Can I remove the DI cartridge for RO water?

[seanarino]

I have a 50 GPD RO Buddie system and wanted to 100% make sure I wasn't leading myself to a dumb conclusion for this. It sounds like a simple yes/no question, but I'm known for making sort of dumb decisions.

If I needed RO water for my goldfish tank (noted: i have chloramines and nitrates in the water that the RO would remove because I have the chloramine filter attached) - could I just... remove the DI resin cartridge? And then reattach the "clean water line" to where the water would *normally* go to the DI cartridge? I don't have a tee or a way to divert the water as I choose, so I have to go this route... a little dumb, but it might work. I wanted to 100% be sure before i did it.

 

[exnisstech]

I suppose you could but it would be easier to just put a tee in with a piece of tubing and a valve. The fittings are readily available at home Depot and many hardware stores.
Mine has a tee before di that supplies drinking water and goes to the fridge for ice.

 

[UMALUM]

Not sure exactly what your trying to accomplish or not accomplish but yes simply disconnect the line the from the membrane to the di and reattach when needed.

 

[seanarino]

I suppose you could but it would be easier to just put a tee in with a piece of tubing and a valve. The fittings are readily available at home Depot and many hardware stores.
Mine has a tee before di that supplies drinking water and goes to the fridge for ice.

alas, i would love to, but i can't Just Go to home depot because i can't drive. also, i'm broke lol.

 

[seanarino]

Not sure exactly what your trying to accomplish or not accomplish but yes simply disconnect the line the from the membrane to the di and reattach when needed.

like i'd mentioned, its for my goldfish tank. i've spent about a week wondering why my goldfish were sick and lethargic and had what looked like white mucus on them - and was scared they'd die! - but turns out its a combination of nitrate sickness + chlorine toxicity from the tap water despite using dechlorinator (in fact, using a bit more than the bottle says) before adding it to the tank. so i'm going to do a couple water changes w/ RO water and see if that changes anything.

 

[UMALUM]

like i'd mentioned, its for my goldfish tank. i've spent about a week wondering why my goldfish were sick and lethargic and had what looked like white mucus on them - and was scared they'd die! - but turns out its a combination of nitrate sickness + chlorine toxicity from the tap water despite using dechlorinator (in fact, using a bit more than the bottle says) before adding it to the tank. so i'm going to do a couple water changes w/ RO water and see if that changes anything.

OK so why would you want to to skip the di stage?

 

[seanarino]

OK so why would you want to to skip the di stage?

I'm broke and can't afford a remineralizer + the buffers I would need, especially with how MUCH i would need (75 gallon tank). I can't buy a way to remineralize the water, and if I just cut the RO/DI with tap water, it'd be kinda dumb since the whole point was the fact that I can't use the tap water due to the chloramines / nitrates.

(And again: because it's a RO/DI system and you can't use RO/DI water in a freshwater tank without remineralizing it...)