Ro/di mixed bed resin depletion.

[huckilt]

Hello reefers I recently added a BRS triple DI saver to my ro unit I got a big water storage container and began filling it up. The cation resin has barely changed at all, the anion resin was only about 1/3 color changed and the mixed bed had no color change at all. I have produced 80 gallons of water continuously( I fill a 16 gallon plastic bin then Transfer into the large water container), my last batch has produced about 8 gallons and I looked at my DI and the mixed bed was completely exhausted! My question is should it have all changed so quickly? My anion resin is still only about halfways. The tds meter was showing 14 in stage one, 3tds in stage two and 3tds in stage three.

 

[T-J]

If it’s not packed tightly, it will change color almost immediately.

 

[stanlalee]

How bad is your source water? 14 tds from the membrane seems real high to me.

 

[Heart of Dixie]

What was the TDS before the R/O unit? You are saying the TDS was coming out of the R/O was 14 going into the cation stage, correct?

 

[huckilt]

If it’s not packed tightly, it will change color almost immediately.

I’ve had it running for at least two months now before I was only making 20-40 gals a week and only in the last few days started filling the big barrel. And I’m quite certain I packed it pretty tight. BRS says till the bottle won’t squeeze and I’m not a weenie lol

 

[huckilt]

How bad is your source water? 14 tds from the membrane seems real high to me.

Not sure the source tds as I only have the triple tds meter that came on the triple DI saver and that’s how it’s setup.

 

[huckilt]

What was the TDS before the R/O unit? You are saying the TDS was coming out of the R/O was 14 going into the cation stage, correct?

Correct coming out the ro unit and into the cation stage. I only have the triple tds meter that came with the BRS triple di saver unit.

 

[Heart of Dixie]

The R/O membrane might be toast.

 

[Garf]

How old are the filters in the unit? Can’t see how you’ve plumbed in the mixed bed from the photo, are you sure it’s all good.

 

[stanlalee]

The R/O membrane might be toast.

That is my suspicion unless his source water is very poor. Source tds would have to be in the 450+ range for 14tds to be in acceptable membrane efficiency.

 

[Heart of Dixie]

Are you on city or well water?

 

[Heart of Dixie]

That is my suspicion unless his source water is very poor. Source tds would have to be in the 450+ range for 14tds to be in acceptable membrane

I think your anion resin is getting so many negative ions it is releasing to the mixed bed. If your input TDS is real high and the RO membrane is exhausted quickly , after changing the RO you could replace your mixed bed with another anion.
My input TDS is around 80-84 and after four years the SpectraPure RO is cartridge is still 98.7 efficient. My system is like yours with cation, anion, then a mixed bed.
If you are on a well, check out the thread “Well Water for a Reef Tank”

 

[huckilt]

How old are the filters in the unit? Can’t see how you’ve plumbed in the mixed bed from the photo, are you sure it’s all good.

The ro membrane was replaced in oct. as well as the carbon block and sediment filter. This was done when I added the DI. The weird thing is it happened within hours! The anion I watched slowly deplete it would prolly be less depleted but I need a check valve or s/o valve to prevent it from bleeding off water and filling with air which was causing depletion from carbon dioxide or that’s what it looks like. The amount of air trapped inside was the amount of depletion. And it sat like that without use for about a week. I didn’t touch the plumbing on the DI it came preassembled. The white to blue line is the product water. So it comes in from left to right cation, anion, mixed bed. With a tee and meter probe between each section and one after mixed bed for final tds.

 

[huckilt]

Are you on city or well water?

City

 

[huckilt]

That is my suspicion unless his source water is very poor. Source tds would have to be in the 450+ range for 14tds to be in acceptable membrane efficiency.

I think I have crap water. My house is from the 50’s I moved in and replaced as much of the plumbing as possible but there’s still some galvanized underground. When I first got the DI with tds meters I was showing 14-16 tds from the ro.

 

[huckilt]

How old are the filters in the unit? Can’t see how you’ve plumbed in the mixed bed from the photo, are you sure it’s all good.

And also yes I’m quite positive it’s correctly plumbed. I’ve been a plumber the last 15 years and my father owns a successful plumbing business. And I watched the brs videos over again jus to make sure. Lol

 

[huckilt]

If it’s not packed tightly, it will change color almost immediately.

I’ve had it since oct. the anion stage is slowly depleting and the mixed bed had no depletion detectable until all the sudden it was completely exhausted. Never even saw 1 tds went straight to 3tds product water.

 

[huckilt]

How old are the filters in the unit? Can’t see how you’ve plumbed in the mixed bed from the photo, are you sure it’s all good.

It’s plumbed jus like in the pics hope that helps.

 

[huckilt]

I think your anion resin is getting so many negative ions it is releasing to the mixed bed. If your input TDS is real high and the RO membrane is exhausted quickly , after changing the RO you could replace your mixed bed with another anion.
My input TDS is around 80-84 and after four years the SpectraPure RO is cartridge is still 98.7 efficient. My system is like yours with cation, anion, then a mixed bed.
If you are on a well, check out the thread “Well Water for a Reef Tank”

It’s not that it exhausted quickly I’ve had it producing water 20-40 gallons once a week since oct. I recently purchased a big water reservoir and began filling it up after around 100 gallons(16 gallons at a time as I was using a Rubbermaid slim Jim trash can and upgraded to the 150gallon barrel.) I walked into my restroom where the ro/di is located and seen the mixed bed had changed completely and over the course of a few hours. The slim Jim was only half full and it takes 4-6hrs to fill. So it was running continuously until the slim Jim was full then when I would get back home from being gone or if I was home I would hear the permeate pump getting loud I knew it was getting full and time to pump the water from the slim Jim into the water barrel.

 

[Heart of Dixie]

Huckilt, I think you are right about the crap water. You might want to invest $50.00 in a HM Com 100 digital TDS meter and check input TDS. I recently purchased one off Amazon and it helped me pinpoint a problem with my system. It ended up being my water RO water storage & salt water mixing barrels leaching silicates and who knows what else back into the water.