Country Water - “Well”, it isn’t good

[Ninja69assassin]

Been running a bio cube 32 and use store bought distilled water for topping off. Currently we don’t mix our own saltwater, use the Pacific Ocean water from Petco ($17 for 5 gallons).

I’d love to get a small RO/DI unit but we’ve got incredibly hard well water out this way. Anyone else in rural areas on hard well water have success with RO/DI units without going broke?

Expecting to add a 75 or 125 gallon tank to our basement and mixing our own water will be come a must so trying to solve the water challenge early. Can always buy the distilled water but at higher volumes it likely will become a larger chore than we’d hope for.

Anyone have experience with this? Would be very curious to learn from the experiences of others here.

 

[topjimmy]

My well is crazy hard. We have a softener on it. For RoDi I have a pressure pump to keep it more efficient. I also recharge my DI resin

 

[RedoubtReef]

yep, we have water with lots of iron. Are you not using some sort of softner?

 

[Ninja69assassin]

yep, we have water with lots of iron. Are you not using some sort of softner?

We use a softener but between the iron and small amounts of sulfur just curious on my options.
Haven’t dug too deep into costs and trying to keep them low as I get my wife into the hobby in hopes we can go much much larger once she’s fully onboard

 

[CK00020]

Check your tds after softener, mine is cleaner than I expected, better than city water in my area. I run a booster pump and extra sediment cartridges before ro membrane.

 

[trainbob]

I use a sediment 30 micron filter before my water softener and then use a tankless under the sink RO filter for drinking water and add a DI resin filter for my reef tank. My RO membrane lasted two years and pre filters lasted one year. The well water measures 350 TDS before softening

 

[Dburr1014]

My well is semi-hard.
I have a whole house filter then it goes though a large GAC filter for radon.
I don't use any other filter before my membrane. Then anion, cation, mixed bed.
It's about 50ppm before the membrane and zero out.

 

[Blazinlawn2000]

Been running a bio cube 32 and use store bought distilled water for topping off. Currently we don’t mix our own saltwater, use the Pacific Ocean water from Petco ($17 for 5 gallons).

I’d love to get a small RO/DI unit but we’ve got incredibly hard well water out this way. Anyone else in rural areas on hard well water have success with RO/DI units without going broke?

Expecting to add a 75 or 125 gallon tank to our basement and mixing our own water will be come a must so trying to solve the water challenge early. Can always buy the distilled water but at higher volumes it likely will become a larger chore than we’d hope for.

Anyone have experience with this? Would be very curious to learn from the experiences of others here.

All of my tanks have been with well water. Biggest thing I find is needing a booster pump to take pressure from well system up to get the most efficient processing of the water. We also have a water softener that runs before the RO system and have never had any issues with the hard water. My current tank is 180 gallons and I go through 1-3 gallons of water a day for top off and do about 10-20 gallons of water a week for water changes.

 

[Dburr1014]

All of my tanks have been with well water. Biggest thing I find is needing a booster pump to take pressure from well system up to get the most efficient processing of the water. We also have a water softener that runs before the RO system and have never had any issues with the hard water. My current tank is 180 gallons and I go through 1-3 gallons of water a day for top off and do about 10-20 gallons of water a week for water changes.

My bladder for the well expansion tank can handle 60psi.so I just turned it up. Just make sure it can handle it and doesn't leak when you do.

 

[blessedpiu]

I understand the struggle of dealing with hard well water in a rural area. It can be tough to maintain a healthy aquatic environment without breaking the bank. I would recommend investing in an RO/DI unit, as it will save you money in the long run. As for dealing with hard water, you may need to invest in a water softener or pre-filter to help prolong the life of your RO/DI unit.

 

[blessedpiu]

I understand the struggle of dealing with hard well water in a rural area. It can be tough to maintain a healthy aquatic environment without breaking the bank. I would recommend investing in an RO/DI unit, as it will save you money in the long run. As for dealing with hard water, you may need to invest in a water softener or pre-filter to help prolong the life of your RO/DI unit. In terms of finding affordable options, have you checked out any local drilling rig suppliers? They might have used swivel in drilling rig or other equipment that could work for your RO/DI setup. It's always worth checking out different options to save some cash.

 

[klc]

In Phoenix our tap water is at 1000 TDS. We use a softener for the house, and have the rodi hooked to the soft water, it is still in the neighborhood of 800 out of the softener. I do go through a lot of resin though, my 150 gpd unit on a good day will produce 23 TDS, I can make between 60 and 80 gallons on a charge of resin before the TDS creeps up to 2 or 3. I have a manual bypass hooked up so I can run the unit for 5 or 10 minutes when I first turn it on without running it through the resin. That has seemed to help prolong it somewhat.