RODI producing water with ammonia

EmusJames · Oct 11, 2022

Greetings,

I have a 7 stage RODI system that is producing water with ammonia. I have multiple questions, but first let me give you what I know. The system is new, I had one already in place but was getting ammonia readouts in the water. I bought the old system (6 stage 150 GPD) used, so I decided to get a new one in case there were issues. I have a large tank so I needed more water any ways. I upgraded to the 7 stage 200 GPD system from BRS. Pressure gauge reads 53 PSI, while the ammonia reading I am getting is currently 0.09. I ran the water out of the blue line (not going through the resin yet) for 1 hour and 30 minutes. I then ran it through the entire system (DI part as well) for about the same time and got a reading of ammonia at 0.11. I then ran it through the entire system for about 7 hours (I slept) and then got the current reading of 0.09 ammonia. My checker that I use to test for ammonia is the Hanna Checker. The checker is good, as I bought a calibration test kit to test it and it is dead on. The anion is the only thing that is depleting at the moment. The cation and the mixed resin look completely good still, while the 2nd stage of the DI (anion) looks to be almost, not quite a 1/4 depleted. My TDS reading is 0 after the 2nd stage of the DI. Unfortunately my city won't produce a water report until July 2023, and the current report they have posted is from last year. I have been trying to cycle this 170 gallon tank (225 system with sump), for a while, and it turned out I was possibly always adding ammonia.

Questions:
Is this level of ammonia bad? I understand certain variations of ammonia are more toxic than what the fish produce, is that this version of toxic ammonia coming from the RODI?

Is there something I need to add to my RODI setup?

Is there something else I need to test?

Will my tank adjust itself eventually since I have been adding this RODI water in there with ammonia or will I need to do a big water change and essentially start the cycle over?

Dan_P · Oct 11, 2022

EmusJames said:
Greetings,

I have a 7 stage RODI system that is producing water with ammonia. I have multiple questions, but first let me give you what I know. The system is new, I had one already in place but was getting ammonia readouts in the water. I bought the old system (6 stage 150 GPD) used, so I decided to get a new one in case there were issues. I have a large tank so I needed more water any ways. I upgraded to the 7 stage 200 GPD system from BRS. Pressure gauge reads 53 PSI, while the ammonia reading I am getting is currently 0.09. I ran the water out of the blue line (not going through the resin yet) for 1 hour and 30 minutes. I then ran it through the entire system (DI part as well) for about the same time and got a reading of ammonia at 0.11. I then ran it through the entire system for about 7 hours (I slept) and then got the current reading of 0.09 ammonia. My checker that I use to test for ammonia is the Hanna Checker. The checker is good, as I bought a calibration test kit to test it and it is dead on. The anion is the only thing that is depleting at the moment. The cation and the mixed resin look completely good still, while the 2nd stage of the DI (anion) looks to be almost, not quite a 1/4 depleted. My TDS reading is 0 after the 2nd stage of the DI. Unfortunately my city won't produce a water report until July 2023, and the current report they have posted is from last year. I have been trying to cycle this 170 gallon tank (225 system with sump), for a while, and it turned out I was possibly always adding ammonia.

Questions:
Is this level of ammonia bad? I understand certain variations of ammonia are more toxic than what the fish produce, is that this version of toxic ammonia coming from the RODI?

Is there something I need to add to my RODI setup?

Is there something else I need to test?

Will my tank adjust itself eventually since I have been adding this RODI water in there with ammonia or will I need to do a big water change and essentially start the cycle over?

The ammonia might be coming from chloramine. As for the Checker reading, lookup the recent post by @taricha on this tester. If I recall correctly, the Checker reads high, so 0.1 ppm might in fact be lower or even zero. This is not much ammonia for a cycled system, but why feed it extra nitrogen?

brandon429 · Oct 11, 2022

I will add: this did not impede your cycle completion date/already passed.

ammonia you read in that cycling reef tank is like everyone's nh4 reading, we don't expect it to be zero in your reef tank although I can see how you'd want that in the clean water readout.

the hint about a cycle problem stood out, I'm sure Dan will fix up the water prep hardware easily.

continual input of ammonia into a cycling tank won't kill the cycle, it will hypercycle it. In no way do I think even with a misperforming ro di unit can the filter bacteria adhered to rocks in the display be stressed.

stuck cycle posts all have very similar clues, that clause stood out to me above.

knowing nothing other than your description above, the bet is your tank will carry life just fine right now and maybe already has been carrying it. You mentioned trying to cycle a while now...most do that with a rock stack in the tank, and by rule of deposition time I bet you're cycled.

post a full tank shot of your reef too while the crew works out ro di details. everyone's stocked reef gets daily ammonia input, yours was just coming from a pipe this time intended to produce clean water.

I believe you can be having an issue with the water prep; this just gives us the chance to inspect a cycling reef on the other side using the basics: # of days underwater, a pic, do animals live or die when in the reef...

what does your ammonia read on that checker, on the cycling tank as of today? We have a few studies to compare your readings to

EmusJames · Oct 11, 2022

brandon429 said:
I will add: this did not impede your cycle completion date/already passed.

ammonia you read in that cycling reef tank is like everyone's nh4 reading, we don't expect it to be zero in your reef tank although I can see how you'd want that in the clean water readout.

the hint about a cycle problem stood out, I'm sure Dan will fix up the water prep hardware easily.

continual input of ammonia into a cycling tank won't kill the cycle, it will hypercycle it. In no way do I think even with a misperforming ro di unit can the filter bacteria adhered to rocks in the display be stressed.

stuck cycle posts all have very similar clues, that clause stood out to me above.

knowing nothing other than your description above, the bet is your tank will carry life just fine right now and maybe already has been carrying it. You mentioned trying to cycle a while now...most do that with a rock stack in the tank, and by rule of deposition time I bet you're cycled.

post a full tank shot of your reef too while the crew works out ro di details. everyone's stocked reef gets daily ammonia input, yours was just coming from a pipe this time intended to produce clean water.

I believe you can be having an issue with the water prep; this just gives us the chance to inspect a cycling reef on the other side using the basics: # of days underwater, a pic, do animals live or die when in the reef...

what does your ammonia read on that checker, on the cycling tank as of today? We have a few studies to compare your readings to

I will check my cycling tank ammonia levels when I get home. I think realized the case though for my recent ammonia readouts straight out of my RODI system. I am using the marine checker, I took my freshwater checker upstairs and I am pretty confident I had a brain fart on checking the freshwater coming out of the RODi system. That should be using the freshwater checker. I did have the issue with ammonia in my RODI water reservoir but I think the cation, anion, and mixed formula for DI will solve that. Glad to hear I am possibly cycled. I will proby let it ride a little bit longer if my ammonia levels are high, like I said I was adding water with ammonia so I will find out tonight what it is showing in my tank. I feel like a dummy on the marine and freshwater checker switcheroo if that is the case.

taricha · Oct 11, 2022

Dan_P said:
As for the Checker reading, lookup the recent post by @taricha on this tester. If I recall correctly, the Checker reads high, so 0.1 ppm might in fact be lower or even zero.

Yep. Thread here.

Analyzing Hanna Ammonia checker Hi784, chemistry and performance

Hanna's saltwater ammonia checker, Hi784 is out and I wanted to take a look and assess its performance for reef tank water, and see where some interpretation of results might be helpful. This post will include some data on a display tank processing ammonia, and in a later post I'll do a...

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