HIGH TDS from faucet

Ofishalreefer · Jan 21, 2023

Hello all,

I have a reading of 445-475 (yes, you read correctly) of TDS from my faucet.

I have a 6 stage RODI system rigged up and I’m having a difficult time getting my output to 0 TDS.
I bypassed the DI segment for 30 minutes and have been running the entire system for several hours now, still getting 25+ppm on my TDS

Do I just need to be patient and waste more water, or, with my super high TDS going into the system, do I need to add an additional pre-DI filter to remove solids??

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

KrisReef · Jan 21, 2023

RO advertising at 95, or 90% reduction for 450 water means you can expect 22.5ppm or ~45ppm @95% rejection of source water.

Mine before DI resin was 30ppm last time I measured it.

Ofishalreefer · Jan 21, 2023

So what does it mean when my output is reading 25+ppm AFTER the DI?? I feel like I’m missing a piece of the puzzle..
Im 100% new to making water, patience may be required lol

KrisReef · Jan 21, 2023

Seems like your DI resin is not working. Are you on well water? Some well water is known to be “sparkling” and the CO2 will burn through DI in very short order when it is present. I don’t know if that is your situation?

Ofishalreefer · Jan 21, 2023

I appreciate you taking your time, seriously

im on city water in NV.

im not sure how my DI wouldn’t be working, especially after bypassing for 30 minutes, but then again, im google educated on this matter.

My ppm is coming down but I’ve already wasted 10+ gallons (dogs are gonna be drinking good for a few days).

im not sure what my pressure coming out of source is, I don’t have a pressure gauge as of right now. My system is rated for 100
Gpd

Jeeperz · Jan 21, 2023

Sounds like Rockies water. Go with a 99% membrane and run it at max pressure. Flush well before and after production. Probably well or well field(city water coming from huge well fields)so will need degassed of high co2 to not burn up DI resin

Ofishalreefer · Jan 21, 2023

Jeeperz said:
Sounds like Rockies water. Go with a 99% membrane and run it at max pressure. Flush well before and after production. Probably well or well field(city water coming from huge well fields)so will need degassed of high co2 to not burn up DI resin

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 22, 2023

Ofishalreefer said:
im not sure how my DI wouldn’t be working, especially after bypassing for 30 minutes, but then again, im google educated on this matter.

Channels through it, flow too fast, that sort of thing.

Did you pack it yourself?

slythy · Jan 22, 2023

I have very similar tds water here in Indiana it might as well be liquid rock. Use the highest rejection rate RO membrain you can.
My setup is
In - Sediment- carbon- carbon- booster pump - 2x 100gpd ro membrain (brs 200gpd water saver kit) - di - di- di- out

i use a auto flush valve as well as an auto shut off.

my tds in is 360-420 out of ro membrain its ~ 6tds and out its 0. I just have the 2 extra DI chambers to catch it if i dont change it in time. There is a 3d printed DI resin packing tool drom i think printed reef that i have that works really well to pack and not make a mess.

i get a few 100 gallons before I change out my first DI cartridge. I think the auto flusher helps. Also doing small production runs of a few gallons is tougher on it. You are better off making 50gal at once than 10 5 gallon runs.

Screwgunner · Jan 22, 2023

I have 6 stage first canister carbon block 5 micron 2nd canister cardon block 1 micron 3rd canister 1 micron carbon block. Ro then DI then DI again. As soon as I see any tds I change out carbon blocks.
Works for me and my city water is 370 . TDS. If your system starts producing faster your DI filter has been burnt out from chlorine.

Jeeperz · Jan 22, 2023

slythy said:
I have very similar tds water here in Indiana it might as well be liquid rock. Use the highest rejection rate RO membrain you can.
My setup is
In - Sediment- carbon- carbon- booster pump - 2x 100gpd ro membrain (brs 200gpd water saver kit) - di - di- di- out

i use a auto flush valve as well as an auto shut off.

my tds in is 360-420 out of ro membrain its ~ 6tds and out its 0. I just have the 2 extra DI chambers to catch it if i dont change it in time. There is a 3d printed DI resin packing tool drom i think printed reef that i have that works really well to pack and not make a mess.

i get a few 100 gallons before I change out my first DI cartridge. I think the auto flusher helps. Also doing small production runs of a few gallons is tougher on it. You are better off making 50gal at once than 10 5 gallon runs.

You could probably increase resin life by degassing after the RO membranes. That's what I had to do and I now make a couple thousand gallons on spectrapure megamax cap and Enduro di

KStatefan · Jan 22, 2023

I also have high tds source water also high on CO2. With high TDS your are going to want to make sure you have good water pressure that will increase your production rate and rejection rate. Do you know what membrane you have? Is it a new system?

My current set up is sediment 0.2 micron-Carbon 5 micron - Carbon 0.5 micron-membrane-Degassing chamber-Cation-Anion-MegaMaxCap-Endro. Below is with my current Spectrapure membrane.

Ofishalreefer · Jan 22, 2023

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Channels through it, flow too fast, that sort of thing.

Did you pack it yourself?

Nah, everything was out of the box.
When I bypassed the DI and hydrated I had flow at about 1/2, and about 1/2 for a couple hours after hooking up the DI. I don’t have a pressure gauge, yet.

24 hours in and my TDS is still reading 10-11.
I had no idea it would take so long to get this system up and running, talk about a learning curve lol