Any Dialyseas Users out there - share your experience tips and tricks?

[FishTruck]

Seavisions has been making the dialyseas system for well over two decades now, but I don't see much posted about them.

I have been using one for a year and have made some modifications to it and overall I really like it. The owner of Seavisions always answers my questions, but I was wondering if there are many users on this board who would share experiences or tips?

 

[FishTruck]

One thing I did do was add a second RO membrane. I noticed that the older models came with two. My system is over 1500 gallons, and I was also stealing salt water for my quarantine tank.

The diayseas system was having trouble keeping up with evaporation and my water theft, and adding the other RO membrane solved the problem. As it is now, I can steal five or 10 gallons and the diayseas sytsem will make it up for me automatically.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'd never heard of the company or any of their products, and I've lived in SW Florida for 20 years. After looking at their website, I'd say their products look a bit old in style (not that that is a bad thing... or important). But they sure are proud of it in terms of costs. And probably aimed at bigger systems and people who are less interested in doing the routine work of keeping a tank.

The dialyseas system may work great, but at $2600 and not much info about just how it works, I can see why there aren't a lot of users. We have over 100 people with aquariums in our local club and I'd bet nobody has one... and would be surprised if more than a couple have even heard of Seavision.

I hope you find some users here. I'd like to hear more about the systems.

 

[FishTruck]

Twelve years ago... this tank of the month described the dialyseas system and was the first I had heard of it. I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to try it out and just couldn't quite get it out of my head. Looking at the space needed for a proper water change system... and the size of water tanks... for my current system... the footprint savings started to make some economic sense. Also the cost of lost livestock caused by screw ups that I made with my old WC system... as well as not always paying attention to SG... it seemed like it could help me reach a higher level of reefing by compensating for some of my deficiencies.

Tank of the Month - December 2008 - Reefkeeping.com

www.reefkeeping.com

 

[alysak6075]

So what are the differences between the Dialyseas and the OC2? does the OC2 do everything that Dialyseas does or is it more of a water change system?

 

[FishTruck]

From what I can tell... the Ocean Creator makes saltwater automatically, and then does water changes in the traditional way, keeps your salinity in check automatically. It does not do dialysis. According to the website... it can be installed remotely. I can't tell if it uses a brine bucket to make the saltwater. It has two conductivity controllers. I assume one is for the sump and one is for the new saltwater.

 

[alysak6075]

From what I can tell... the Ocean Creator makes saltwater automatically, and then does water changes in the traditional way, keeps your salinity in check automatically. It does not do dialysis. According to the website... it can be installed remotely. I can't tell if it uses a brine bucket to make the saltwater. It has two conductivity controllers. I assume one is for the sump and one is for the new saltwater.

Thank you for this! Since you have the "artificial kidney" one. Do you feel like it is using less saltwater over all, or for that matter less water alltogether to do what it promises, compared to a normal water change that you would do on your tank?

 

[FishTruck]

Less Salt than anticipated. On top of a stockpile... I had three bags per month of IO on automatic delivery from Amazon - I'm only going through 1 or 2 per month (enough to make 50 to 100 gallons of sea water), which is nothing for a 1500 gallon system. I just counted 30 unused bags of IO that have piled up. I shutoff salt delivery last month.

I can't really say how much water I am processing - it is quite variable. My trace elements are better than ever (when I run my ICP tests), nitrates holding at about 20 ppm and phos 0 to .01 ppm after running GFO three times in the last year.

This is all really great.

On the other hand... after I augmented the RO system to make RO water twice as fast - I am now going through DI resin much faster than anticipated. I think I am running RO water twice as fast as needed through the dialysis membrane. So... this part is not so good. DI resin is not cheap!

 

[FishTruck]

Another update is that the conductivity monitor became erratic. Gerry does not have them now (the controller company quit making that model apparently) and he offered to adjust or fix mine and /or modify my box for a new one - if I sent it back. Very nice - but a hassle.

I just decided for now to run it without the conductivity controller and manually turn the brine pump on or off (using a simple bypass). This actually works better for me. I only need to flip the switch every two weeks and remember to check the SG weekly (I actually check it daily). It varies between 1.0245 and 1.025 on a two weeks swing. When it gets to 1.025, I run brine bypass. When it drifts back down to just a hair under 1.025... I turn the brine back on. And... no more constantly fussing over the conductivity probe.

