What DI resin should I be using?

kevin_e · 05/07/2018, 07:46 AM

BRS has:

BULK DEIONIZATION RESIN

PRO SERIES MIXED BED DI RESIN (cation and anion mixed)

PRO SERIES CATION DI RESIN (Just cation)

PRO SERIES ANION DI RESIN (Just anion)

Is the Bulk DI resin mixed?

mcgyvr · 05/07/2018, 07:59 AM

Do you have sufficient details on your water quality/system setup that would be needed for us to answer that question?
Input TDS? Water quality/contaminate report? Single or dual DI stages? and more ,etc....

Are you having any specific problems with what you are currently using?

kevin_e · 05/07/2018, 08:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

Do you have sufficient details on your water quality/system setup that would be needed for us to answer that question?
Input TDS? Water quality/contaminate report? Single or dual DI stages? and more ,etc....

Are you having any specific problems with what you are currently using?

I am using a 4 stage system. Sediment filter, carbon block, membrane and single canister DI. I wouldn't say I have any problems per se. My TDS is high, but that's because I need a new membrane. My DI resin became depleted quickly.

I'm just shopping for DI replacement (and membrane) and noticed that there are a freshman products to house from and I want to make sure I get the best for my setup.

I want to replace my sediment filter and carbon block too. What's the benefits of a 5 micron vs 1, or vice versa?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Opus123 · 05/07/2018, 09:09 AM

This is the way to think of your RO setup. The RO membrane is the most important part. You want to protect it. This is where the sediment and carbon blocks come in. The sediment block filters out small particles that could quickly clog up the membrane. The carbon block then takes care of any chemicals that could harm the membrane. As for microns, there are different theories. I personally go by the philosophy that the sediment filter should be smaller or the same size as the carbon block. If the carbon block is smaller it could become clogged up quicker than the sediment filter and stop working efficiently. I personally have a .2 micron sediment filter and a 1 micron carbon block. You should also check your cities water report (assuming you are on city water) and make sure they are not putting chlormines in the water. If they are, then you want a carbon block that specifically removes this. You should also get a RO membrane with a 98% rejection rate or you can spend the extra like me and get the 99% membrane. My tap water is over 400 tds and my tds after the RO membrane is 4. I personally just order my DI from amazon. Unless you are needing the DI to do something special then the mixed is fine.

With a tds of 4, I should get around 1100 gallons of 0 TDS water out of my DI catridge.

If you don't already have one, you should invest in a handheld tds meter.

kevin_e · 05/07/2018, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Opus123

This is the way to think of your RO setup. The RO membrane is the most important part. You want to protect it. This is where the sediment and carbon blocks come in. The sediment block filters out small particles that could quickly clog up the membrane. The carbon block then takes care of any chemicals that could harm the membrane. As for microns, there are different theories. I personally go by the philosophy that the sediment filter should be smaller or the same size as the carbon block. If the carbon block is smaller it could become clogged up quicker than the sediment filter and stop working efficiently. I personally have a .2 micron sediment filter and a 1 micron carbon block. You should also check your cities water report (assuming you are on city water) and make sure they are not putting chlormines in the water. If they are, then you want a carbon block that specifically removes this. You should also get a RO membrane with a 98% rejection rate or you can spend the extra like me and get the 99% membrane. My tap water is over 400 tds and my tds after the RO membrane is 4. I personally just order my DI from amazon. Unless you are needing the DI to do something special then the mixed is fine.

With a tds of 4, I should get around 1100 gallons of 0 TDS water out of my DI catridge.

If you don't already have one, you should invest in a handheld tds meter.

Thanks. It looks like chlorine is added. Here is out city's report:

My post mebrane TDS is 35ish, so I need to replace it. So 1 micron carbon block and sediment filter should be good together.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

Opus123 · 05/07/2018, 10:53 AM

Yes, 1 micron should be fine. At 35 tds, you will only get around 125 gallons of 0 tds out of a cartridge of DI.

josephxsxn · 05/07/2018, 05:47 PM

If your only running 1 DI canister I would run a mixed bed of both resins. It will depend on your water if its more anion or cations. Personally in the city I reside in I almost never use cation up and use anion like its candy. I run 3 canisters (cation, anion, mixed)

With BRS iirc the non-Pro Mixed Bed color changing is Anion, and the Pro is Cation.

