Thanks for the help

I had a slightly unusual need when it came to RO/DI water at the fish store I'm currently managing. Don and Walter, thank you for your knowledge and expertise in finding a solution for the store.

 

Thought you were just helping out for a while.....managing sounds a little more involved.....;D
At least when people come in and ask question they will get the right answer.

 

You're very welcome. If you need anything else, let us know.

Don

 

Well, the project ending up lasting longer than anticipated. However, it's for the good of the animals so I'll keep it up as long as my body cooperates. We got some free publicity. STLtoday - Life & Style - Pets

 

You're famous!!

 

lol!
Hey can you post a link to your special needs ro/di store thread. Just bored and wanting to read up on RO/DI

 

I didn't put up a thread, I sent them an email and told them my problems.

Just to give you an idea of how helpful they were, the store I'm temporarily managing had it's Air Conditioner poop out. In St. Louis in the summer, that is NOT a good thing. Our normally very high evaporation rate increased substantially and our double RO/DI units couldn't make enough water to even cover evaporation much less putting cool water into the tanks to help out the chillers. Luckily, the store owner had a Merlin high output RO unit in the quarantine warehouse. But there was no DI. Well, Air Water Ice built a double DI system with TDS meter that can handle the quantities of water needed and was plumbed to work with the larger tubing that the Merlin uses.

There's lots of articles about RO/DI out there. In St. Louis, (nickname River City) we live at the confluence of the Illinois River, the Missouri river, and the Mississippi river. We are LUCKY if our TDS is below 350 (it's often 450) for a number of reasons. We also have a unique problem....a lot of that TDS are things that are real bad for a reef tank. Fertilizer from any farm near the Missouri river from Montana down to St. Louis hits us. Fertilizer from any farm near the Illinois River from close to Chicago to St. Louis hits us. Fertilizer from any farm from close to the Mississippi river in Minnesota hits us. Hmmm Fertilizer.....can anyone say major phosphate and nitrate issues. ;D

The thing you need to know is that Reverse Osmosis removes a lot of things that are included in our total TDS number. Calcium and Magnesium are two things we don't want removed but to get to the good water, you have to remove those too. The deionizing resins will take care of the rest of the things that the RO membrane can't. In some areas of the country, RO/DI water is a good idea. In St. Louis, it's a requirement. Other areas of the country could likely get away with just RO water. Again, in St. Louis, we HAVE to have the DI too.

Here's a good article for you. What is TDS? by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

I suspect I'm more in-famous than famous. Dr. Ron doesn't exactly like me. ;D

 

Love that movie!

That only makes me like you more

 

You Da Man! What the heck are you going to do during tax season....;D