Ion Exchange resin

[ripped tide]

Once saturated, does anyone notice that the resin leeches what it has absorbed back into the water?

I recently had a membrane, on one of my units(the one I use for my tanks at home), go bad. I swapped the membrane and added a new Tds meter. The water going into the DI chamber(after swapping membranes) had a TDS of 3 and the water leaving the DI chamber has a Tds of 26.

I swapped the resin and now readings are 3 in and 0 out.

I Assume that the bad membrane allowed a lot of dissolved solids to pass through and I also assume that caused the resin to saturate quickly. If this resin does leech things back into the water.... Then thats not GOOD! Even with the bad membrane, I had a Tds of 20 going in and 46 coming out!!
Any thoughts?
Maybe a bad batch of resin?

 

[falos]

May be not bad resin batch it probably hit its saturation point a wile ago and sum how got bad enuf to release what it had removed
Are you using brs nuke grade ? If so that's realy bad that stuf is not suppose to ever release contaminates
What's you tds before the ro unit ?

 

[ripped tide]

I AM using the BRS nuclear grade color changing resin. I don't know the TDS before the RO.

The strange part is that the resin was still blue... It should have been brown.

 

[falos]

That sucks I would call brs about it you should have a batch number stamped on the bottle it will help them trace it
With eny luck they will replace it NC there good guys
It dusnot happen often but resin beads be it Di or sum other type or exchange resin can go bad on the shelf sum time just from age but most of the time its from a bad seal or small hole in the container. Then it becomes a air purifier if that happens it won't lose color but will be saturated kinda like rebreather beads

 

[ripped tide]

The bag was sealed and air tight when I opened it(2weeks ago). I'm not sweating it. My tanks didn't seem too upset about it and I have the issue taken care of. I will pay closer attention to this batch and see if I have the same issue or not. If I do have the issue, then BRS will be getting an email.

 

[schwaggs]

Not an answer to your questions but the TDS reading out of my RO stage always reads high until it has run for 2-3 minutes. However, the output from the DI stage is always 0. I use some "nuclear grade" color changing resin I got in bulk years ago...

 

[mcphock]

Same here with the BRS color changing resin.

I swapped mine out about 30 DI gallons ago. I'm getting a .15 phosphate reading from the DI water. BRS tds meter says 1 TDS in, 0 out. Hmmmm.

 

[ripped tide]

Check your po4 going into the DI.

When the membrane went bad, I had a phosphate of .65 going into the DI and 1.00 coming out of the DI. I think my wife must have accidentally run hot water through the membrane.

 

[mcphock]

Interesting. So I can conclude from that that TDS does include phosphate then?

 

[ripped tide]

I think it does include po4, now that I have the new membrane it is .01 coming out and the Tds reads 0.

 

[mcphock]

I can understand your readings being within a measure of error, but DI shows 0 TDS but .15 phosphate.

I'll try the membrane replacement. I thought I took good care of it.... moderate temperature and 50 PSI. Aren't they supposed to last upwards of a year? I've only had mine for about 4 months.

 

[ripped tide]

I think a lot of it has to do with the water quality of the tap water. A lot of municipal water sources add extra chlorine and chloramines to the water during the spring and summer. This will cause the carbon block to exhaust quicker and can potentially damage the membrane.

Edit: Could be a bad TDS meter.

 

[Jaycen B.]

Just curious, how long did you guys let your unit run before these tests?

I can test this, I run a dual DI and I know the first is toast because the second is starting to change. I'll pull the second one off and take some measurements. This is not BRS resin though, but I do have a refill of the BRS DI. I will let you know what I find.

 

[ripped tide]

Jaycen B.;771888 wrote: Just curious, how long did you guys let your unit run before these tests?

About 3weeks-a month

 

[Jaycen B.]

Ripped Tide;771891 wrote: About 3weeks-a month

It has been running continuously for a month?
<span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: Verdana"> </span></span>

 

[ripped tide]

It makes about 75-100 gallons per week. So about 400g

 

[Jaycen B.]

<span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: Verdana"></span></span>
<span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: Verdana">How long was the unit running before you tested the water? If you take a sample of the water when you first turn it on there is the possibility that what you see is TDS creep. I understand that you have had a malfunction with the membrane, and I am not sure if DI resin will release the trapped solids. I always let my system run for 15-20 minutes before I start to collect water. I will go out on a limb and say if it is still blue and you're getting crazy numbers than the di is bad.</span></span><span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: Verdana"> I will do a test. out</span></span>
<span style="color: black"><span style="font-family: Verdana"> </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span></span>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 13px"> </span></span>

 

[rdnelson]

just a bit off subject here (I know, you are used to me being way off subject). Is there a thread or some documentation somewhere that explains RO units, what to watch for, good levels verses bad levels, what needs changing and when?

 

[schwaggs]

McPhock;771835 wrote: I can understand your readings being within a measure of error, but DI shows 0 TDS but .15 phosphate.

I'll try the membrane replacement. I thought I took good care of it.... moderate temperature and 50 PSI. Aren't they supposed to last upwards of a year? I've only had mine for about 4 months.

I use Kent brand Hi S membranes and my last one lasted 11 years. The only reason I replaced it was the flow rate was so low. It still produced &lt;1 TDS output water. The Kent membranes are not cheap but IME, they last and are worth the $$$.

I agree with Jaycen and this is what I was trying to say in my previous post, you should let your RODI system run for 3-5 minutes before taking samples for testing. Otherwise you can get high readings. I'm not sure why it happens but I notice this phenomenon (high TDS readings out of the RO stage for a few minutes) on my inline TDS meter when my unit starts.

 

[ripped tide]

When I took the ORIGIONAL TESTS, last Sunday, the water had been running over night.