Holding container for DI water

[Richard Schmidt]

Hi Folks:
I am setting up an auto water change station in my garage.
Bought a container that stays sealed with my slip fit connectors for my (new salt water) container after being filled.
Believe me it took a few tries to find one that works with 20 gallon capacity, not to mention finally finding a nylon nut that puts enough pressure on connector/seal to keep the seal from leaking.
My question may be stupid, but is there any reason to buy another one of these containers to hold extra DI water?
I have a plastic solenoid valve that runs direct from my DI unit to my sump mounted auto top off tank.
Can anyone think of a reason I should have a DI hold tank that will just sit there holding DI water that (in my minds mind eye) will be nothing more than a storage tank?
Just wondering about others opinions.
Thanks:
Rick

 

[Reeferdood]

Extra DI water is always good to have on hand..
Emergency water change, friends might need water or you could always drink it if there is ever a disaster!
I always have 50 gallons handy.

 

[redfishbluefish]

So let me get this straight......Your ATO is directly hooked up to your RO/DI, so that every time your tank calls for water, the RO/DI has to run to fill your tank. How quickly are you going through DI resin? The reason I ask is that every time you turn on your RO/DI, you have break-through TDS that either is diverted to waste (manually by you), or taken out by your DI resin. With your tank calling for water 10, 15, 20 times a day....who knows how may times a day, that's a whole bunch of TDS that needs to be removed by your DI resin.

I'd highly suggest setting up a separate reservoir for your ATO where you make water is larger batches. I actually have a three way valve on my RO/DI where I run the first five minutes of water to waste....until TDS gets down to 2 or less.

 

[Branespikin]

I would get two floats on a latching relay. Put one on top of your Ato container as high point and another on bottom low point. Hook this ip to a solenoid always closed. So when your water gets low and hits ur low float it will trigger the solenoid to open and will turn your RODI unit on and will fill your ATo up till it hits your upper float and it will cut off power to solenoid and bring it back to closed position. Make sure you have auto shutoff installed on RO unit si it stops making waste water. Also you dont want ATO container to large in case something goes wrong and dumps all water and drives salinity too low. You can always add another float for redundancy hook it up to Apex breakout box etc.

 

[Richard Schmidt]

redfishbluefish:
My sump has a 10 gallon make up water section in it. I presently have a float valve that calls for new water after 3 gallons are gone, hope this helps your opinion or input.
If I understand your question correctly, no, water for auto make up only calls for new water after 3 gallons are gone, but those 3 gallons do come direct from RO/DI unit.

 

[Richard Schmidt]

Reeferdood:

Use DI water to drink?
thought that was not advisable.

 

[120reefkeeper]

redfishbluefish:
My sump has a 10 gallon make up water section in it. I presently have a float valve that calls for new water after 3 gallons are gone, hope this helps your opinion or input.
If I understand your question correctly, no, water for auto make up only calls for new water after 3 gallons are gone, but those 3 gallons do come direct from RO/DI unit.

I think you would be better off with a stand alone RO/DI holding container. This way you can make big batches of water at a time. It a lot better to do this for the life of your RODI unit filters. IMHO you'd be better off feeding your 10gallon make up area with a proper ato like a tunze osmolator from a separate holding container. So basically you have 2 holding containers. One for big batches of water you make up and one that you manually fill that has your ato pump in it. Make sense??

 

[Reeferdood]

Reeferdood:

I was being sarcastic about the drinking part... ;)

 

[Waterjockey]

I have a large holding tank for Rodi water that also acts as my ato reservoir. I have a pond pump in it that I use to fill my kalkwasser brute can, and my salt water reservoir. Avoids the Rodi membrane breakthrough issue, and let's me make up 25 gallons of kalk, or 30 gallons of salt in about 5 min every month or so. Handy to have a Rodi reservoir.