Fishy Business

Problems with Aquatic Life Booster Pump/RO Buddie

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Alejandro_1403

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Hi everyone,

I’m having an issue with my RO system and I’m trying to understand what’s going on.

Setup
  • RO unit: Aquatic Life RO Buddie 100 GPD
  • Booster pump: Smart Buddie 50–100 GPD (Model 660718)
  • Purchase date: March 3, 2026
  • Membrane: brand new, installed March 8, 2026 (same day system started), and flushed for a few hours after installation

Water parameters
  • Tap water TDS: ~243–254 ppm
  • RO reservoir TDS: initially ~17 ppm, now rising to ~19–20 ppm

Pressure
  • Incoming pressure: ~30–35 psi
  • With booster: pressure initially was around 60–65 psi, but over time has increased and now rises to 100–105 psi before the membrane

Performance measurements
With booster pump:
  • 16 oz filtered water → 1 min 12 sec
  • 16 oz waste water → 4 min 47 sec
This gives roughly:
4:1 product:waste ratio

Measured TDS directly from RO (after flushing ~15 min): 25 ppm

Without booster pump:
  • Very slow filtered water (dripping)
  • Waste water flows much faster
  • RO TDS: ~134 ppm

What I've done so far
  • Followed all Smart Buddie instructions:
    • Correct tubing configuration
    • Removed original flow restrictor (as instructed)
    • No check valve used
    • Timer installed (using float valve)
  • Reinstalled original flow restrictor, no meaningful change
  • Tested with different tubing/containers → same results
  • Let system run and stabilize before measuring
  • Confirmed the membrane is properly seated
  • Checked all connections, no kinked or obstructed tubing

Observations
  • System produces too much product and too little waste
  • TDS is higher than expected for a new membrane
  • Pressure increases significantly with booster (~105 psi)
  • Reservoir TDS slowly increases over time

My current understanding
It seems like:
  • The system is under-restricting the waste line
  • Water is passing too easily to the product side
  • The membrane is not getting proper contact time
  • The booster may be overdriving the system under these conditions

Main question
Why would the system show:
  • high pressure (~105 psi)
  • but still behave like it is under-restricted (high product, low waste, high TDS)?
Also:
  • Could the Smart Buddie’s internal restrictor be insufficient or malfunctioning?
  • Or is this expected behavior under high pressure?

Any insight would be appreciated.
 
RO buddie uses a 95? iirc? percent rejection rate membrane so you should expect 10-15 ppm in product anyway. You need DI to remove a lot of little molecules, nitrate, phosphate, silica, dissolved gases that pass thru. Regardless 25 seems a bit much

1:4 product to waste isn’t great but it seems around normal

105psi also seems a little much but I’m not too well versed on plumbing.

Can you measure tds and waste water ratio without the booster pump?

Maybe a low quality membrane? Try replacing it?
 
tribbitt said:
RO buddie uses a 95? iirc? percent rejection rate membrane so you should expect 10-15 ppm in product anyway. You need DI to remove a lot of little molecules, nitrate, phosphate, silica, dissolved gases that pass thru. Regardless 25 seems a bit much

1:4 product to waste isn’t great but it seems around normal

105psi also seems a little much but I’m not too well versed on plumbing.

Can you measure tds and waste water ratio without the booster pump?

Maybe a low quality membrane? Try replacing it?
Click to expand...
The rejection rate I should be getting is 96-98%.

My ratio is 4:1, no 1:4. I’m producing 4 times the product than waste.

When I remove the booster pump I only get a few drops at a time in the product line, with a tds of 134. I didn’t calculate the product-waste ratio but based on what I saw it was easily 1:10 (p-w) if not worse.

Maybe the membrane is malfunctioning (idk, is my first RO system), I used the one that came with the filter, it was new at the time of the install.
 
Can you share a few pictures of how you have it hooked up. Just to make sure everything is connected correctly?

I think that's a super simple one to hook up. Yet couldn't hurt to have others look over how you have it installed.

4 times product verse waste is what makes me wonder if something is hooked up backwards or something.
 
MichaelB said:
Can you share a few pictures of how you have it hooked up. Just to make sure everything is connected correctly?

I think that's a super simple one to hook up. Yet couldn't hurt to have others look over how you have it installed.

4 times product verse waste is what makes me wonder if something is hooked up backwards or something.
Click to expand...
I tried uploading the image directly, but even after compressing it to 300 KB, the upload still said the file was too large. I uploaded the images to my Google Drive instead.

RO System - Google Drive

drive.google.com drive.google.com
 
Alejandro_1403 said:
I tried uploading the image directly, but even after compressing it to 300 KB, the upload still said the file was too large. I uploaded the images to my Google Drive instead.

RO System - Google Drive

drive.google.com drive.google.com
Click to expand...
I fixed it for you.
IMG_4854.png
IMG_4853.png
 
Can you remove and then reinstall the membrane back in? And if that doesn’t work maybe the membrane is damaged.

Is that the sediment block? It’s that dirty, and you bought this thing this month?
 