Cation is for Calcium, Mag, and Metals
Anion is for Phospahte and nitrates, etc

And +1 to what Opus123 said, protect your RO Membrane... Its what will give you the best life out of the DI Resins.

kevin_e · 05/08/2018, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Opus123

Yes, 1 micron should be fine. At 35 tds, you will only get around 125 gallons of 0 tds out of a cartridge of DI.

Thanks. Well I need to replace my membrane, no question. I need to be lower than 35 tds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by josephxsxn

If your only running 1 DI canister I would run a mixed bed of both resins. It will depend on your water if its more anion or cations. Personally in the city I reside in I almost never use cation up and use anion like its candy. I run 3 canisters (cation, anion, mixed)

With BRS iirc the non-Pro Mixed Bed color changing is Anion, and the Pro is Cation.

Cation is for Calcium, Mag, and Metals
Anion is for Phospahte and nitrates, etc

And +1 to what Opus123 said, protect your RO Membrane... Its what will give you the best life out of the DI Resins.

Do you think I should add a second canister, or even a 3rd to my system? Is there much of a benefit to running an anion, cation and mixed bed versus th extra cost? It would be about 80-120 to set up an additional 1 or 2 canisters and then $12-$24 extra for each DI resin swap. Would I see much of a benefit versus just running a mixed bed?

josephxsxn · 05/08/2018, 07:53 AM

Here is a really good vid from BRS talking about how water comes out with multiple stages.

https://youtu.be/NVlS_1-ljX8?t=14m12s

For me the reason I use multiple stages is I will use about 3+ canisters of anion before I use 1 canister of cation. So when I used to use a single DI mixed bed cartridge I would be wasting lots of cation resin that had not gotten used up yet. With 3 stages I typically only ever change my anion cartridge, and the final mixed cartridge is just in case, this lets me use all of my anion cartridge without worrying that it will leak because the final mixed will stop anything else before going to the holding tank.

I run RO -> Cation -> Anion -> Mixed -> Holding Tank..

PS - my RO water is 4 TDS, and typically its 3 after the Cation and 0 after the Anion..

kevin_e · 07/08/2018, 08:00 AM

Ok. So I have a 4 stage RODI. 1 micron sediment filter 1 micron carbon block, membrane and mixed bed resin.

BRS sells a 3 stage upgrade kit which includes anion, cation and mixed bed, a triple TDS meter. This price is $5 more than the 2 stage upgrade kit. With that said, it makes more sense to get the 3 stage.

However, what would.i do with the additional 7th stage? I'm guessing I would need to replumb and make one of the first 3 stages an additional carbon or sediment filter?

Is there any point going through that effort? And getting the 3 stage or just pay the same price for the 2 stage and prevent having to replumb.

I guess what I'm asking is, would the additional sediment or carbon block provide any better protection to my membrane?

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fishyguy7 · 07/08/2018, 09:50 AM

I just added the brs 3 stage DI to my spectrapure maxcap system. When I added it I did replying so now the system goes.

5 micron sediment
1 micron sediment
1 micron carbon for chloimines
1 micron general use carbon
Dual RO membranes
Anion
Canion
mixed bed

hkgar · 07/08/2018, 02:50 PM

Maybe I missed it somewhere, what is the TDS of your tap water? You should expect at least a 95% reduction of TDS post RO.

And, just by the filters, No need to by new canisters and the brackets that hold them. You may need a refillable cartridge for the DI resin.

kevin_e · 07/12/2018, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hkgar

Maybe I missed it somewhere, what is the TDS of your tap water? You should expect at least a 95% reduction of TDS post RO.

And, just by the filters, No need to by new canisters and the brackets that hold them. You may need a refillable cartridge for the DI resin.

Tap is 132. Post membrane is 3-5. Keep in mind that I just replaced membrane, sediment filter and carbon block today.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

kevin_e · 07/12/2018, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishyguy7

I just added the brs 3 stage DI to my spectrapure maxcap system. When I added it I did replying so now the system goes.

5 micron sediment
1 micron sediment
1 micron carbon for chloimines
1 micron general use carbon
Dual RO membranes
Anion
Canion
mixed bed

Heck of a system there. Do u find that you go through less resin with the 3 stage resin setup?

