Bad water?

I recently got my tds meter in and noticed my ro wasnt doing its job. I have ordered replacement membrane, cartridges and a dual stage DI (with AZDesertRat's advice) so my problem will be solved once I receive them (they shipped today). Meantime, the tank water wasnt as good as I hoped as the water from the ro measured 127 with the meter, which is hard for me to understand as the tap measured 088.. So now what do I do? Sit and wait and see what algae grows or is there something I should do to help off set the likely outbreak?

 

do u think ur using the waste water?

 

well i dont believe so as the amount of water coming from the good opposed to the bad is far less.. The bad line streams and the good trickles in comparison.. I would test the TDS on both sides but i had took the unit apart to see which membrane to order before I found AZDesertRats posts here.. It was a used unit and I posted a thread here where I wasnt sure if the hoses were ran right.. I believe, according to everything I have read today, that they are connected properly.. Here is the post with the pics of my ro..

http://www.3reef.com/forums/filters-pumps-etc/please-help-ro-hose-configuration-131315.html

 

Ok something weird, now I am concerned my storage conatiner may be the wrong type. I tested the tap water and it was at 98. The tested the TDS of the water that came directly from the hose of the RO and it shows 42 (as a reminder I have already ordered the replacement membrane, filters and a add-on dual DI so that number should drop)...
I then tested the water in my storage container that had been being filled for last 7 hours and it shows a TDS of 127...
Is my storage container bad or does the waters TDS rise after its been sitting?

 

Just to be sure, are you saying the blue line is your clean water?

How many times did the RO start/stop over that 7 hours?

An RO needs to be flowing in order for the membrane to reject dissolved ions. When the flow to the RO is stopped, the concentrate (dirty water) and the permeate (clean water) come to equilibrium. With that, when a RO is first started, the clean water has a lot of crap in it for a minute or two until the RO starts rejecting again.

It's not a big deal if you have a DI canister as it will clean it up (best practice is to disconnect the RO from the DI when you start up and colect the RO clean water in a bucket for 1-2 minutes then reconnect to your DI train while the RO is running. Doesn't save a lot on your resin life, but it does add up over time). If you don't, that dirty water goes into your storage tank.

There are other things to look for...

On the end of the membrane, there's a little stub of pipe that sticks out and there should be an o-ring or two on it. Make sure those o-rings are in place and aren't pinched. If they are, dirty water can leak into the clean water.

I have also seen ultrapure water pick up conductivity due to CO2 absorption. However, I would not think that's the case for you.