Best RO water system for 120g reef

[Ken Ken]

Hey guys,
looking for some advise of what RO system is the best available in the market that will produce a lot less waste water and fill a 50 gallon container in a hour or so. I want to be able to mix my own water as my 120 gallon tank is on my second floor bed room. I have been using tap water but i believe its the cause of alot of red slime algae and most of my hard coral dying. any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cracker]

Hello Ken, There are good filtration systems out there. Surely you will get better results using filtered water as apposed to tap. I'm not sure about a decent one that will make 50 gls in a couple of hours though. Maybe half a day ?
I'm sure others may know of such a water filter.

 

[Ken Ken]

Hello Ken, There are good filtration systems out there. Surely you will get better results using filtered water as apposed to tap. I'm not sure about a decent one that will make 50 gls in a couple of hours though. Maybe half a day ?
I'm sure others may know of such a water filter.

are there any systems that will produce a lot less waste water? i purchased a stage 6 kit from ebay but it takes about 8 hours to fill a 50 gallon container.

 

[cracker]

I have a 4 stage 100 GPD . I think it's 1 gl for 3 lost. I don't know of other more efficient units. I bet they are out there.

 

[MatroxD]

You could do one of two things..

The simplest, and cheapest, is to get a larger capacity ro membrane and flow restrictor. You simply exchange the membrane that is in the housing, and replace the flow restrictor on the waste line. The largest capacity that I have sewn that fits in a standard sized housing is a 100gpd membrane. It will run about 35.00, and the restrictor about 10.00..

Or, you can go the big boy route, and do a piggyback or as brs(and filter guys) calls them saver units.. It's basically a second membrane and holster that you route the waste water line into the second membrane, then, the two production lines from each membrane is y to your di housing.. You will also require a higher capacity flow restrictor(150 to 200gpd). And, you will need a booster pump to up the pressure to 80-90psi. This route does produce a ton of useable water, but there is the added cost of the equipment, and, the second membrane of course isn't going to lat as long as the first.. But it really, really is the way if you want to produce a "lot" of water, or water extremely quickly..

I have done both, and can attest to how much water each does.. And actually, depending on your water pressure, you may just benefit from a booster pump.. Increasing the pressure(if yours is low), will make more water and actually make your membrane more efficient. Aquaticlife or at least a year ago, sold a nice little booster box.. It was silent, integrated auto flush, computerized, and you simply plugged the lines in.. I haven't checked lately, so I'm not sure if they still make them, but they were nice...

But those are basically your options, as the internals of the units hold all the same basic components.. It's just the type and brand that makes the difference(the best units have Dow membranes and Matrikx filters).. And you can add and subtract whatever you wish to a basic ro or ro/di unit.. My current unit started out as a simple 3 stage ro buddy 50gpd. Now, it's a seven stage 100gpd ro/di setup by adding components..

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[Ken Ken]

You could do one of two things..

The simplest, and cheapest, is to get a larger capacity ro membrane and flow restrictor. You simply exchange the membrane that is in the housing, and replace the flow restrictor on the waste line. The largest capacity that I have sewn that fits in a standard sized housing is a 100gpd membrane. It will run about 35.00, and the restrictor about 10.00..

Or, you can go the big boy route, and do a piggyback or as brs(and filter guys) calls them saver units.. It's basically a second membrane and holster that you route the waste water line into the second membrane, then, the two production lines from each membrane is y to your di housing.. You will also require a higher capacity flow restrictor(150 to 200gpd). And, you will need a booster pump to up the pressure to 80-90psi. This route does produce a ton of useable water, but there is the added cost of the equipment, and, the second membrane of course isn't going to lat as long as the first.. But it really, really is the way if you want to produce a "lot" of water, or water extremely quickly..

I have done both, and can attest to how much water each does.. And actually, depending on your water pressure, you may just benefit from a booster pump.. Increasing the pressure(if yours is low), will make more water and actually make your membrane more efficient. Aquaticlife or at least a year ago, sold a nice little booster box.. It was silent, integrated auto flush, computerized, and you simply plugged the lines in.. I haven't checked lately, so I'm not sure if they still make them, but they were nice...

But those are basically your options, as the internals of the units hold all the same basic components.. It's just the type and brand that makes the difference(the best units have Dow membranes and Matrikx filters).. And you can add and subtract whatever you wish to a basic ro or ro/di unit.. My current unit started out as a simple 3 stage ro buddy 50gpd. Now, it's a seven stage 100gpd ro/di setup by adding components..

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Are there any ready to go kits out there?

 

[Ken Ken]

was looking at this system making 300GPD

http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaFX_G...ilter_Systems-AquaFX-5V92430-FIRORDRO-vi.html

 

[Ken Ken]

You could do one of two things..

The simplest, and cheapest, is to get a larger capacity ro membrane and flow restrictor. You simply exchange the membrane that is in the housing, and replace the flow restrictor on the waste line. The largest capacity that I have sewn that fits in a standard sized housing is a 100gpd membrane. It will run about 35.00, and the restrictor about 10.00..

