YourInsuranceDude
Community Member
Hello all,
I am having an extremely frustrating issue with my RODI system. I will provide as much detail as I can for the context of my issue, but hopefully someone could help me determine what my true issue is on my system or have any tips/suggestions to troubleshoot. I am only about a year into having a real, true reef tank set up.
I bought a used 4-stage RODI system about a year ago (with the used tank), but did not have a TDS meter until just a month ago - will get to this momentarily.
- I cleaned everything and proceeded with the cycling of my tank in May 2021. Tank was running fine (fish and coral) until the fall when I went through an ugly phase. Picked up the husbandry work, increased nutrients, and my Green Hair Algae issue fixed itself. I also accounted for it being its first year and honestly, a bit heavily stocked (lots of coral and about 6 fish). I also was underfeeding so my nutrients bottomed out. Fixed that and have a more set schedule for feeding fish (daily) along with dosing AB+ 1-3 times a week and ReefRoids once a month. TLDR; GHA issue 6-7 months ago, increased nutrients, GHA issue went away.
- Then in January 2022 - started with a green cyano issue across rock and sandbed. Wasn't having much luck and then red cyano started to creep in. I did use chemi clean but it didn't seem to work (I think I was too cautious on my water volume estimate...). I realized (after receiving a TDS meter) my tap water was about 300 TDS and my post RODI water was in the 20s. Terrible! So, I bought a new RO membrane and brought it down to 5-10 TDS. I know this was not ideal, but it had to make due for the time being. However, I went away for a weekend, came back and POOF - all the red and green was gone. Good old husbandry and such fixed itself and possibly the lower (but not ideal) TDS reading. TLDR; 3-4 months ago had green cyano issue, replaced RO membrane, chemi clean dosage, green cyano went away.
- Fast forward to late March to today... red cyano has returned (my habits have not changed), but its worse than ever. I've adjusted flow, used chemi clean, performed larger than usual water changes, but nothing is touching it. I just dosed chemi clean again last night, but used a bit extra this time. I had a power head BLASTING across the back wall, onto a purple gorgonian, and within two days the red cyano is halfway up the coral. It is starting to creep over some zoas and has had my GSP closed for weeks now.
THIS LEADS ME TO ---- my RODI issue being the culprit (IMO).
I have been fiddling with it for weeks now. Since this started up in March, I have been testing the water obsessively. I can never get below 3-6 TDS. I have replaced the first two stage filters, the RO membrane in the late fall (as mentioned), and bought a new 2.5 x 10 cartridge + resin to pack in. As a note: I do not believe the previous owner used the system correctly. It is possible that I have NEVER had 0 TDS because he did not have a cartridge inside the fourth stage. It was simply just resin packed into it. No plastic cartridge. Just resin sitting (somehow not floating) in that final stage. I do not think any RODI system out there would be set up this way? Regardless, I pitched the resin that was in there and put the newly packed cartridge into the fourth stage.
However, the water coming out of the RO membrane reads 3-6 TDS... but when it comes out of the resin stage, it is still 3-6TDS. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why this is happening.
Additional details that may be of use....
- I have used a faucet inside and a hose line outside for difference in pressure - same result
- I used almost the entire bag of resin - hard to believe it is not packed tight - even BRS had more resin leftover from the package in their instructional videos
- The cartridge IS facing the right side up
- The in/out lines ARE correct - I did catch this originally a couple of weeks ago. Didn't matter, still did not fix my issue.
- Any glassware I use to test is rinsed with hot water 2-3 times and wiped dry before taking a reading
- My meter is NOT calibrated to 0, but the fact the water tests exactly the same both pre and post resin stage tells me AT LEAST that the resin stage is doing nothing
- The system has ran for almost 8-10 hours at this point.... I do not believe it needs more time to 'break in'
Could it be bad resin? Is it a bad seal at the top? I have hypothesized this whole time that the water is not going down the canister, then up through the cartridge, and out of the 'clean' line.
