Finishing off the water storage/making area
Posted 09/17/2011 at 11:15 PM by Spaced Cowboy
Tags build
So, now that the tanks are in-place and ready to go, I had to link up the RO/DI system. As mentioned above, I bought the six-stage Chloramines system from BRS since San Jose uses Chloramines (basically Chlorine bound to Ammonia, yuk!) as part of their sterilization process. I mounted them above the large SW tank, mainly because that's where the tap is 
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/RO.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/DI.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
I also added a power line, taken via an armoured cable from the swimming-pool sub-panel, and plumbed in a ball-valve at the base of the mixing tank, so once the NSW reads 1.026 s.g., all I have to do is turn the valve and 70 gallons of NSW gets dumped to the large NSW storage tank...
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/power.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/mixing-valve.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
Both the mixing-tank and the RO/DI tank are fed (via a T) from the same RO/DI system output. There's a shut-off valve located where the RO system is fed, which is activated by the back-pressure from the float-valves in each tank. If either tank is not yet full, that tank will be filled with RO/DI until it reaches the top, at which point the RO/DI will switch to filling the other tank if needed, finally shutting off completely, all completely automatically.
This is rather cool because it means I always have a full 70 gallons of pure RO/DI, and it also means the mixing tank starts to refill as soon as I empty it via the ball-valve to the NSW storage.
One of the things I have noticed is that I do seem to be going through DI resin quite fast - I've ordered more, but I thought I'd get through it slower than this. The resin changes to a brownish colour when it's exhausted, and you can see in the first picture below that it's going brown after only ~210 gallons of water produced (still at 0 tds output though). I was expecting ~800 gallons before exhaustion, not ~300 gallons (estimated).
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/rodi-resin.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/refractometer.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/pipe-protector.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
The middle image is my digital refractometer. Nice little toy, and makes it easier to measure the s.g And finally I laid down some cable-protector so the water-pipes that go from the storage-tanks under the house to the display tank won't get crushed when I step on them
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/RO.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/DI.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
I also added a power line, taken via an armoured cable from the swimming-pool sub-panel, and plumbed in a ball-valve at the base of the mixing tank, so once the NSW reads 1.026 s.g., all I have to do is turn the valve and 70 gallons of NSW gets dumped to the large NSW storage tank...
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/power.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/mixing-valve.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
Both the mixing-tank and the RO/DI tank are fed (via a T) from the same RO/DI system output. There's a shut-off valve located where the RO system is fed, which is activated by the back-pressure from the float-valves in each tank. If either tank is not yet full, that tank will be filled with RO/DI until it reaches the top, at which point the RO/DI will switch to filling the other tank if needed, finally shutting off completely, all completely automatically.
This is rather cool because it means I always have a full 70 gallons of pure RO/DI, and it also means the mixing tank starts to refill as soon as I empty it via the ball-valve to the NSW storage.
One of the things I have noticed is that I do seem to be going through DI resin quite fast - I've ordered more, but I thought I'd get through it slower than this. The resin changes to a brownish colour when it's exhausted, and you can see in the first picture below that it's going brown after only ~210 gallons of water produced (still at 0 tds output though). I was expecting ~800 gallons before exhaustion, not ~300 gallons (estimated).
[CENTER][IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/rodi-resin.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/refractometer.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://www.0x0000ff.com/imgs/fishtank/pipe-protector.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
The middle image is my digital refractometer. Nice little toy, and makes it easier to measure the s.g And finally I laid down some cable-protector so the water-pipes that go from the storage-tanks under the house to the display tank won't get crushed when I step on them
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