Bought me a filter

[Aquarist Guru]

bought a 100GPD RO/DI Filter on ebay for 91.00 bucks with shipping.

Six Stage, and alot of good feedback from reefers for the item.

I was wondering if I really need one of those testers that reefers use or not. Also any tips or tricks about the do's and don't of an RO/DI please don't hesitate.

[mothra]

You should definitely get a TDS meter otherwise you have no idea if it is working or not (i.e. if there is a problem with the filter or media within).

Did you get the Aquasafe RO/DI? Here are a few tips:
1. Never run hot water though it, that will ruin the media.
2. Remove the final carbon stage, it is not needed and will leach carbon into the water.
3. Backflush the unit for 10 minutes every month, there should be a backflush valve to do this.

[Aquarist Guru]

just added a TDS tester to my order heres a link to the product:

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Reef-6st-100GPD-Reverse-Osmosis-RO-DI-Water-Filters_W0QQitemZ4457716240QQcategoryZ20684QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Aquarist Guru]

Got the filter system now I have to figure out how to install it. I'm thinking of doing it off the main to my hotwater heater in the garage, there are 3 pipes a cold, hot, and one other not sure which one I should do it too.. Any one out there know what I should be looking for?

[Aquarist Guru]

quick question is this thing suppose to go so slow? Was going great while I ran out the carbon to clean it for 15minutes.

But when I added the RO filter into it.

theres barely a trickle coming out of the blue (the good water) and more coming out the orange (the waste output).

I just want to make sure thats what is suppose to happen?

[bljohnson]

Yes - RO/DIs are notorious for wasting lots of water.

[mothra]

Yep, the 'waste water' side is usually a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio. If you get creative though you can find uses for the water rather than putting it down the drain. I have my wastewater hooked up to a drip system that waters a flowbed next to my driveway. I also have a tee and valve that allows me to switch the wastewater over to another line that I can use to fill up my washing machine to wash clothes in. You can also water your pets with it.

Try to conserve and use all that water for something!

[Aquarist Guru]

I've been keeping a tub to collect it and when it gets full pooring it in the dry areas of my lawn (I'm sort of a stickler about watering to much on my grass so a few areas always get a little dry each summer).

I do have a question it's been almost a month how do I reverse the flow for 10 minutes as suggested I didn't notice any valve but maybe I'm not looking in the right areas?

[GrumpyDave]

The valve to flush the membrane is usually on the waste line comming out of the membrane pressure vessel. What it does is bypass the flow restrictor. If you don't have the valve, you will probably have something that looks like a union on the waste line (that's the flow restrictor housing).

You can see a picture of the valve here:

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=RO1313

dave

[Aquarist Guru]

ah ok I got it, I thought "reverse" meant something like making everything run backwards.

I actually ran it for 2 hours (by mistake and had a nice river running out the garage when I got home).

So I'll keep the 10minute a month rule going.

So far its really helped a lot I even started using it for my fresh tank as I'm starting to add new fish to it and replacing the old plastic plants with live plants.

I've been doing about a 10 to 20% change a week or every other week depending on how busy I get.

My Sebae is nice and "black" as my kids call it (a really good healthy brown color as it gets healthier and has doubled in size).

My new LTA is nice and open with extended tentacles and hopefully I'll darken up it a bit as it was pretty bleached when I got it.

Soon I hope to get a few frags to try out of some leathers and mushrooms and other "easier" reefs just to see how I manage.

[xinumaster]

This is the info I got from my rodi vendor and my rodi looks exactly like yours.

Flush the membrane at least 10g of water with the valve on.
Then flush the membrane at least 10g of water with the valve off.