Neptune Aquatics

Man what a difference a pump makes...

S

sfsuphysics

Supporting Member
BARcard
and new RO membranes.

I think I finally figured out why my tank is all crappy towards SPS (at least I think I did). Every TDS meter I had was either rusted out inside, or used tiny (expensive) watch batteries that were long past dead. So before I made an order I soldered a 2 -AA battery holder to the leads inside one of the smaller battery powered ones, figure 1.5V is 1.5V... and tested the TDS on one membrane, only 60 TDS going in, but 24 coming out... that don't sound good... the other was similar... so new membranes, and decided to replace my old knock off Aquatec 6800 pump with an official Aquatec 8800 pump...

Oh man that new pump rocks, I used to get around 60PSI from the old pump, this one pushes it to around 100, TDS going in about 40, coming out unreadable (98% rejection rate leaves less than 1), so my resin will last soooooooo much longer now. cut open the old membranes and man they were in bad shape, almost look orange from all the "rust" colored junk inside them. They served me well, but new ones are working so much better.

Now I need to get one of those auto-flush units to "increase membrane life" as well as rewire my PSU to my solinoid to a float switch so that it will automatically turn off.
 
Wow, i had no idea PSI made that much difference. I should probably test my RO/DI unit before my tank gets here so I can see if I need a booster pump.
 
Makes a huge difference especially if you're below the required water pressure. The water pressure has to be at a certain PSI to effectively filter water through the membranes and cartridges.

You'll burn through your RO and DI membranes faster too (because both the RO membrane and DI cartridges' life spans are dependent on the previous membrane's effectiveness) if your pressure is too low.
 
Yeah IIRC, all specifications of membranes are rated at 90 PSI, which is absolutely unheard of in most residential water. In fact you have 90PSI in your pipes very often you'll get a pressure reducer put on your incoming supply to save your pipes. Also higher PSI means less waste water too IIRC, so got that going for me :D

The main reason I have a booster pump though is because I run two membranes, waste water of one goes into another, basically halves my waste water production (perhaps even more now). I have barely 40PSI from the faucet, so the first one I had that pumped it to 60 made me happy enough, now I'm giddy with joy at how much pressure I'm getting.

But the pump I got quite a few years ago was ok for its time, I really went with the cheap option on it, but today there's not much of a difference between cheap and expensive, so I went with expensive which was I think maybe $15 more, so in the long run it was well worth the headaches, it's also rated at a high flow rates than cheaper ones.
 
How much did the pump cost and whered you get it?

I need one too since im also running two ro membranes. I only get around 46 to 50 psi depending on if my neighbors are showering or doing laundry.
 
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I get near 100 psi at home without a pump, currently getting 1 or 2 TDS out of my RO before DI & zeroes after DI, I've had the same RO membrane in my system since I bought it over a year ago and before me it was used for about another year. I do replace my sediment filter once every 3 months and carbon once every 6 months.
 
I bought my aquatec 8800 kit from BRS. It's basically plug and play with their setup. I tune it for 60psi with two membranes. My RODI filters lasts much longer now.
 
Got mine from Amazon, was about the same cost as the BRS version that doesn't have a power supply, and about $40 less than the kit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ENPZE5Y/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looking back at my old one, the 24PSU that came with it is only like 1.2 amps (I think) the "official" one is 2Amps, not sure if that means this is simply a more powerful pump or if they simply give you a PSU with a larger overhead, but either way it's nice. Trying to find a splitter that uses the same output plug size though so I can hook it up to all my other goodies.
 
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