Ro Unit

reeferjoe · 03-18-2002, 06:58 PM

HELLO ALL,
I'm thinking of setting up a water station in my garage. I take care of a 80gal. reef for my inlaws and I have the 120gal. reef. 15gal. of salt and 15gal. of fresh every week is to expensive from the lfs. Could ya'll give me some ideas on RO units and what to store it in becuase of it being in the garage. Any info on this would be heplfull becuase I have always bought my water. You know the lazy man's way.

FishDaddy · 03-18-2002, 07:33 PM

Hi Joe,
With that much water demand a good RO/DI would save you all that heavy hauling, not to mention probably being more economical.
I have a 100gpd 4-stage Oceanus RO/DI by Aquatic Reef Systems. It does a great job and am quite satisfied. There are several good manufacturers out there so check your favorite vendor and our sponsor's sites for the best deals.

Many store their RO water in covered Rubbermaid tubs or trashcans with a powerhead to keep the water circulating. I am told that the "Brute" series of Rubbermaid products best as they don't leach anything into the water. I use Sterilite tubs and haven't had any problems.
HTH,
Dick

karsco · 03-18-2002, 07:35 PM

ReeferJoe, give this company a try, www.aquaticreefsystems.com I have the Oceanus 100 GPD RO/DI unit and I have been very happy with it. I believe they also sell water storage tanks at ARS. Just give them a call and speak with Bryan he will answer any questions that you may have.

reeferjoe · 03-18-2002, 07:44 PM

Thanks for the quick response guys. Can you tap directly into a water line in the wall?

Is that what the self piercing saddle valve is?

FishDaddy · 03-18-2002, 08:07 PM

Joe,
The saddle valve is for tapping a line. I'm not real comfortable with that type valve myself; I'd rather plumb a regular T and faucet off the line and connect the RO unit with a hose bib.
Dick

reeferjoe · 03-18-2002, 08:24 PM

Dick, Tell me about the sterilite tubs.

FishDaddy · 03-18-2002, 09:21 PM

Joe,
Sterilite is a competitor of Rubbermaid. I haven't been able to find the Rubbermaid "Brute" series containers (supposed to be the best to use) so I use these Sterilites.

Dick

reeferjoe · 03-18-2002, 09:32 PM

Dick thanks for all the help. One more question. Do you have to use a r/o pump with the system or will the house water pressure be enough?I only need to make about 40 gal. total water a week.

FishDaddy · 03-18-2002, 09:53 PM

Joe,
If your water pressure is about 40 psi or better, you shouldn't need a booster pump. Mine is only 40~psi and it does fine.
Dick

reeferjoe · 03-18-2002, 10:00 PM

THANKS AGAIN Dick,
You've been alot of help. I'll let you know how it goes.
Later,Joe

Doug1 · 03-18-2002, 10:12 PM

BTW another consideration is water temp, RO works better at temps around 60-70 rather than the cold water temps.
I am on a well so ground water is cool and by the time it gets in the house in winter its more like 40 ish. I have a T piece just ahead of the hose bib on washer cold water line and threaded in a 2 foot pipe off that with another hose bib to attach main feed for RO. I have a short heat tape wrapped around that and insulated but I plan on changing to a 3' pipe, when I get aroundtoit, I heard there was a sale on ebay

vw-driver · 03-18-2002, 10:19 PM

Speaking of water temp. I've heard that these systems throw away a lot less water as you go up in temperature. Has anyone hooked theirs up to warm or hot water? Is there a max temperature?

Thanks!

Nick M

tdwyatt · 03-19-2002, 12:46 AM

you might ask the manufacturer of your particular RO membrane, but the spectrapure folks advise against using water over 100 F as it allows the membrane to be distorted and will change it's ability to act as a filtration membrane. (I may be off a few degrees on the temp, but I remember reading it when I bought mine.)

aquatic reef systems · 03-22-2002, 04:54 PM

All of you have some good points.

As far as the water temp you are correct in saying above 100 is bad!
Think about it this way, when the water is warm the pores in the membrane will become larger than normal and allow larger particles to travel through.
When the water becomes colder the same particles will get stuck as the pores begin to shrink.
As far as the system throwing away less water as the temp goes higher, This is true but is not a positive effect.
The reason there is less waste is because under hotter temp the membrane offers less resistance for water flow and allows more water to pass through the membrane with less effort.
Water will take the path of least resistance so there will still be more water going through the drain than the product but much less than usual. The downside of this is that due to the larger size pores in the membrane there will be more than usal TDS at the output which is no good. If you are trying to figure out what temp to run your RO at then consider the best temp to be 77 degrees no more no less.

Dick was correct about the minimum pressure.

If you are going to be using a storage container than the best way to do this is to use an auto shut off and check valve in the system with a float valve installed in the storage tank.
This is a cheap fix and will make your life alot easier!

Here is a rough sketch of a float system.

Good luck in your decision and Hello Dick, Brooke and Doug!

Bryan Crenshaw