Thank you.
I am having an extremely frustrating issue with my RODI system. I will provide as much detail as I can for the context of my issue, but hopefully someone could help me determine what my true issue is on my system or have any tips/suggestions to troubleshoot. I am only about a year into having a real, true reef tank set up.
I bought a used 4-stage RODI system about a year ago (with the used tank), but did not have a TDS meter until just a month ago - will get to this momentarily.
- I cleaned everything and proceeded with the cycling of my tank in May 2021. Tank was running fine (fish and coral) until the fall when I went through an ugly phase. Picked up the husbandry work, increased nutrients, and my Green Hair Algae issue fixed itself. I also accounted for it being its first year and honestly, a bit heavily stocked (lots of coral and about 6 fish). I also was underfeeding so my nutrients bottomed out. Fixed that and have a more set schedule for feeding fish (daily) along with dosing AB+ 1-3 times a week and ReefRoids once a month. TLDR; GHA issue 6-7 months ago, increased nutrients, GHA issue went away.
- Then in January 2022 - started with a green cyano issue across rock and sandbed. Wasn't having much luck and then red cyano started to creep in. I did use chemi clean but it didn't seem to work (I think I was too cautious on my water volume estimate...). I realized (after receiving a TDS meter) my tap water was about 300 TDS and my post RODI water was in the 20s. Terrible! So, I bought a new RO membrane and brought it down to 5-10 TDS. I know this was not ideal, but it had to make due for the time being. However, I went away for a weekend, came back and POOF - all the red and green was gone. Good old husbandry and such fixed itself and possibly the lower (but not ideal) TDS reading. TLDR; 3-4 months ago had green cyano issue, replaced RO membrane, chemi clean dosage, green cyano went away.
- Fast forward to late March to today... red cyano has returned (my habits have not changed), but its worse than ever. I've adjusted flow, used chemi clean, performed larger than usual water changes, but nothing is touching it. I just dosed chemi clean again last night, but used a bit extra this time. I had a power head BLASTING across the back wall, onto a purple gorgonian, and within two days the red cyano is halfway up the coral. It is starting to creep over some zoas and has had my GSP closed for weeks now.
THIS LEADS ME TO ---- my RODI issue being the culprit (IMO).
I have been fiddling with it for weeks now. Since this started up in March, I have been testing the water obsessively. I can never get below 3-6 TDS. I have replaced the first two stage filters, the RO membrane in the late fall (as mentioned), and bought a new 2.5 x 10 cartridge + resin to pack in. As a note: I do not believe the previous owner used the system correctly. It is possible that I have NEVER had 0 TDS because he did not have a cartridge inside the fourth stage. It was simply just resin packed into it. No plastic cartridge. Just resin sitting (somehow not floating) in that final stage. I do not think any RODI system out there would be set up this way? Regardless, I pitched the resin that was in there and put the newly packed cartridge into the fourth stage.
However, the water coming out of the RO membrane reads 3-6 TDS... but when it comes out of the resin stage, it is still 3-6TDS. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out why this is happening.
Additional details that may be of use....
- I have used a faucet inside and a hose line outside for difference in pressure - same result
- I used almost the entire bag of resin - hard to believe it is not packed tight - even BRS had more resin leftover from the package in their instructional videos
- The cartridge IS facing the right side up
- The in/out lines ARE correct - I did catch this originally a couple of weeks ago. Didn't matter, still did not fix my issue.
- Any glassware I use to test is rinsed with hot water 2-3 times and wiped dry before taking a reading
- My meter is NOT calibrated to 0, but the fact the water tests exactly the same both pre and post resin stage tells me AT LEAST that the resin stage is doing nothing
- The system has ran for almost 8-10 hours at this point.... I do not believe it needs more time to 'break in'
Could it be bad resin? Is it a bad seal at the top? I have hypothesized this whole time that the water is not going down the canister, then up through the cartridge, and out of the 'clean' line.
Thank you.
