Jay Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Hello everyone: Sorry I missed everyone at the meeting. I could not make it. Well heres the scoop and tell me what you think. I moved to this new house in January and got a new tank. Hooked up my RO unit off my cold water side of my washing machine water input with a spliter with those small valves in them. Started noticing lots of green algae on my glass but attributed that to the new tank even though I moved all my stuff from existing mature tanks into the new one. Well I had the issue when I painted you may rember and had to do some big 55 gallon changes. The algae on the glass looked worse. I checked my TDS from the RO/DI unit and it was 45 so I changed the resin and it went to zero so I changed out another 55 gallons to rid my tank of the impure water and it was back on the glass again...that fine green dust algae so I tested the RO again and it was back up to 60. I thought well its 3 of 4 years old the membrane is bad so I looked around and decided another whole RO/DI unit was a better deal. The new one has 2 DI chambers and was from the same filter direct people on ebay. Good systems IMO and inexpensive with a 100 GPD 6 stage for $115 so I got another one and hooked it up and tested it to be zero TDS. Cool enough lets get that bad water out with a big 55 gallon water change to start with. OK helped some and its been a while now mabey 1 month. I have been topping off the tank with RO/DI everyday manually no problem till the algae is back on the glass. Checked the TDS yesterday and its 135 from the unit...SH&$%#@T... and the algae is worse then ever on my glass and my liverock has the beginnings of a big outbreak of algae as I can see that familer green fuzz starting to grow. I disconnected the DI portion of the filter and checked the TDS to be the same 135. Then I tested the water from my tap and its 135....imagine that. My conclution is this. When I moved into the new place I did not check the water preasure comming into the unit from the cold water side of the washer. It is very strong preasure but the unit is rated at 80 pounds max. I think I may have destroyed the membrane in my origional filter, bought a new one and destroyed that membrane also with the high preasure. What do you all think???? wow thats a lot of typing when you hunt and peck the keys! : ) What do you all think? Am I right on about the problem or am I missing something? This is the unit I have. My first unit I bought from them was outstanding for 3-4 years till I moved here: http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-2-110GPD-RO-2DI-REVERSE-OSMOSIS-water-FILTER_W0QQitemZ120175152390QQihZ002QQcategoryZ20756QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem HELP...does anyone have a water preasure guage that can hook up the this thing so I can test the preasure. Thanks everyone Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted October 29, 2007 Author Share Posted October 29, 2007 Frustrated...this is getting expensive...again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly guy Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 the first thing i would do is measure the co2 content of the source water high c02 will toast your resin quick \ its kind of a pita to set up......but not too bad of a fix if that is indeed the case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chewie Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 I doubt the PSI form the cold supply is more than 80. Most homes are in the 35-70 PSI range. What kind of TDS meter are you using? Has it been calibrated lately? 1 good way to check is to test a bottle of "aquafina" bottled water. I have consistently tested around 12 TDS. How often do you feed the tank? Try not feeding for a week and see if the green film on the glass gets better. You could also try using another source of topoff water from a LFS. I know Saltwater Fanta seas has some REALLY good water. How long has the tank been setup? Size? Fish Load? If you have any mechanical filtration(filter socks, filter floss), it needs to be cleaned 2 times a week usually. What kind of skimmer, and how is it working? Is it producing green tea, or dark coffee? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted October 29, 2007 Author Share Posted October 29, 2007 I have been useing this meter for a long time. I talked to the guy who sold me the unit and he said that the water is comming out of the membrane way to fast. He said he has had problems with these 100 gallon per day membranes and is sending me a 75 gallon per day membrane free of charge. I will buy a valve that regulates the preasure allowed to reach the unit just in case that was the problem. As far as the algae on the glass goess its like clockwork. I clean the glass then add water from the unit and in a few hours the dust shows up again. I will test RO water from aquifina or someone elsed ro unit to make sure its not my meter but Im sure the meter is fine because when I add fresh DI rezin it shows zero for a few gallons till the rezin gets expired. