Water Filtration Method
 

Hi All!
I'm considering using an unorthodox water filtration method on my new tank (still in planning stages obviously). I have in the past used an RO/DI on my old 100 gallon tank. Even with a booster pump I wasn't impressed with the output (and wastewater factor).

I'm considering using 3 systems plumbed together that will be strictly 3 sediment filters, 3 carbon filters and 3 DI chambers. Therefore no RO membranes and no wastewater.

I understand that I'm going to get a lot of different opinions on this as there are a lot of different methods that are used (straight tap water, RO, etc.). I guess I'm looking to see if anyone else uses the method that I am suggesting.

It's worth noting that I'm in Calgary (as some of you may ask about the water quality based on geographical region).

Oops; sorry!
It's been a while since I've posted. I'll figure out why this was posted to Canada Corals.

Moderators - Would you be so kind as to move this to the "Reef" thread? Thanks

Have you considered not using RODI water at all. Its very fast from the tap, and waste water is completely up to you...

When I first started my 100 gallon; I was using tap water exclusively. I had concerns with some algae blooms. I then started using RO water from one of the grocery stores; but lugging around the plastic bottles became extremely cumbersome. That is why I bought the RO/DI system eventually.

I did like the way my salt mixed with the RO/DI over the tap water. I used Reefers Best salt and it just seemed that there wasn't any residue with RO/DI and there was with tap water.

My thought is to go somewhere in between full RO/DI and tap water so that I can make water faster, with a pretty decent amount of filtration, and zero waste.

That would work great... If you don't want anything fancy in your tank.

You could always save your waste water and use it to water plants or if you're really handy, plumb it into a toilet.

I have 2 100 GPD Vertex Puratek Deluxe units and it supplies me with all I need. I almost bought a 200 GPD unit during J&L's boxing day sale but who needs 400 GPD.

Good point; I forgot to include my potential stocking list. That will have a bearing on it for sure.

My preference is for a lot of movement in the tank; therefore I'm not going to be having any SPS (for some reason they just don't speak to me). The corals will be Elephant Ear, rose bubble tip, xenia, frogspawn, hammer, torch and green star polyps (GSP); etc. And to note, the GSP will only be allowed to grow on the side walls of the glass (to be kept in check with razor blades). I don't want that stuff anywhere on the rocks as I know it will slowly take over.

I find this to be a load of bull , no offense but my system is all tap water for years I have no problems keeping " fancy " things or what ever that's supposed to mean lol and im not cheap and comsider my taste very highend so I don't buy common stuff .....so maybe you can enlighten me as to why I wouldn't be able to keep fancy things using tap water exactly? Maybe I'll learn something new lol

Your method of filtration is fine but I wouldn't use DI resin as it will get depleted faster than having run in conjuction with a membrane.
I thought of doing a similar setup to my system running only filtration with no membrane as I like to keep some of the ions after filtering to go to my system...

That's something I hadn't thought of; thanks for that point of view. That would mean I could go with 3 sediment and 3 carbon (assuming I use 2 of the 3 stage systems; of which I already have one). You just saved me some money; which I'll use to buy some dry rock from you once I'm ready for it……wait a minute, I see what you did there! Very clever!

I'd just do a sediment filter and two carbon filters, should be good enough for your needs depending on source water quality. The extra sediment filters will do nothing unless you stagger micron sizes from high to low (night let you go longer between changes), but that would still end up costing you more. Sediment filters are cheap tho, but still I'd just run a single 1 micron filter on the front end and change it when your output drops significantly.

As for carbon filters, two I probably overkill but if you have the stages for it anyway it's just insurance. You can run 0.5 micron carbon blocks if you want but you would probably have to change them before the carbon is exhausted.

All of my RO/DI system's waste water travels 50' to a 55gal plastic drum in the laundry room. I coordinate washing clothes around when it runs so very little is ever actually wasted. There is an emergency overflow drain on the drum so that it doesn't overflow onto the floor if it gets too full.

An RO membrane is cheap why not just run a regular unit and skip the resin? I would imagine it's the membrane itself doing most of the work and a high rejection rate one is still reasonably priced and last a few years if you take care of it.

out of curiosity how does this work? normally you're feeding water under pressure to the machine and I'm guessing a solenoid in the machine opens and closes. is the barrel elevated to gravity feed into it instead?

So what happens when there's a flood? What happens when the city has to swap to chloramine due to E. coli outbreaks? Etc...

That's the reason I use RO. It's insurance for when the normally good tap water isn't.

The water barrel isn't tied into the washing machine's plumbing, I just turn off the cold water tap and manually fill it from the barrel with a Danner Mag Drive pump which has a hose on its output. When the water level in the washing machine reaches the right hight the solenoid mechanism makes a 'click' noise, I unplug the pump and remove the hose. We have an old top load washing machine, if it was a new front load I don't think this method would work.

Agreed; there will always be a chance of tap water contamination (flushing of pipes, heavy chlorination, etc). I suppose in an event like that (like Winnipeg just had) you would A) hope you had enough freshwater stored to get you through or B) start boiling if you got desperate.

On a somewhat side note; but related. I'm also wondering about the merits of a UV sterilizer after the filtration; but before the salt mixing stage. I know this won't touch chlorination; but I'm curious what type of bacteria it would actually help not introduce into the tank (if any). I, personally, don't want to put the UV sterilizer into the tank as I'm a believer of keeping good bacteria around (please don't take offense if you use one; it's just my personal preference).