Brown Algea Another Question

"Marc Levenson" wrote in message
...
Uncle Sam,

If you had a TDS meter, you'd be able to determine this rather quickly,
rather
than guessing. TDS is Total Dissolved Solids, and for our tanks, we want
that
number as close to 0 as possible. Tap water ranges, anywhere from 100 to
550 or
more. Mine tested 171 TDS recently.

If you owned or could borrow a TDS meter, or take a water sample to your
LFS and
ask them to use their TDS meter (they should have one on hand), it would
give
you the results. The meter runs about $25 from MarineDepot.com and other
online
vendors.

Your RO unit should produce water with 10 TDS or less.

Replacing your Sediment and Carbon filters every 6 months is a good habit
to get
into. Looking at the sediment filter, it will look orange to rust-orange
as it
traps all the big stuff before the water goes any further into your unit.
Originally, that filter is white.

The two carbon blocks trap and remove many other impurities, especially
chlorine. When you pull out the Carbon cartridge filter right next to the
Sediment, smell it. It should reak of Chlorine. The other carbon will
probably
not have any odor to it at all.

Adding a DI to your system would remove the last of the TDS, getting you
to 0.
(My RO comes out 2, and after the DI it is 0.) You can buy the extra DI
setup
from Premium Aquatics for about $40 to $50, and it will be good for about
12
months. Then you'll need to replace the DI. How do you know when it is
used
up? When the TDS of the water coming out of the DI is equal or higher
than the
TDS of the water coming out of the RO membrane. If it is equal or higher,
the
DI is spent and needs to be replaced.

I sell 2 Carbons and a Sediment on my site for $25 plus shipping. They
are the
standard 10" cartridges. Scroll all the way down this page if you're
interested:

http://www.melevsreef.com/ro_di.html

Ahh, you beat me to it.
Yes, use a TDS meter to determine if your RO[RO/DI] is working within range.
Otherwise you going to waste the media that do not really need to be change.

CapFusion,...