Custom RO/DI

On bulk reef supply they have this Build your own RO system option. Im thinking about doing this. If anyone can, take a look on their website for this and tell me what i should add to make it as good as possible for under 200$. Thank you!

 

Stage 1 5 micron sediment
Stage 2 5 micron carbon
Stage 3 Chlor plus carbon
Stage 4 75 gpd membrane
Stage 5 single stage DI
single TDS meter
and purchase the necessary plumbing parts to fit where you will place the unit.

 

depending on what all that costs, the air water ice typhoon system is pretty much the samething (minus TDS meter) and costs 175ish with shipping and all the parts.

 

Thankyou 2in10. Im gunna go with exactly what you said. What are the benefits of using a dual DI?

 

Dual DI will extend the time between changing the all of the resin. The first unit will exhaust it self and then the second unit will kick in. I think it is a waste of money even if it is $10. You need to remove the resin once it is exhausted of it may cause water quality issues.

 

Oh. Then yeah ill just stick with one and replace when its had enough

 

There is usully no benefit to two carbons if you use a single 1.0 or better yet a 0.6 or 0.5 micron Chlorine Guzzler. Two carbons add to pressure drop which decreases a membranes efficiency. Companies like Spectrapure have tested filters and configurations for 25 years and notice they use only a single carbon on all their systems up to the $900 UHE. There is a lesson to be learned here.

If you want to design your own system use a 1 micron or less prefilter, preferrable absolute rated not nominal rated so you do the best job of protecting the RO membrane. I use a 0.2 micron absolute rated pleated prefilter with 10x the surface area myself.
Next us a single 0.5 up to no larger than 1.0 micron carbon block again to protect the RO membrane. Follow that with a 75 GPD Dow Filmtec or 100 GPD GE Water RO membrane (almost identical in reality) or better yet one of Spectrapures hand tested and guaranteed better than 98+% rejection rate RO membranes. Finally a single vertical DI is suficient for most applications but I choose a dual DI such as Spectrapures SilicaBuster and MaxCap DI resins both of which are custom mixed based on years of testing in both lab and field conditions.

Why not look at the sale ad here for great pricing un much better units than found most other places. Again tested RO membranes not off the shelf dry untested or guaranteed membranes, tested and treated prefilters to enhance their performance and hand blended DI resins. Add to that much better capillary tube type flow restrictors, pressure gauges and TDS meters are included in their systems.
SpectraPure Customer Appreciation SALE! 20% - 50% off

 

Normal dual DI units have lots of advantages over single DI providing you have the ability to monitor the TDS from each. What you do is install the same identical mixed bed DI resin in both, when you first start to see TDS making it through the first DI cartridge you remove it, move the one from second position into first, refill the old one and install it in second so you get double life out of your resin and better finished water quality.
The Spectrapure MaxCap does it a litle different though, it uses their MaxCap resin in the first position and SilicaBUster in the second. The MaxCap resin cannot be used by itself and it must be in the first position as it acts like a prefilter or roughing filter for whatever is downstream. It makes the last resin last at least 3.5x longer and my personal experience is it lasts 5 to 8 times longer so pays for itself very quickly.

 

Good information AZ! Im looking at this link now and how would the 90 gpd proPLUS RO/DI work for me? I dont know if this is what makes the prices vary, but i deffinatly dont need 90 gallons a day. For my 55 I would think 20 or so gallons would be fine. Thank you

 

The price is the same regardless if its a 25, 50, 75 or 90 GPD, everything is the same except a few square inches of membrane fabric. You do want a 90 GPD I can tell you, it makes water faster which can be important when you need it.