RO/DI working?

AfishIonado said:

I bought an RO/DI for my SW tank and I hooked it up and it's supposed to be 150 gpd which is 6 gph but it's only putting out 3gph.... I'm also afraid to use it to set up my tank because idk if it's pure water and my LFS can't test it.... What to do


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Brand new? Did you have to set it up yourself or was it already when you got it? If everything is right, then I'd say your incoming water pressure isn't high enough.


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+1 on water pressure you should be at 50-65 psi higher the better, its a RO/DI unit so even if for some reason the RO side was not working the DI cartage would remove the hardness though it would be used up fast so that's why the RO side well bring the ppm down to 3-5 and the DI well bring it down to 0 ppm. I would also invest in a TDS meter you can get on E-Bay on the cheap and a back flush kit is advised it well prolong the life of your RO membrane. Are you on city or well water ? if city water you should have a charcoal filter if you have chlorine and if you have chloramine you well need a filter for that both well do harm to your membrane. If the system is new i would say its working but you wont know until you get a TDS meter.

How do you know it turned your water soft and if it did turn soft well its works. Your PH should be around 6.5 to 7 but its has no buffers or hardness so the PH is very unstable. Not sure why the waste water would smell like chlorine. Are you using the RO/DI unit for top offs only or also for water changes if you are be sure to add your buffers and supplements to the water change

I don't think your hard water well hurt your aquarium if you doing water changes, its the evaporation and then adding hard water that well build up overtime giving you grief

It sounds like its working just fine. By the time you add salt mix to the water, the pH is going to be buffered anyway.

True with the salt mix having buffers and trace but not all salt mixes are the same. The salt mix i use (instant ocean) I find it well have a PH around 7.6-7.8 and 300 ppm calcium and that's why I add extra buffer and trace. Maybe aragonite would help with that in a non reef setup as a booster , but i have a reef tank and need to add buffer and trace