This deserves another journal...My 190g Wild Discus build!

Got the RO/DI system hooked up. Thanks again to www.thefilterguys.biz. Second time I've ordered from them. Their products and service are top notch! I picked up the 5 stage Ocean Reef +1 unit, and hooked it up to the chloramine filter I bought from them some time ago. So I'm essentially running a 7 stage RO/DI unit

Hookup was a breeze. The unit started producing pure water in no time, with no leaks at all. Here's a quick rundown of all that is going on for those that are new to RO/DI units (this is my first one as well).

*in order of water flow*
1. GAC Chloramine cartridge (granular activated carbon)
2. GAC Chloramine cartridge (granular activated carbon)
3. 5 micron poly sediment filter
4. 5 Micron Matrikx NSF rated CTO/2 Workhorse carbon block
5. 0.6 Micron Matrikx NSF rated chlorine guzzler carbon block
6. Dow Filmtec 75gpd RO membrane
7. DI cartridge w/ refillable resin

*misc*
8. Pressure gauge for water going into RO membrane
9. Inline dual TDS meter (measures straight tapwater and water before RO membrane)
10. Inline dual TDS meter (measures water after RO membrane, and after DI filter)



Waste water is going into my laundry drain. Maybe in the near future I can figure out a better use for it so I'm not wasting so much water.

And here's some photos of the TDS meters in action:

Tapwater straight from the faucet


After passing through the RO membrane


And after the last stage, the DI filter. Purest water you can get. 0ppm TDS!!!


To re-mineralize the RO/DI water with essential minerals I'll be using Kent's R/O Right and Discus Essentials. I'll add this after each water change, for the amount of water changed.

epond83;5063991; said:

wow very cool setup, do the GAC Chloramine cartridge have a micron rating? Just wondering if the 5 micron filter shouldn't come before them to make it more useful? All 7 canister are interchanable right?

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I don't think the GACs have a micron rating. It's just loose GAC in a refillable cartridge. I guess it makes sense though to have it set up this way, because if any carbon dust escapes the GAC filter it can get caught by the sediment filter instead of clogging up the membrane. I asked filterguys about this configuration and they said it would be fine and didn't foresee any issues.

KJB;5065682; said:

Man you do some amazing work with great attention to detail.

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Thanks!

fishfanatic46;5065712; said:

that is a gorgeous set up

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Thank you!

DaveB;5065761; said:

I'm not sure I understand why using full RO/DI then putting the Kent stuff in after is preferable. Adding stuff by hand means you'll never be totally automated, right?

Is it just to be 100% certain you're not exposed to any variation in the parameters? Since in theory you could mix RO and tap to get what you want, but if the tap changes, you'd see fluctuation?

My tentative future plans were to do a mix, just because I don't want to be adding anything manually every day. Having to do that partially defeats the purpose of automating, at least for me.

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Yes, that's right. The way I have it set up now involves it a little bit of manual involvement. I initially wanted to use a tap/RO mixture, but that would involve even more manual work. And that's because the waste water is not equal to the amount of pure water produced. Typical units produce 4g of waste water for every 1g of pure water produced.

Therefore, it would be very difficult to get a correct mix, while being able to keep the barrel refilled automatically via a float valve. I just don't see how I could make it work. I'd have to have more than one barrel for aging and mixing, which I don't have the room for. Or I could put waste water and RO water into the same barrel, but then I have the issue of what happens to the excess waste water? Because you'll produce more than you need. You'll need another way to divert it to a drain or storage tank after the barrel gets the amount of waste water you want (let's say 20% tap and 80% RO). If you have any ideas, I'm all ears

By the way, I've read that waste water is perfect for raising discus fry, so I can get any wrigglers, I'll have some use for all that wasted water

Responses below

DaveB;5065908; said:

Ah, see, in my case it'd just be two different drip setups with differently tuned/timed amounts going into the same sump. I've been thinking of it in those terms, rather than in your terms, which are that you're not doing a constant drip.

Well... What are you doing with the waste water as it stands now? And tell me again why you're unable to run this as a straight up 24/7 drip? Just no gravity for draining the used water from the living room, right?

Right now the waste water is simply going down my laundry drain. A little wasteful, but I have nothing else I could use it for right now. Maybe I could use it for a planted tank in the near future.

And yeah, that's the main reason for not doing a 24/7 drip. If this tank was near an outside wall, I'd drill a tiny hole and just let the water drain outside. But it's smack-dab in the middle of the house. Can't really drain anywhere. Well I could, but it would involve a very complicated setup that would require an extra reservoir to catch the spill over, then a sump pump that would operate via a float switch to pump the water to a drain when the water level in the reservoir rises. Then I'd need a solenoid to shut off the drip line when the power goes out, since the sump pump wouldn't be working. THEN, I'd need a safety switch that would shut off the drip line in case the water level gets too high in the reservoir if the sump pump fails. Very complicated, and expensive. For now, a semi-automatic water changing system will have to do!

Yeah, I just read that earlier today too. Never knew that. I guess cause I've never known what exactly is in the waste water. My assumption all along was that I'd be discarding that and using a mix of chlor-filtered tap and RO. The notion of re-mixing a portion of the waste water instead is totally new to me.

Waste water is actually good water for any other tank really. Waste water is everything that gets rejected by the RO membrane, after it has passed through the sediment and chlorine/chloramine filters. So your waste water is really tap water free of chlorine/chloramines and sediment-filtered. Much better than straight tapwater

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