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

fishyguy7 · 07/13/2018, 04:51 AM

Definitely less resin for sure.

DesertReefT4r · 07/13/2018, 07:24 PM

I use this kit from BRS when I replace my filters and DI. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-4...ilter-kit.html
I have a Spectrapure 3 stage 90gpd that is very basic and old (1997), I have used this membrane in the past with 98% rejection. http://spectrapure.com/FILTERS-MEMBR...PD-RO-Membrane
However I messed up and bought their standard membrane http://spectrapure.com/FILTERS-MEMBR...PD-RO-Membrane
And it has been performaning at 98% rejection as well and it saved me money! My source water is really crappy, 450 ppm and I get 8 ppm after the membrane. I want to add on 2 more stages and maybe a second ro to reduce waste water.

dtapke · 07/14/2018, 08:17 AM

AFAIK from my limited knowledge of RO systems, a second RO membrane would not reduce your waste water. your waste water is determined by the flow restrictor on the waste out. you could block the waste out totally and you would have 0 waste water, you'd just go through membranes realllllly fast.

fishyguy7 · 07/14/2018, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dtapke

AFAIK from my limited knowledge of RO systems, a second RO membrane would not reduce your waste water. your waste water is determined by the flow restrictor on the waste out. you could block the waste out totally and you would have 0 waste water, you'd just go through membranes realllllly fast.

Adding a second membrane to the waste out of first membrane basically doubles the output of clean water. There is a slight increase in tds but it’s minimal

05/07/2018, 07:46 AM	#1
kevin_e Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 1,083	What DI resin should I be using? BRS has: BULK DEIONIZATION RESIN PRO SERIES MIXED BED DI RESIN (cation and anion mixed) PRO SERIES CATION DI RESIN (Just cation) PRO SERIES ANION DI RESIN (Just anion) Is the Bulk DI resin mixed?

05/07/2018, 07:59 AM	#2
mcgyvr Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 20,050	Do you have sufficient details on your water quality/system setup that would be needed for us to answer that question? Input TDS? Water quality/contaminate report? Single or dual DI stages? and more ,etc.... Are you having any specific problems with what you are currently using? __________________ Who me?

07/08/2018, 02:50 PM	#12
hkgar Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Dewitt MI Posts: 5,051	Maybe I missed it somewhere, what is the TDS of your tap water? You should expect at least a 95% reduction of TDS post RO. And, just by the filters, No need to by new canisters and the brackets that hold them. You may need a refillable cartridge for the DI resin. __________________ Gary 180 gallon, 40 gallon sump, 3 250 W MH + 4 80W ATI T5's, MTC MVX 36 Skimmer, Apex controller Aquamaxx T-3 CaRx Current Tank Info: A 2 Barred Rabbitfish, Red Head Salon, Yellow/Purple, McMaster Fairy, Possum, 2 Leopard Wrasses, Kole, & Atlantic Blue Tangs, 2 Percula Clown, 3 PJ and 1 Banggai Cardinalfish , Swallowtail, Bellus and Coral Beauty Angels

07/13/2018, 07:24 PM	#16
DesertReefT4r Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2015 Location: Mesa Az Posts: 771	I use this kit from BRS when I replace my filters and DI. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-4...ilter-kit.html I have a Spectrapure 3 stage 90gpd that is very basic and old (1997), I have used this membrane in the past with 98% rejection. http://spectrapure.com/FILTERS-MEMBR...PD-RO-Membrane However I messed up and bought their standard membrane http://spectrapure.com/FILTERS-MEMBR...PD-RO-Membrane And it has been performaning at 98% rejection as well and it saved me money! My source water is really crappy, 450 ppm and I get 8 ppm after the membrane. I want to add on 2 more stages and maybe a second ro to reduce waste water. __________________ Tank history 29g tropical ,55g cichlid tank, 20H softy reef, 29g mixed reef, 20H brackish goby & puffer tank, 55g mixed reef, 6g Nanocube softy lps reef, 40B sps reef, 75g sps reef, 75g sps reef in bu Current Tank Info: 75g sps reef build in the works.

