Tds

Reef lvr

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Hello, i always check my r o water,what would be a safe tds level in a 125 gal heavily lps stocked mixed reef?
 

AZDesertRat

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0 TDS.
The goal is always 0 TDS but you will not reach that with RO alone, that is why RO/DI systems are so popular.
RO alone when functioning properly should get you a 96-98% reduction in your tap water TDS readings. If your tap is close to the national average of 250 TDS then you can expect most RO systems to get you somewhere around 5-10 TDS, lower is always better.
RO by itself is not particulary effective at removing certain substances such as forms of ammonia(nitrites, nitrates) and silicates among other. On the other hand DI by itself is not as efficient at some things either so they compliment each other and work well as a system along with sediment and carbon filters which are required to remove particulates and chlorine.
 

RBursek

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Ditto what AZ Rat said,
heck I wish my water had the national average of TDS's, You need the DI resin to do the final clean up of your water, and what does get past the RO is very critical stuff to remove for a reef tank.
 

ruggirello2

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my ro system was reading 13 ppm TDS and once I added a di to it it reads 1ppm. I don't know if that is the meter being inaccurate.
 

AZDesertRat

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Thats possible. Is it a full size vertical DI and is the flow confiigured so it flows bottom up through the cartridge? How fresh is the resin and did it come sealed in a vacuum sealed foil bag?
DI resin has a short shelf life even when packed and stored properly. It loses its sionic strength pretty quickly so you need to pay attention to where you buy your resin or cartridges.
It could also be the accuracy of the meter, most hobbyist grade TDS meters are 2% or 3% +/- of full scale accuracy so can be off a few TDS, especially at the low end as with DI readings. Does it read 0 TDS with distilled water? Has it been calibrated? With a reading of 1 I would not be too concerned.
 

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