Or, you can go the big boy route, and do a piggyback or as brs(and filter guys) calls them saver units.. It's basically a second membrane and holster that you route the waste water line into the second membrane, then, the two production lines from each membrane is y to your di housing.. You will also require a higher capacity flow restrictor(150 to 200gpd). And, you will need a booster pump to up the pressure to 80-90psi. This route does produce a ton of useable water, but there is the added cost of the equipment, and, the second membrane of course isn't going to lat as long as the first.. But it really, really is the way if you want to produce a "lot" of water, or water extremely quickly..

I have done both, and can attest to how much water each does.. And actually, depending on your water pressure, you may just benefit from a booster pump.. Increasing the pressure(if yours is low), will make more water and actually make your membrane more efficient. Aquaticlife or at least a year ago, sold a nice little booster box.. It was silent, integrated auto flush, computerized, and you simply plugged the lines in.. I haven't checked lately, so I'm not sure if they still make them, but they were nice...

But those are basically your options, as the internals of the units hold all the same basic components.. It's just the type and brand that makes the difference(the best units have Dow membranes and Matrikx filters).. And you can add and subtract whatever you wish to a basic ro or ro/di unit.. My current unit started out as a simple 3 stage ro buddy 50gpd. Now, it's a seven stage 100gpd ro/di setup by adding components..

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

This seems promising.

https://premiumaquatics.com/products/spectrapure-maxcap-uhe-400gpd-5-stage-system.html

 

[MatroxD]

Wow, those are high! Much cheaper to just add to what you have already..

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[Ken Ken]

Wow, those are high! Much cheaper to just add to what you have already..

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well the problem i have not educated myself enough to know the secrets and know hows to setup my own. Just want to buy it and install.

 

[DaveK]

are there any systems that will produce a lot less waste water? i purchased a stage 6 kit from ebay but it takes about 8 hours to fill a 50 gallon container.

Here is the thing. You have a 120 gal tank. At most your going to want to change about 50 gal water at once, and this would be close to a 50% water change by the time you account for rock and a sandbed in the system.

It is typical for an RO unit to waste about 3 gal of water for everyone it produces. That's just the way it works. This doesn't mean you need to discard the waste water, you can use it for almost anything else.

You really have everything you need to support your system. I use a similar RO/DI unit and it makes all the water I need for my 125 gal reef and my FW planted system. What I do is have a container of RO/DI water ready for use, and draw from that for top off water, or small water changes. If I'm doing a big water change I fill a second container with water drawn from the first, and then the next day get the remaining water. I keep the RO/DI unit running a lot of the time. when doing this. This method does require a little advanced planning.

If your worried about a flood or the RO/DI running when you don't need it, you could also add a float switch to prevent these problems.

The flow through an RO/DI unit isn't difficult to follow. It's basically from one section to another. Adding additional components is not at all difficult. The 400 gpd model your looking at is real nice, but extremely expensive. It would only be work getting if you actually needed 400 gpd every day all the time.

The bottom line is that your OK now, although you might want to make some equipment additions to it. Save your money for other things you'll want on your reef system.

 

[MatroxD]

well the problem i have not educated myself enough to know the secrets and know hows to setup my own. Just want to buy it and install.

Ahhh got ya.. Spend away then...

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[Ken Ken]

Here is the thing. You have a 120 gal tank. At most your going to want to change about 50 gal water at once, and this would be close to a 50% water change by the time you account for rock and a sandbed in the system.

It is typical for an RO unit to waste about 3 gal of water for everyone it produces. That's just the way it works. This doesn't mean you need to discard the waste water, you can use it for almost anything else.

You really have everything you need to support your system. I use a similar RO/DI unit and it makes all the water I need for my 125 gal reef and my FW planted system. What I do is have a container of RO/DI water ready for use, and draw from that for top off water, or small water changes. If I'm doing a big water change I fill a second container with water drawn from the first, and then the next day get the remaining water. I keep the RO/DI unit running a lot of the time. when doing this. This method does require a little advanced planning.

If your worried about a flood or the RO/DI running when you don't need it, you could also add a float switch to prevent these problems.

The flow through an RO/DI unit isn't difficult to follow. It's basically from one section to another. Adding additional components is not at all difficult. The 400 gpd model your looking at is real nice, but extremely expensive. It would only be work getting if you actually needed 400 gpd every day all the time.

The bottom line is that your OK now, although you might want to make some equipment additions to it. Save your money for other things you'll want on your reef system.

I need something that will produce the water when i need it. my tank is on the second floor bedroom so i don't have the luxury of having containers laying around with water in it.

 

[DaveK]

I need something that will produce the water when i need it. my tank is on the second floor bedroom so i don't have the luxury of having containers laying around with water in it.

What do you do now when you meed to mix up a batch of SW for a water change? It's really just more or less a question of how long a container will be out.

You could also put the containers some place else and use a pump to move the water. You will need a pressure rated pump for this, and not a powerhead pump. Some people have even placed the entire sump in the floor below and run plumbing to the tank. Again you need a pressure rated pump for this.

Personally I consider all the other containers as just something you need to be able to support my reef system. In their own way they are as necessary as any other part of the system.