Environmental Impact of DI Resin

adobo

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Just because the hobby may help us find a deeper appreciation for the natural world doesn't take away the fact that it really is a wasteful use of resources. The hobby in itself is 100% a luxury that none of us need to partake in, and the additional energy usage of equipment running 24/7 is a good example of one way the hobby is adversely effective to the environment (unless you run your house on solar I suppose). Obviously I partake in the hobby, so I'm not trying to talk down to anyone or anything, but we gotta keep in mind that this isn't an environmentally friendly activity

Aren't all hobbies pretty much luxuries? I mean, isn't that the definition of a hobby - a completely unnecessary thing you do purely for pleasure?

If your "complaint" is the wasted energy - is the hobby really that much more wasteful of energy than other common hobbies? If you take an average tank of say 75 gallons, you can run that tank with 500 watts during the day (3 90watt LED lights, skimmer pump, return pump, powerheads) and 250 watts at night. While that is a lot, changing out all of your incandescent light bulbs in your average sized home to LEDs will give you that energy back. Running your AC an hour or so less everyday, changing out your plasma t.v., and on and on will easily give you that energy back.

I haven't even brought up solar panels yet.

Compared to scuba diving or even playing golf, it could be argued that keeping an average sized reef tank requires less energy.
 
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jRatanak

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Aren't all hobbies pretty much luxuries? I mean, isn't that the definition of a hobby - a completely unnecessary thing you do purely for pleasure?

If your "complaint" is the wasted energy - is the hobby really that much more wasteful of energy than other common hobbies? If you take an average tank of say 75 gallons, you can run that tank with 500 watts during the day (3 90watt LED lights, skimmer pump, return pump, powerheads) and 250 watts at night. While that is a lot, changing out all of your incandescent light bulbs in your average sized home to LEDs will give you that energy back. Running your AC an hour or so less everyday, changing out your plasma t.v., and on and on will easily give you that energy back.

I haven't even brought up solar panels yet.

Compared to scuba diving or even playing golf, it could be argued that keeping an average sized reef tank requires less energy.

For sure all hobbies are luxuries. I'm not arguing/complaining against that fact, just saying that it's something to be mindful of; especially with a hobby that's so intertwined with an ecosystem that's been a large focus of environmental concern for the last few decades. We do what we're doing regardless, so again, I'm not making complaints or saying the hobby is any more/less wasteful than any other activities; just that we should acknowledge the impact that we have (within the hobby or not, to be fair).
 
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Mike N

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Have you looked into maybe trying to make your system more efficient at processing TDS prior to your resin stages? Or using Multiple separate DI stages to handle the TDS better?
Yes. We talked about putting a second stage DI as well as adding a booster pump.
These upgrades keep moving to the back burner so we can buy livestock lol
 

laverda

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Between our office tank and the many tanks at my house, we use quite a lot. Of course, it exhausts quicker than I believe it should.

Did not know about that, will definitely look it up. Thanks.
How many gallons of water are you making a week? I make 35-60 gallons a week. I expect to make 700-1000 gallons before my DI is expired. That is only because I have high TDS to start with here at 400-420 and high CO2. I used to get 3-4 times that much out of my DI. I would change it less than once a year at my old house. I made more water then as I had more tanks.
I would look at you set up unless your making more that 500 gallons a week.
 

samnaz

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Have you seen the trash and pollution in other countries that is literally EVERYWHERE? I've been to Asia and Central / South America, and there is trash everywhere! Ive seen photos of West Africa from my moms trips there. Americans are 100x better about getting their trash to a landfil than the vast majority of other countries.
Except America sends their trash to developing countries. Just cause you see trash in a waterway in Asia doesn’t mean they put it there themselves. Everyone’s always trying to point fingers at other countries. Fact is, we (Americans) make WAY more trash than any other country, and we could change that but we don’t.
 

laverda

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I just wish that vendors would send a return envelope with all styrofoam boxes so they could reuse them. And the use of styrofoam peanuts. They do make alternative products that do not last a million years.
That would not be environmentally friendly due to emissions and logistics involved in shipping empty boxes. Save the peanuts in a plastic bag and give them to someone you know that ships stuff. I use recycled shipping peanuts, paper, air bags, bubble wrap, and most boxes and padded envelopes for everything I ship.
 

jRatanak

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Except America sends their trash to developing countries. Just cause you see trash in a waterway in Asia doesn’t mean they put it there themselves. Everyone’s always trying to point fingers at other countries. Fact is, we (Americans) make WAY more trash than any other country, and we could change that but we don’t.

