kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[Reef Pilot]

I've heard of this problem before. Where did you get your DI from?

[kien]

I've always gotten my DI resin from local fish stores and from different stores.

What I wonder now is if bad DI is the source of a lot of problems for tanks but some people can't/don't smell it. Over four years I can think of 4 times my DI has smelled and two of those times it was very very subtle and could easily be masked by the fishy smell of a fish tank, sump or skimmer. Once I remember it smelling bad while still outputting zero TDS which baffles me. It's possible the smell is attributed to something that isn't detected by the TDS meter?

[ronau]

Do you let the produced water reading get to zero before you start put it in your storage bin? I usually have to let mine run for 10 minutes before it gets to 0ppm.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by kien

I've always gotten my DI resin from local fish stores and from different stores.

What I wonder now is if bad DI is the source of a lot of problems for tanks but some people can't/don't smell it. Over four years I can think of 4 times my DI has smelled and two of those times it was very very subtle and could easily be masked by the fishy smell of a fish tank, sump or skimmer. Once I remember it smelling bad while still outputting zero TDS which baffles me. It's possible the smell is attributed to something that isn't detected by the TDS meter?

Just guessing, but odours are generally gaseous. TDS meters designed to detect solids, no? Ergo TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter not able to detect gas? Have you been consuming a lot of Mexican food with plenty of beans the night before messing with your DI media? Sauerkraut or excessive garlic consumption?

As mentioned, I've not detected a foul odour from my DI media, nor experienced coral die off that I could possibly attribute to funky DI product water. Of course I've only opened the canister once in 4 years to replace it. Original media was colour changing & was already loaded in the cartridge out of the box on delivery. I saved it in a plastic container in the basement, opened & smelled it a minute ago. Still moist & absolutely no odour. Batch I replaced it with is non colour changing nuclear grade DI media ordered from Buckeye Field Supply (now Buckeye Hydro). If I were you I'd consider investigating alternate sources rather than those local fish stores, or at least question where they're getting it.

I understand there is a way to recharge exhausted DI media, but after looking into it & the caustic chemicals required to do so, I'm kind of ok with buying a fresh batch, particularly since the stuff is lasting me 3-4 years.

[kien]

Holy crap your DI lasted 6 years?!?! My last one died in under a month LOL. The longest I've ever had DI going was 8 months maybe..

And ya, it was taco night.. I will try cutting back but that's going to be hard.

[mike31154]

Originally Posted by kien

Holy crap your DI lasted 6 years?!?! My last one died in under a month LOL. The longest I've ever had DI going was 8 months maybe..

And ya, it was taco night.. I will try cutting back but that's going to be hard.

Just under 3 & 1/2 years actually. RODI system was new in 15 April 2009 & I changed the DI media & carbon block 07 August 2012 after the TDS was reading 1 at the output of the DI stage.

I've been keeping track of water production on an Excel spreadsheet since day 1 and when I changed the DI & carbon I reckon I'd run about 15,200.5 US gallons through it. This number is based on gallons RO produced + gallons DI produced + waste water produced. The waste water production is calculated by multiplying RO+DI production by 4. By adding the RO+DI production to the waste, you get a good approximation of total gallons throughput based on a 1 to 4 product to waste ratio, which is what most RO membranes are designed to. It also allows me to approximate when my 20,000 gallon rated carbon block is nearing it's rated life.



The link I provided about 5 posts earlier provides some theories on why I may be getting such longevity from my DI based on personal experience with a source water TDS of between 160 to 190. It's a long read, but may help you get more out of your system. To condense what I consider the more important points from that link:

-Manual flush for a few minutes before & after each production run.

-First 1/2 gallon or so after start up in my experience is pretty crappy with regard to TDS & gets dumped. Takes mine that long to get down to 1 TDS after RO. Now continue to produce at least 5 gallons of RO before beginning DI production. This ensures RO TDS is about as low as it will get before you start sending water to the DI stage. Also allows the sediment filter(s) to get properly flushed. I've found TDS after sediment filters is significantly higher than source water TDS for about 5 minutes of running time. I think this is due to crap trapped by the sediment filters partially dissolving back into the standing water in the canister while the unit sits idle. I'm thinking the longer the system sits without running, the worse this issue can be. Once you start the system back up, all this nicely redissolved crap is sent to your carbon block & RO membrane, making both work harder. Furthermore, if you have the DI plumbed in during this start up phase, guess what?

-There's no way I would consider having my RODI controlled automatically to fill my sump or ATO for top off. This causes the system to run for short bursts (see info above), which is fine if your source water TDS is extremely low &/or you have lots of money & time to replace RO membranes & DI media.

[kien]

Originally Posted by mike31154

Just under 3 & 1/2 years actually. ...

Thanks for all that info! It was an interesting read!

[kien]

In case anyone was curious, this is what an overflow box looks like after almost 5 years of neglect.



And this is what it looks like after 4" of feather dusters, 3 inches of detritus and about 5 hours of my life that I will never get back..



I kicked up a poop storm (literally), so decided to do a 50% water change. Snapped some coral out of water shots.





That is all. Good night.