05/07/2018, 09:09 AM	#4
Opus123 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: North Texas Posts: 605	This is the way to think of your RO setup. The RO membrane is the most important part. You want to protect it. This is where the sediment and carbon blocks come in. The sediment block filters out small particles that could quickly clog up the membrane. The carbon block then takes care of any chemicals that could harm the membrane. As for microns, there are different theories. I personally go by the philosophy that the sediment filter should be smaller or the same size as the carbon block. If the carbon block is smaller it could become clogged up quicker than the sediment filter and stop working efficiently. I personally have a .2 micron sediment filter and a 1 micron carbon block. You should also check your cities water report (assuming you are on city water) and make sure they are not putting chlormines in the water. If they are, then you want a carbon block that specifically removes this. You should also get a RO membrane with a 98% rejection rate or you can spend the extra like me and get the 99% membrane. My tap water is over 400 tds and my tds after the RO membrane is 4. I personally just order my DI from amazon. Unless you are needing the DI to do something special then the mixed is fine. With a tds of 4, I should get around 1100 gallons of 0 TDS water out of my DI catridge. If you don't already have one, you should invest in a handheld tds meter.

05/07/2018, 10:53 AM	#6
Opus123 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: North Texas Posts: 605	Yes, 1 micron should be fine. At 35 tds, you will only get around 125 gallons of 0 tds out of a cartridge of DI.

05/07/2018, 05:47 PM	#7
josephxsxn Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: DTW, Michigan Posts: 122	If your only running 1 DI canister I would run a mixed bed of both resins. It will depend on your water if its more anion or cations. Personally in the city I reside in I almost never use cation up and use anion like its candy. I run 3 canisters (cation, anion, mixed) With BRS iirc the non-Pro Mixed Bed color changing is Anion, and the Pro is Cation. Cation is for Calcium, Mag, and Metals Anion is for Phospahte and nitrates, etc And +1 to what Opus123 said, protect your RO Membrane... Its what will give you the best life out of the DI Resins.

05/08/2018, 07:53 AM	#9
josephxsxn Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: DTW, Michigan Posts: 122	Here is a really good vid from BRS talking about how water comes out with multiple stages. https://youtu.be/NVlS_1-ljX8?t=14m12s For me the reason I use multiple stages is I will use about 3+ canisters of anion before I use 1 canister of cation. So when I used to use a single DI mixed bed cartridge I would be wasting lots of cation resin that had not gotten used up yet. With 3 stages I typically only ever change my anion cartridge, and the final mixed cartridge is just in case, this lets me use all of my anion cartridge without worrying that it will leak because the final mixed will stop anything else before going to the holding tank. I run RO -> Cation -> Anion -> Mixed -> Holding Tank.. PS - my RO water is 4 TDS, and typically its 3 after the Cation and 0 after the Anion..

07/08/2018, 08:00 AM	#10
kevin_e Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 1,083	Ok. So I have a 4 stage RODI. 1 micron sediment filter 1 micron carbon block, membrane and mixed bed resin. BRS sells a 3 stage upgrade kit which includes anion, cation and mixed bed, a triple TDS meter. This price is $5 more than the 2 stage upgrade kit. With that said, it makes more sense to get the 3 stage. However, what would.i do with the additional 7th stage? I'm guessing I would need to replumb and make one of the first 3 stages an additional carbon or sediment filter? Is there any point going through that effort? And getting the 3 stage or just pay the same price for the 2 stage and prevent having to replumb. I guess what I'm asking is, would the additional sediment or carbon block provide any better protection to my membrane? Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

07/08/2018, 09:50 AM	#11
fishyguy7 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Fort Collins,CO Posts: 426	I just added the brs 3 stage DI to my spectrapure maxcap system. When I added it I did replying so now the system goes. 5 micron sediment 1 micron sediment 1 micron carbon for chloimines 1 micron general use carbon Dual RO membranes Anion Canion mixed bed

07/13/2018, 04:51 AM	#15
fishyguy7 Registered Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Fort Collins,CO Posts: 426	Definitely less resin for sure.

07/14/2018, 08:17 AM	#17
dtapke Registered Member Join Date: May 2018 Posts: 105	AFAIK from my limited knowledge of RO systems, a second RO membrane would not reduce your waste water. your waste water is determined by the flow restrictor on the waste out. you could block the waste out totally and you would have 0 waste water, you'd just go through membranes realllllly fast.