This fr. People act like pollution is only a localized issue. Yes, there is point-source pollution that can be traced to specific locations, but eventually, everything intertwines
 

Ippyroy

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That would not be environmentally friendly due to emissions and logistics involved in shipping empty boxes. Save the peanuts in a plastic bag and give them to someone you know that ships stuff. I use recycled shipping peanuts, paper, air bags, bubble wrap, and most boxes and padded envelopes for everything I ship.
The trucks are not packed to the gills. There is almost always room left over for these few empty boxes, therefore, they are not wasting any fuel whatsoever, but helping to be more fuel-efficient. I am specifically talking about the reuse of styrofoam. As far as the chests go, they can be reused. It is a waste to buy new ones and throw away the used ones. Trucks have to carry the new empty ones, trucks and trains carry the raw material to the factory to make the new ones. Trucks carry workers to the factories to make the new ones. Just send them back and reusing is a million times better than making new ones.
 

adobo

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How many gallons of water are you making a week? I make 35-60 gallons a week. I expect to make 700-1000 gallons before my DI is expired. That is only because I have high TDS to start with here at 400-420 and high CO2. I used to get 3-4 times that much out of my DI. I would change it less than once a year at my old house. I made more water then as I had more tanks.
I would look at you set up unless your making more that 500 gallons a week.

I am wondering if this DI resin thing is a red herring. I don't know what impact DI resin has on the environment but in terms of shear numbers, there are a comparatively minuscule number of people who participate in this hobby. I am more worried about painters who don't dispose of paint properly or people not disposing of their fluorescent bulbs properly. People with cars that leak all kinds of fluids. Heck go scuba diving. Its astonishing what people just dump in the ocean whenever someone is not looking.
 

jRatanak

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That would not be environmentally friendly due to emissions and logistics involved in shipping empty boxes. Save the peanuts in a plastic bag and give them to someone you know that ships stuff. I use recycled shipping peanuts, paper, air bags, bubble wrap, and most boxes and padded envelopes for everything I ship.

At the end of the day there really is no way to achieve
The trucks are not packed to the gills. There is almost always room left over for these few empty boxes, therefore, they are not wasting any fuel whatsoever, but helping to be more fuel-efficient. I am specifically talking about the reuse of styrofoam. As far as the chests go, they can be reused. It is a waste to buy new ones and throw away the used ones. Trucks have to carry the new empty ones, trucks and trains carry the raw material to the factory to make the new ones. Trucks carry workers to the factories to make the new ones. Just send them back and reusing is a million times better than making new ones.
Maybe the best option would be to find local suppliers to just donate your used ones to. Obviously not an option for everyone, but could be a good solution for those that live near enough to livestock vendors.
 

jRatanak

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At the end of the day there really is no way to achieve

Maybe the best option would be to find local suppliers to just donate your used ones to. Obviously not an option for everyone, but could be a good solution for those that live near enough to livestock vendors.
Idk why that first quote happened, I didn't mean for it to be there haha
 

Ippyroy

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At the end of the day there really is no way to achieve

Maybe the best option would be to find local suppliers to just donate your used ones to. Obviously not an option for everyone, but could be a good solution for those that live near enough to livestock vendors.
I live in a very remote town. We throw away dozens of the cheap styrofoam ice chests every year left behind by the millions of tourists that come through here. I would gladly donate them to be reused. But the only people I know that use them are the ones who send them to me. I would gladly pay to send them back.
 

pdxmonkeyboy

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Well I am not going to get into a trash debate. BUT if you want to do something about it, THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

Get a 3 stage di unit. Thats anion, cation, and mixed bed. Odds are very very high you are only exhausting the anion or the cation.

Buy a big bag of the one your are exhausting. Change out as needed. Then when you dont have any left..recharge it.

