kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

kien · #1 03-13-2014, 04:23 AM

I know of a few calgarians who don't DI. I've tested my tap a few times throughout the year(s) and have at most seen TDS at 175 ? Certainly never seen TDS higher than 200 !! We have major major run off and snow melt (flooding in some areas) right now and I just tested my tap, TDS 149.

reeferfulton · #2 03-13-2014, 04:54 AM

Does the water stink as you are making it ? Or after its been sitting for a few days.
Is it in a sealed bucket while etc.

kien · #3 03-13-2014, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reeferfulton

Does the water stink as you are making it ? Or after its been sitting for a few days.
Is it in a sealed bucket while etc.

Ya the smell seems to be coming right out of the RO/DI unit. When I took out the DI and put it in the sink in the bathroom I cold smell the DI resin. My freshwater reservoir is covered and mostly sealed. That last batch I made was just last night so it wasn't sitting around for long.

Coralgurl · #4 03-13-2014, 05:11 AM

I only run RO, incoming on my last batch was around 127, 0 coming out. I think you'd be fine without it! I'll be changing my filters before the next batch, only thing that should change is production time....

kien · #5 03-13-2014, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

I only run RO, incoming on my last batch was around 127, 0 coming out. I think you'd be fine without it! I'll be changing my filters before the next batch, only thing that should change is production time....

Nice! My sediment filter is probably overdue and if I replace that I wonder if my output would drop from 2 to zero. Not that a TDS of 2 is anything to worry about. I'm just happy that my water doesn't stink

Seriously, I just Googled "smelly Di resin" and apparently it's pretty common.

mrhasan · #6 03-13-2014, 06:38 AM

I also use RO. 4ppm out of the unit and I don't consider that to be the end of the world

Tap water generally runs around 150ppm but I am noticing strong chlorine smell in the water today and its now 200ppm.

mike31154 · #7 03-13-2014, 01:12 PM

Where are you getting your DI resin? My system has been on line for 6 plus years & I've only changed the resin once so far. Took over 3 years to exchaust it. Don't recall any foul smell. Incoming TDS here is around 170 and my 75 gpd RO gets that down to 0 during the cold months after running for approximately 10 minutes. In the warmer months once the incoming water gets above about 10 degrees C, I still get RO of 1 with similar incoming TDS. Source for my water is generally from Kalamalka Lake intake & incoming TDS is fairly consistent.

Greater Vernon has spent millions in the past few years upgrading water treatment plants. Our water rates reflect the spending & now due to more stringent health requirements mandated by IHA, they're looking at spending millions more! I do recall several times during algae blooms in the lake (springtime I think), they switched my source to Duteau Creek which they spent megabucks on a few years ago. When that happened, my incoming TDS dropped to below 50! Much softer water from the creek than from the lake. IIRC anything up to 500 TDS is deemed fit for human consumption. Over that and your supplier has to issue a boil water warning or shut down the source.

If you care for a longer read, here's an old post where I go on and on about how I run my RODI system to get the best performance out of it:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...590#post842590

gregzz4 · #8 03-13-2014, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kien

Certainly never seen TDS higher than 200

I must be confusing your guys' water with the Prairies peoples'

Reef Pilot · #9 03-13-2014, 01:25 PM

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

kien · #10 03-13-2014, 02:00 PM

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?