how do you set up an ro-di system?

Ive been think about gettin one but Im been confused on how they really work and are set up. please explain it to me?

 

If you buy one they come with instructions :

Basically water goes in from a tap of some kind, gets filtered like crazy, waste goes down the drain and pure water drips out the outlet.

~Will.

 

They can be as simple or as complex as you want.
Here are some basic directions from Buckeye Field Supply:

http://server.e3server.net/~buckeyef/files/4 Stage RODI System.pdf

And here are a variety of optional ways to accomplish just about anything from Spectrapure:

HOOK UP DIAGRAMS

In a nutshell, you hook it to a cold water supply using either a faucet adapter, hose bib adapter, a self piercing saddle valve or several types of small valves that fit inline with your sinks cold water supply. All are quite simple.

For the waste you can run it down the drain using a saddle, stick it in the sink, fill the washing machine, water the lawn or shrubs or just about anywhere you can put water.

They work by passing water under pressure through a semi permeable membrane or thin plastic film. The pure water molecules pass through and the wastes stay behind being flushed away to the drain. After RO the water is 90-98% pure so you then pass it through some DI resin which attracts anything that is left so you have ultra pure water.

 

It also depends on if you want your system to be under your sink going into a reservoir tank (which is what I have), or a auto-top off tank that sits next to your main tank, or have it plumbed directly into your sump with a float valve to keep your water level constant at all times. There are many ways to install these things and it's all personal preference. The less you want to mess with your aquarium usually means more complicated installation, it is inversely proportional.

 

would I be able to keep it under a sink and then when I need water just put a bucket under the sink to fill it. the tank is in my room and I dont want hoses running from the bathroom to my room.

 

Yes that's the most "normal" way to do it. We will have ours in our wet bar area closest to the tank where we will continue filling water jugs with it like normal.

 

Yes, you can install it under your sink and fill up a bucket every time you need water. The problem with this is you need to sit by the bucket and wait, which can take awhile (aprox. 3g per hour
The best way to go about it is to have a bucket with a float valve or a float switch next to your RODI.

 

a float switch alone would do nothing for stopping water dripping from an RO/Di into a bucket, but a float valve would.

~Will.

 

I meant a float switch with a solenoid valve...

 

this is how I do it

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-of...hil-55-gallon-thread-56156-11.html#post667540

it's not actually a walk through on how to do it, but an overview of my automated setup.

I use a floatvalve and a powerd solenoid on a timer to control flow from RO/DI -> reservoir. My float valve is part of a "level-loc" which also has a backup float sensor in the back of a different design than the float arm thing. You can't see it in the video, but you can see it on BRS site.