 

[alysak6075]

Thank you for all of this info!!! On the DI: after i added a booster pump to my RODI, the DI consumption slowed by about 60%. So maybe not enough pressure in the entire system? You know more than me, so I should not be giving advice

 

[FishTruck]

Thank you for all of this info!!! On the DI: after i added a booster pump to my RODI, the DI consumption slowed by about 60%. So maybe not enough pressure in the entire system? You know more than me, so I should not be giving advice

Funny story... my household water was like 55 psi and did not drop enough when the system kicked in to trigger the standard switches that one would buy for a booster pump. So, I had to get this thing.... on amazon, which allowed me to set a precise turn on pressure for my booster pump.

Boosted... I am making 180 gpd of 1 tds water out of my membranes, which is pretty darn good. I am just making way more water than I need for dialysis.

But... I often steal water from the main system for moving fish, or for my QT, which is where I need 180 gpd at times.

I calculate that I only need 100 ml per minute (38 gpd) to run the dialysis process (which is 8 hours per day). I have a few options to sort this out and quit wasting water and DI resin. The simplest would be to just get a separate RO/DI unit for top-off and water creation.

 

[alysak6075]

yeah... you have a far more advanced system than i do. I was actually thinking of getting the "artificial kidney" filter and hooking up my own system. Since i already have most of the parts. My RODI feeds a few tanks and the drinking system for the house so the booster pump was needed. It seems the magic is in the Revaclear 400 and a few peristaltic pumps. I might try something like this eventually. I dont struggle with Nitrates but Phosphates are an issue to keep stable. I dont like using GFO so thought either try this or build a Lanthanum Chloride filter.

Last question and Ill stop annoying you, I PROMISE , does the revaclear need any sort of back pressure to function, sort of like the RO membrane needs a reducer?

 

[FishTruck]

Yes... you do indeed need back pressure on the water seawater coming out of the revaclear. This will push solutes out into the exhaust line (from tank water to dialysate) and also resists the flow of free water in the other direction. Free water actually flows by osmosis in the opposite direction of the solutes (from dialysate to seawater) and without resistance... it will actually add volume to the tank while you are running dialysis.

So... the dialyseas unit uses something like this... You begin operations with the thing wide open allowing, say, 100 ml per minute (38 GPH). After a couple of days.... if your sump volume is going up past the fill line (you are adding more free water than you are evaporating), you lower the flow a bit, thereby adding resistance, until you can run the machine without adding more free water than what is evaporating. These can be found for 30 to 60 bucks. If you close the flow completely or it gets clogged, you can crack your membrane (I did that once... but I think it was clogged for days before it actually cracked).

 

[alysak6075]

Yes... you do indeed need back pressure on the water seawater coming out of the revaclear. This will push solutes out into the exhaust line (from tank water to dialysate) and also resists the flow of free water in the other direction. Free water actually flows by osmosis in the opposite direction of the solutes (from dialysate to seawater) and without resistance... it will actually add volume to the tank while you are running dialysis.

So... the dialyseas unit uses something like this... You begin operations with the thing wide open allowing, say, 100 ml per minute (38 GPH). After a couple of days.... if your sump volume is going up past the fill line (you are adding more free water than you are evaporating), you lower the flow a bit, thereby adding resistance, until you can run the machine without adding more free water than what is evaporating. These can be found for 30 to 60 bucks. If you close the flow completely or it gets clogged, you can crack your membrane (I did that once... but I think it was clogged for days before it actually cracked).

Thanks for explaining!! I was wondering what that was in the pictures of the machine. Thank you for all your help! I really appreciate it.

 

[wisnia99]

Seavisions has been making the dialyseas system for well over two decades now, but I don't see much posted about them.

I have been using one for a year and have made some modifications to it and overall I really like it. The owner of Seavisions always answers my questions, but I was wondering if there are many users on this board who would share experiences or tips?

Hi FishTruck.
I have purchased used OCEAN CREATOR II by SeaVisions. I set everything up but it seems the monitor is not reading the salinity form the sump, you said the owner is nice. Do you think the company can help me out with this issue when I call them? I guess I not the original owner but really need help and there is nothing out there on how this works. I'm tempted and take it apart to find the probe that is maybe the issue.

Thanks!
Mike.

 

[FishTruck]

Yes. Email Gerry, he’ll help you. Don’t be afraid to take it apart and replace the probe. It’s all pretty simple wiring on the inside.

hopefully, it’s just the probe and not the conductivity monitor.