RO only can get you an absolute zero TDS reading.

awesome help you guys!! this information will definately help me out making my decision...thanks so much for all your input

darryl

ps does anyone have the contact info for aquasafe so i can ask them if it's possible to just p/u and save the delivery fees etc.?

Holy heck i pay 1.49 for 5 gal of water here in brandon.

mike

also, how invansive are these and how difficult to install? i'm still but a lowly renter and don't wanna make too many alteraltions in the plumbing here? do i have to peirce the pipe or are there any other options and how easy or difficult are installations?

with my unit i bought, i got a faucet adapter that screws onto the end of the faucet. when your done, unscrew and away you go, without having to pierce the main water. ed also has a garden hose attachment.

yeah i use the faucet adapter as well, when i finally get a place to install my unit a little more permanently i will tap into the cold water line.

exceptional :biggrin:

I just installed the MAXIMUS one last week, and am very happy. A few leaks when installing, but nothing major. Buy some teflon tape and make every connection so fat with teflon that the water will have no choice but to stay in the tubing!

I am a renter as well. To install it, I went to Home Depot, bought an A VALVE, and attached it onto my cold water feed. It's on 24/7 that way, and automaticallly keeps the tank full of water. It cost me about 3.50 for the valve, and as long as you have a wrench, it's super easy to install (I had to buy one of those too... I hate being a student, you don't own even the most basic tools).

In all, it took me about an hour to install, and I am awful with "trade" skills. Go with the A Valve, you'll be happy.

PM if you have any other questions..

Cheers,

Chad

Don't bother asking Aquasafe regarding local pickup. Ed can be a bit 'blunt' about that. hehe It's still a good deal regardless.

what's the deal with that?

I guess he makes some money from the shipping as well and his low prices are assuming that the shipping option is mandatory. Most won't run into this problem because they are not in YVR. His prices are really good, so we just have to live with it I guess.

his facilty is some run down boathouse on a marina from what i understand. he isnt equiped for people to swing by and pickup there stuff.

For hook up, I bouth a $4.00 garden hose 'Y' splitter at Home Depot. Hooked to my cold water line for my washer and ordered teh garden hose adapter along with my ro/di unit. Works great and keeps the unit in the laundry room.

ok, getting ready to hook this contraption up but i'm noticing that i have to drill into the discharge tube under the sink for the waste water drain line...didn't really want to drill since i'm a renter. any other suggestions?

ive got my setup with the drain hose leading into the sink drain, thus when i'm finished roll up the hose and way you go

thanks all for your input here...i've just finished installing and should have ro/di in no less than a few hours (soon as the tanks filled!) it went together super easy, just a matter of following instuctions and i got super-fast delivery from aqua-safe. next day delivery.

all in all i have nothing but good fortune so far...hope my tank loves the effort :mrgreen:

darryl

Make sure to get rid of the first gallon or two of water Darryl. It could have a little bit of the fungicide that use use on the RO membrane after testing in it. After that you should be good to go. :smile:

I thought I read somewhere to run 5g thru it first, just to clean out the fungicide..might depend on th ebrand.

good remider, thanks! i just drained the first tank...will do another just in case, then i top off the soon to be reef!

That could well be right Brad.

But quite a bit of it is washed out if you just flush the membrane when doing the set up.

But the couple of gallons number was just something that I grabbed out of the air. :redface:

The sticker on the membrane actually says 'run for 2 hours'. That's probably a very conservative warning. I ran 6-7 tanks worth over a day just to be on the safe side. I didn't want a stomache ache (as the label warns...) lol.

i haven't seen anything regarding this except ed mentions that after the first tank is full to dump it to flush the membrane, then you should be good to go. anyhow, i did 3 tanks full, hope it's enough.

The sticker is on the airtight plastic bag holding the blue membrane cartridge. I'm sure your three tanks is enough already. As long as your tds meter says 'zero', you should be good to go. You might get a drip here and there from the unit, but that'll go away in a day or two as it breaks in.

cool, guess i missed that membrane sticker.

so leaks do go away eventually? i thought i had em all zipped up yesterday but noticed this morning i've got an ultra slow leak coming from the DI canister that i just cannnot loose. ignore it and it will go away you say?? :lol:

You too huh? :biggrin:
The ends of my DI chamber dripped quite a bit when the unit was priming. I went out and got some teflon tape and put some on both ends of the DI tube. It helped, but it was still dripping about once every 5 minutes. A day or two later, it went away and is bone dry now.

damn, it's still drippin there!! anyhow, that's not why i'm posting this time.

so i've had the as maximus running now for a few days and have tested my water with a tds meter. just caliberated it so should be accurate i got outta the tap a reading of 13 and out of the ro/di water 2. does this sound right to you guys?? is 13 justifiable reason to get this unit cause i caliberated this to a solution of 800! the differences between 13 and 2 seem pretty insignificant to me...then again thats why i ask :rolleyes: anyone??

My hand-held TDS meter initally read 1ppm even when my RO/DI unit was brand new. I see 1ppm as my "0ppm". Maybe you should do the same with 2ppm? I can't imagine anything getting past a brand new RO/DI.

Also, it could be that our containers that we are holding the water we are testing are dirty.

Oh, and it's good you flushed the new RO because as Brad said there is a chemical in the membrane that needs to be flushed.

Teflon should seal up the threads but if not try a dab of silicone around the threads.

Hope that helps you out a little bit.

i've run quite a few tanks now...i just guess i was wondering if a tds reading of 13 outta the tap is really all that bad?

Well, not nearly as bad as Calgary's TDS reading but... yes

...beacause that 13ppm could be anything.

After time those minerals build up in your system with freshwater evaporation top-up, water changes, ect.

Yup, Jack is right. The 13ppm in the water can be anything. I get a reading of 15ppm at my house. I talk to folks back east and their water lines are around 100-200 ppm, so we're really luckly in YVR. It just means that we don't have to change our resins as often.

try running some ro/di directly into a glass and testing the tds, mine is usally 1 or 2 below what i read out of my storage container.