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twitterbait Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 are you sure your RO membrane is seated properly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAVES Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 are you sure you are running the good RO water into the DI not the waste water? The good water comes out of the very end, the waste is off to the side. I have a 1/4" john guess pressure gauge you can borrow if you want to drop by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spectra Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Jay where in Vancouver are you? I am on the east side and have a TDS meter you can use to see if it reads the same as yours. I have the exact same RO unit and it has worked flawlessly for the past 6 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
impur Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 I would guess its hooked up wrong first. Then i would recalibrate the TDS meter. The pressure at my house is 83psi, and my RO/DI works fine. Been using it at this house for almost 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCR Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Pressure is not the issue. What is your waste to good water ratio? Should be approx. 4 to 5 to one bad to one good. A huge mistake a lot of people do. Read below CHECKING THE CONCENTRATE TO PURIFIED WATER RATIO This procedure will assure you of maximum life and reliability of your SpectraPure System. Failure to perform this procedure can permanently damage the membrane and will void the pro-rated Membrane Warranty. In order to maximize the life of your SpectraPure RO Membrane, you may need to adjust the ratio of the concentrate to purified water. If not enough concentrate is allowed to flow past the membrane during operation, the impurities will precipitate out on the membrane surface, clogging the RO Membrane. To keep this from happening, the Concentrate to Purified Water Ratio must be checked and adjusted in order to compensate for pressure and temperature variations that exist in all water supplies. The flow rate of the concentrate must be a minimum of 4X the product flow rate. 4X to 6X is an acceptable concentrate flow rate. Procedure: 1. Open the cold water supply valve and let the system run for 15 minutes. Direct both tube down the drain. 2. Collect product water from the blue tubing into a measuring cup for one minute. Measure the collected amount in milli-liters. Do the same with the waste water from the yellow line. WASTE (YELLOW) IN MILILITERS______________ DIVIDED BY PRODUCT (BLUE) IN MILILITERS______________ The resultant is the Concentrate to Product Ratio (Although not needed in this proceedure, the daily product flow rate in Gallons per Day (GPD) can be calculated to be equal to the product flow rate times 0.38 ). 3. If ratio is less than 4:1 Disconnect yellow drain line from the membrane housing and then remove flow restrictor. Use the appropriate Waste to Product ratio to determine how long to cut the flow restrictor in order to obtain a 4:1 ratio. ( Figure D) * Please refer to pages 13-14 for Flow Restrictor Removal, Adjustment, and Replacement. * 4. If ratio is greater than 6:1, flow restrictor requires replacement (Please contact SpectraPure Inc). 5. Turn on feed supply. 6. This completes the procedure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayR Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 Hey Jay, I believe I have the same RO/Di filter you have I bought off filter direct/ebay. I have used it for about 1 year & it has worked flawlessly. In California I had tap water reading 300+ppm off my TDS & after going through the unit it read 0 & lasted for approx 6months. I doubt its the unit, check your TDS meter I have one for comparison if you want to try. I read approx 90ppm from my tap water here in Salmon Creek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobalt Posted October 30, 2007 Share Posted October 30, 2007 check to make sure the prefilters are seated properly as well, chlorine could be destroying the membrane. Also, check the flow restrictor. THe flow restrictor should match the rating of the membrane. I don't think you can go from a 100gpd to a 75gpd membrane without swtiching the flow restrictor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted October 31, 2007 Author Share Posted October 31, 2007 You are referring to the round deal on the brine water side (waste water side?). Mine says 600 on my new one and my old one says 550. I talked to the guy at Buckey field supply and he thought my flow restricter would be ok but we were looking at the round thing on the waste water tube. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted November 2, 2007 Author Share Posted November 2, 2007 OK... what flow restricter is used on a 100 gallon per day membrane and what flow restricter is used on a 75 gallon per day membrane? Does anyone know for sure? I have 2 flow restricters, 1 says 600 the other says 550. Thanks in advance Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.