new saltwater

Aquattro · #1 07-15-2014, 04:16 AM

It's fine. My last barrel sat for a month and looked like I had an oil spill

Do you use RO?

Maverick00 · #2 07-15-2014, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

It's fine. My last barrel sat for a month and looked like I had an oil spill

Do you use RO?

weird! I do, after draining the water the roughneck has a crystallized scale that could possibly be calcium. I made magnesium and calcium additions after the salt was added and dissolved.

Aquattro · #3 07-15-2014, 03:15 PM

You will get residual salt crystals, but the brown sludge, I found, comes from a dirty RO membrane. I did a flush of mine and the next barrel was very clean.

The normal back flush doesn't get much of the crud out, I did a "special" version of back flush and washed mud out of my membrane.

gregzz4 · #4 07-16-2014, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

The normal back flush doesn't get much of the crud out, I did a "special" version of back flush and washed mud out of my membrane.

What's the secret to a "special" version ?

Aquattro · #5 07-16-2014, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregzz4

What's the secret to a "special" version ?

Take out all the prefilters, hook it to the water and blast it. The air kicks all the sludge out.

Maverick00 · #6 07-16-2014, 02:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aquattro

You will get residual salt crystals, but the brown sludge, I found, comes from a dirty RO membrane. I did a flush of mine and the next barrel was very clean.

The normal back flush doesn't get much of the crud out, I did a "special" version of back flush and washed mud out of my membrane.

That would make sense, I dont have a tds meter but my RO membrane is at least a couple years old and I havent flushed it that much. I picked a new membrane up from blue world but it was the wrong size for my puratek 75gpd unit. Mine is alot smaller and sits horizontal above the prefilter/carbon. Id like to try the "secret flush", Im just taking out the the pre/carbon filter and flushing as usual? I dont quite understand?

Aquattro · #7 07-16-2014, 02:22 AM

Ya, take out all the stuff in the chambers, put them back. Hook the water into the membrane and flush. Put the output in a cup and see what comes out. Mine was disgusting, and I backflush every other week. And my membrane is less than 6 months old.

gregzz4 · #8 07-16-2014, 03:01 AM

Thanks Brad, I'll try it

I 'backflush' my unit weekly for a few minutes (or hours if I forget

) before I run it, but I too am curious to see what comes out
Judging by what my pre-filter catches I expect to see some crud

For the record, I was lead to believe the 'film' in my mixing tank was from some kind of clay in the salt mix that's used as a 'stabilizing agent' of sorts. I don't know ... haven't really delved into it as it's never hurt anything

gregzz4 · #9 07-16-2014, 03:31 AM

OK, the super-secret flush is done

Nothing but clear water came out of my RO system, so it's lookin' good
Albeit, my membrane is only 10 months old, and my incoming TDS is usually between 12 and 6-7, with tonight being a whopping 5

For now, I'm gonna blame the sediment in my NSW tank on clay in the salt mix
But, it sure would have been nice to find muck coming out of my system so I could eliminate the need to clean out my NSW tank every week

Aquattro · #10 07-16-2014, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregzz4

For the record, I was lead to believe the 'film' in my mixing tank was from some kind of clay in the salt mix that's used as a 'stabilizing agent' of sorts. I don't know ... haven't really delved into it as it's never hurt anything

The sludge pre and post flushing for me was quite different.

If you got nothing, maybe you did it wrong. My membrane is only 6 months old, and I back flush every other week. I got mud out of mine!

I might make a lot more water than you though, so who knows