I dump my anion resin in lye and water. BOOM.. recharged. Cation needs an acod and water. Rinse with rodi water, let air dry. I bought a fine mesh filter that fits on top of a 5 gallon bucket for like $12 to assist in the process.

I blast through an entire cartridge of anion resin every 100 gallons... well water. Have not bought anion resin in about 3000 gallons of rodi.

So instead of worrying about throwing it out... don't..
 
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Mike N

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Well I am not going to get into a trash debate. BUT if you want to do something about it, THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

Get a 3 stage di unit. Thats anion, cation, and mixed bed. Odds are very very high you are only exhausting the anion or the cation.

Buy a big bag of the one your are exhausting. Change out as needed. Then when you dont have any left..recharge it.

I dump my anion resin in lye and water. BOOM.. recharged. Cation needs an acod and water. Rinse with rodi water, let air dry. I bought a fine mesh filter that fits on top of a 5 gallon bucket for like $12 to assist in the process.

I blast through an entire cartridge of anion resin every 100 gallons... well water. Have not bought anion resin in about 3000 gallons of rodi.

So instead of worrying about throwing it out... don't..
Good stuff. Thanks for the details.
 

pdxmonkeyboy

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No problem. You can recharge mixed bed as well. Dump everything in lye. The cation will float, skim it off, then rinse and treat with acid.

The recharged stuff does not last as long as the original charge but its good enough.
 

adobo

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For sure all hobbies are luxuries. I'm not arguing/complaining against that fact, just saying that it's something to be mindful of; especially with a hobby that's so intertwined with an ecosystem that's been a large focus of environmental concern for the last few decades. We do what we're doing regardless, so again, I'm not making complaints or saying the hobby is any more/less wasteful than any other activities; just that we should acknowledge the impact that we have (within the hobby or not, to be fair).

Honest question here - I really am that unaware. What aspects of the hobby have a detrimental impact in the environment?
  • Is it the collection of wild animals? I think the collectors are now using more environmentally friendly techniques. And according to Walt Smith, their wildlife collection is pretty much negligible and easily replenished naturally.
  • Is it the energy consumption? If so, I have already described how one could easily negate their impact on energy usage?
  • Is it wasted water?
  • Is it consumables that wind up in landfills?
 

piranhaman00

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No problem. You can recharge mixed bed as well. Dump everything in lye. The cation will float, skim it off, then rinse and treat with acid.

The recharged stuff does not last as long as the original charge but its good enough.

Please link re charge procedure. I would like to try.
 

jRatanak

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Honest question here - I really am that unaware. What aspects of the hobby have a detrimental impact in the environment?
  • Is it the collection of wild animals? I think the collectors are now using more environmentally friendly techniques. And according to Walt Smith, their wildlife collection is pretty much negligible and easily replenished naturally.
  • Is it the energy consumption? If so, I have already described how one could easily negate their impact on energy usage?
  • Is it wasted water?
  • Is it consumables that wind up in landfills?
It's more so that all of these "little" things just compound into us having a greater overall impact than if we were not to be in the hobby. Now of course a lot of the things within the hobby that contribute aren't necessarily specific just to this hobby/industry (shipping demands, water usage, energy usage in general, etc). And like you mentioned there are ways to deal with mitigating some of these effects, which is totally valid. In the end, these things are just inherent impacts that we're going to have as hobbyists, and individually we have to decide how important they are for ourselves. Of course, I'm a hobbyist as well, so I don't want it to sound like I'm talking down to anyone about these issues cause I'm just as much of a contributor as anyone else. These are just things I think we all should be cognizant of, we all definitely have an appreciation for reef ecosystems, so I think it's fair that we're at least acknowledging of our impacts on the environment.

To the point of wild collection, there's not a ton of official regulation regarding documentation of what's being taken from the ocean (though there definitely is some, and certain collectors do a better job than others), so it's hard to even draw conclusions as to the overall impact of that practice; though it's also fair to mention that humanitarian issues exist in this part of the supply chain as well. But I think this is honestly a whole separate topic that has more layers to it, and I'm definitely not really qualified to do anything beyond speculate at this point.

Hope that all makes sense, I'm not trying to be Captain Planet by any means, just trying to shed light on the topic haha
 
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