Anyone on EBMUD using only carbon and DI resin to save water?

[biophilia]

Quick background: My EBMUD water here in West Oakland seems to always be ~30 TDS or less. I only have a nano aquarium at home and won't have the capacity for anything more than that in the medium term so my 0 TDS water needs are pretty low (less than 10 gallons per week). Buying RO/DI water locally is getting old.

I'm thinking of putting together a "portable" water making setup with BRS refillable blocks that I can quick-connect to my sink as needed as I'm in an apartment at the moment. I'd like to skip RO outright to avoid the water waste and instead do something like the following given how low my TDS already is:

[1 micron sediment filter] ---> [catalytic carbon] ---> [old/"used" DI resin to bring down to ~2-5TDS] ---> ["new DI resin]

OR skipping the sediment pre-filter entirely and doing 3 stages

Anyone have experience doing something like this? Thanks!

 

[Coral reefer]

Don’t skip sediment, carbon block will get clogged before useable life span is reached otherwise
I would use cation anion then mixed for the resin

 

[Srt4eric]

With low tds to start why not just get one of these? I started out with this unit but with san jose water regularly above 450ppm out of the tap I was changing the di pretty regularly.

AQUATICLIFE Water Filtration System https://a.co/d/5XD0A5P

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Quick background: My EBMUD water here in West Oakland seems to always be ~30 TDS or less. I only have a nano aquarium at home and won't have the capacity for anything more than that in the medium term so my 0 TDS water needs are pretty low (less than 10 gallons per week). Buying RO/DI water locally is getting old.

I'm thinking of putting together a "portable" water making setup with BRS refillable blocks that I can quick-connect to my sink as needed as I'm in an apartment at the moment. I'd like to skip RO outright to avoid the water waste and instead do something like the following given how low my TDS already is:

[1 micron sediment filter] ---> [catalytic carbon] ---> [old/"used" DI resin to bring down to ~2-5TDS] ---> ["new DI resin]

OR skipping the sediment pre-filter entirely and doing 3 stages

Anyone have experience doing something like this? Thanks!

Kold ster-il
No waste water
Been using this method over 15 years

 

[newfly]

Go with 2 stage DI. Save $$ long term.

 

[Thales]

I am in alameda with the same kind of TDS. I use micron/chlormine/carbon, then just DI.

 

[biophilia]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I'll probably stick with the sediment pre-filter and go with 2 stage DI after the carbon blocks.

 

[goonie0]

I am in alameda with the same kind of TDS. I use micron/chlormine/carbon, then just DI.

Alameda here too... and yes, only a few weeks ago finally got a TDS meters and pleasantly surprised that TDS is very low here in the city. I use home RO unit for my 30g tank since 2010.

@Thales , just check out your page, awesome stuff you're doing, wow! Saw that you kept cuttlefish before... I've always been interested in them after seeing them (as food menu items) in Taiwan as a kid and then at Monterey Bay Aquarium. How are they in terms of keeping? Didn't see any posts on your blog mentioning your experience with them!

 

[newfly]

Envy you guys with such great water . Mine is ard 300 tds. Post RO is 12

 

[Thales]

Alameda here too... and yes, only a few weeks ago finally got a TDS meters and pleasantly surprised that TDS is very low here in the city. I use home RO unit for my 30g tank since 2010.

@Thales , just check out your page, awesome stuff you're doing, wow! Saw that you kept cuttlefish before... I've always been interested in them after seeing them (as food menu items) in Taiwan as a kid and then at Monterey Bay Aquarium. How are they in terms of keeping? Didn't see any posts on your blog mentioning your experience with them!

Sweet - an alameda reefer! Nice to meet you.
Here are some cuttle links

Account Suspended

 

[goonie0]

Sweet - an alameda reefer! Nice to meet you.
Here are some cuttle links

Account Suspended

Opes... tons of links... probably misspelled the search term! Thanks!

 

[L/B Block]

Thanks all for your suggestions. I'll probably stick with the sediment pre-filter and go with 2 stage DI after the carbon blocks.

When We were making water ourselves -it’s exactly what we did-
1 sediment filter, 2 carbon blocks (first 3 stage) and then a double stage di chamber.

A big bag of BRS di resin would last almost a year. Couple times the ebmud jumped to ~130 tds and the tds after would be 1-2 but didn’t seem to affect anything

 

[JVU]

Opes... tons of links... probably misspelled the search term! Thanks!

You searched for cuddlefish didn’t you?

 

[goonie0]

You searched for cuddlefish didn’t you?

....yeah, I started going down the (really cute) rabbit hole of cuddly cuttlefish...