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Testing my RO system water Help

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Ayman

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So i bought a cheap amzon TDS tester since I was wondering what my water quality is like.
Out of the box i am not sure if i even need to calibrate for accurate readings but i looked at the manufacture detail and i could not find anywhere anything that says it needs calibration before use, or even how if i do need to calibrate.


My tap water reading is 161 TDS
My RO water is 190 TDS which is higher then tap does not make any sense
I also tests a bottle of filtered water and it was 21 TDS
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My RO/DI filters are used and not new got them when I boght my tank second hand a few months ago.

I am new to this so any directions is welcome.
 

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I'd replace all the filters cause you have no idea how long the previous person was running them. That sediment filter is practically brown, so I'm guessing the other two are completely exhausted. Make sure the carbon cartridge you get can handle chloramines as well (post the link here if you want to be sure). Make sure you're also getting water from the correct line and not the waste line too!
 
I would replace all of the filters. Your tds readout should be 0. You can purchase a tds meter which attaches directly to the output of the RODI.
If you have been using that water, I would personally try to do a couple larger water changes with 0 tds water asap before issues arise.
 
Cool will do that and I agree after finding out what the root cause is since i do not think it should read that high of TDS even if the cartages are toast. At least from what i have been reading online. Will replace all filter tommorw will try to locate at LFS hopfully i can find them and do a serius water change.
 
Yeah maybe Neptune or Aquatic collection has those, but they're a non standard brand. The RO membrane is standard though.
 
Going over some basics, just in case you aren't aware or a future person sees this. Also sorry this is repeating some of the other guidance in a more aggregated form.

In the pic, it shows a carbon filter, a sediment filter, and a RO filter. That'd then be a RO system, without a DI. For an RO system, it would be expected the dirty water side would have a higher TDS than the input water, since that's a side effect of how they work. The clean water side should have a lower level. I'm not actually sure how it'd be possible for a clean water side to be higher than the input water, even if the filters were super dead. Maybe though if they're super super dead?

I'd first triple check everything's connected right and you're pulling water from the clean side not the waste water side. Definitely possible to inadvertently do that.

Beyond that, the pic is showing a 3-stage RO unit. For that, it's very easy to add a 4th stage DI cartridge. You can buy individual canisters and DI resin from BRS or a billion other places online if you want. However, if you're not sure the age, you probably should be replacing the sediment and carbon filters. Additionally if you are getting numbers like that from the clean water side, you certainly need to replace the RO membrane.

The RO membrane is likely a standard one. The sizing of those other two filters look a little smaller than normal though, so you may be locked into that brand.

Option A: replace those pieces with the same brand, and optionally add a DI stage (depending on final TDS and what is in your tank)
Option B: replace with a new system
Option B.1: replace with a new 3-stage sediment+carbon+RO system and possibly reuse an existing one of your filters as a DI stage after buying resin
 
richiev said:
Going over some basics, just in case you aren't aware or a future person sees this. Also sorry this is repeating some of the other guidance in a more aggregated form.

In the pic, it shows a carbon filter, a sediment filter, and a RO filter. That'd then be a RO system, without a DI. For an RO system, it would be expected the dirty water side would have a higher TDS than the input water, since that's a side effect of how they work. The clean water side should have a lower level. I'm not actually sure how it'd be possible for a clean water side to be higher than the input water, even if the filters were super dead. Maybe though if they're super super dead?

I'd first triple check everything's connected right and you're pulling water from the clean side not the waste water side. Definitely possible to inadvertently do that.

Beyond that, the pic is showing a 3-stage RO unit. For that, it's very easy to add a 4th stage DI cartridge. You can buy individual canisters and DI resin from BRS or a billion other places online if you want. However, if you're not sure the age, you probably should be replacing the sediment and carbon filters. Additionally if you are getting numbers like that from the clean water side, you certainly need to replace the RO membrane.

The RO membrane is likely a standard one. The sizing of those other two filters look a little smaller than normal though, so you may be locked into that brand.

Option A: replace those pieces with the same brand, and optionally add a DI stage (depending on final TDS and what is in your tank)
Option B: replace with a new system
Option B.1: replace with a new 3-stage sediment+carbon+RO system and possibly reuse an existing one of your filters as a DI stage after buying resin
Click to expand...

Do i need to make a 100% water change or would 10 gallons weekly work?
My tank full volume is about 45gal.

Thank you for the input, this helps explain all questions I had.

Mistake by me: after closely looking into where I was collecting water the previous person that had it flipped the lines long on waste/clean on short which doest make sense.
My fault not checking!!

(NEW TDS IS 3)

For now I will order some new cartages. And keep option B 1 in mind since I do want to achieve low TDS. 0
 
Ayman said:
Do i need to make a 100% water change or would 10 gallons weekly work?
My tank full volume is about 45gal.

Thank you for the input, this helps explain all questions I had.

Mistake by me: after closely looking into where I was collecting water the previous person that had it flipped the lines long on waste/clean on short which doest make sense.
My fault not checking!!

(NEW TDS IS 3)

For now I will order some new cartages. And keep option B 1 in mind since I do want to achieve low TDS. 0
Click to expand...
Glad you got it sorted. 3 TDS versus 190 TDS should definitely change your levels!

Regarding water changes, depends on what you're trying to do. However, unless you're seeing major major issues a 100% water change is almost certainly a bad idea. There's some calculators to walk you through what to do, but the general gist is larger water changes get rid of bad stuff a lot more efficiently than small ones.

On a 45 gallon tank, if you did a 9 gallon change that'd be 20%. If you did 9, one-gallon, changes, that'd be equivalent to a single 18% water change. So big water changes do more than small ones.

What you should do greatly depends on what you're trying to do.
 
richiev said:
Glad you got it sorted. 3 TDS versus 190 TDS should definitely change your levels!

Regarding water changes, depends on what you're trying to do. However, unless you're seeing major major issues a 100% water change is almost certainly a bad idea. There's some calculators to walk you through what to do, but the general gist is larger water changes get rid of bad stuff a lot more efficiently than small ones.

On a 45 gallon tank, if you did a 9 gallon change that'd be 20%. If you did 9, one-gallon, changes, that'd be equivalent to a single 18% water change. So big water changes do more than small ones.

What you should do greatly depends on what you're trying to do.
Click to expand...
There are no signs of effect other them the cyano bacteria which I have been battling since I started the tank which is around three months now. Livestock and corals are both doing good.
I am trying to make the water changes to get better water quality and not have major issues now or down the line since I have been using the waste line instead of the filtered water.
I did a 10 gal yesterday and plan to do one every week for at least 6 weeks then will cut back to every two weeks.
Hoping that I can get back on track.
 
If you want to save yourself time, and maybe money, I'd get all the standard testing kits now and just run through all of them. If things aren't dead, I'd just run some carbon and only do aggressive water changes to move a specific, measured, number down at this point (eg phosphate).

Optionally get a Triton ICP test which can find if anything else weird is in there that you should deal with
 
Ayman said:
correct this one is just a 3 stage I belive yours is the 4.
Click to expand...
Add a DI canister and you will go from 3tds to 0. Sounds like it's working fine as-is, although I would personally invest in an in-line tds meter as those are more accurate. Multiple 10-20% water changes will be fine, but honestly I would try to get down to 0 tds first before doing any major water changes.
 
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