I’m not familiar with either units. But what I can tell you is you have a choke on the waste side somewhere. Just disconnect each join until it flows like crazy. Or your membrane is bad. Even if it’s new. It can be bad if it’s a cheap one.
 
tribbitt said:
Can you remove and then reinstall the membrane back in? And if that doesn’t work maybe the membrane is damaged.

Is that the sediment block? It’s that dirty, and you bought this thing this month?
Click to expand...

tribbitt said:
Can you remove and then reinstall the membrane back in? And if that doesn’t work maybe the membrane is damaged.

Is that the sediment block? It’s that dirty, and you bought this thing this month?
Click to expand...

I already removed and reinstalled the membrane two or three times when I thought that was the problem.

Yeah that's the sediment filter, the water in my house is dirty.
 
Turkeysammich said:
I’m not familiar with either units. But what I can tell you is you have a choke on the waste side somewhere. Just disconnect each join until it flows like crazy. Or your membrane is bad. Even if it’s new. It can be bad if it’s a cheap one.
Click to expand...
I’m going to try not using the wastewater management feature on the booster pump and adding back the original flow restrictor. I don’t know if the unit will work without all the tubings being connected, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
 
Re thinking it. I think the booster pump is doing its job. Pressure is high because there’s a choke in your system after the booster pump. Ro/di systems don’t work well at 35 psi. They will work tho. 60 psi is the sweet spot. Since you have a pressure gauge. Tap that gauge before and after each stage. When you see the back up. That’s the bad unit. Also. If there’s a restrictor valve at the waste water dump. It might be the wrong one because now you added a booster pump and it’s choking it.
 
Btw. The gauge itself can be a choke point. I’m lazy. What I would do is remove the membrane and move the gauge to the end and see if it is still backed up. Before I look at each unit. Then remove the gauge and see how the flow is.
 
Turkeysammich said:
Re thinking it. I think the booster pump is doing its job. Pressure is high because there’s a choke in your system after the booster pump. Ro/di systems don’t work well at 35 psi. They will work tho. 60 psi is the sweet spot. Since you have a pressure gauge. Tap that gauge before and after each stage. When you see the back up. That’s the bad unit. Also. If there’s a restrictor valve at the waste water dump. It might be the wrong one because now you added a booster pump and it’s choking it.
Click to expand...

I will keep using the booster pump. It has a waste water inlet port and an outlet port. That part is supposed to flush the membrane before each use, and it also includes the external flow restrictor there. I will not use that part of the booster pump. I will reinstall the flow restrictor that came with the filter to see how it behaves. If that does not work, the problem might be the membrane
 
My guess is the flow restrictor possibly Plus 100psi is the maximum for them RO buddies so your above full throttle! Unless the pressure gage is malfunctioning which happens and easily replaceable..
 
I performed the new test where I removed the Smart Buddie from the waste line entirely. I disconnected the waste line from the Smart Buddie and instead installed the original 800 flow restrictor that came with the RO Buddie system.

With this setup (no Smart Buddie involvement in the waste line), I observed the following:
- Pressure before the membrane: ~40 psi
- Filtered water: 16 oz in 2 minutes 47 seconds
- Waste water: 16 oz in 43 seconds
- Product water TDS: ~20 ppm (lower than what I was reading)

This gives an approximate product-to-waste ratio of ~1:3.9, which is much more in line with a typical RO system operating at lower pressure, although the TDS is still higher than ideal due to the lower pressure.

Additionally, using the same setup as the previous test (with the original 800 flow restrictor and without the booster pump), I performed another test where I manually restricted the waste line by partially obstructing the drain tubing. By doing this, I was able to directly control the system pressure:

- Light restriction → ~60 psi
- Moderate restriction → ~80 psi
- Strong restriction → 100+ psi



This confirmed that the pressure before the membrane is directly influenced by the level of restriction on the waste line.

Based on these tests, it appears that:

- The membrane does respond to changes in waste restriction and pressure as expected
- The system behaves in a balanced and predictable way without the Smart Buddie in the waste line
- When the Smart Buddie is installed, the system produces significantly more product and much less waste, along with elevated pressure and higher-than-expected TDS
 
I wonder if this setup is underpowered from what you need to filter out.

I would look for a standard setup e.g., here airwaterice.com

Troubleshooting will be easier with these, and might be less expensive since you do not need to rely on aquaticlife products.
 
Alexander1312 said:
I wonder if this setup is underpowered from what you need to filter out.

I would look for a standard setup e.g., here airwaterice.com

Troubleshooting will be easier with these, and might be less expensive since you do not need to rely on aquaticlife products.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I knew my tap water had a lot of sediment, but I never imagined how much. Those RO systems look great, but sadly I do not have the budget to buy a new one right now. I am going to buy two 10-inch water filter housing canisters to run two sediment filters, though I have not decided on the micron rating for each yet, and use them to bypass the smaller Aquatic Life 5-micron sediment filter.
 
Srt4eric said:
@Alejandro_1403 when I first started reefing I was using the ro buddy without the booster pump. I'm in San Jose so my tap water tds is horrible (450+ tds). That system never really worked great for me. If you are local-ish and become a supporting member I have a BRS ro/di system you can have.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the generous offer, but sadly I am not local to San Jose. I live in the Dominican Republic
 
Last edited:
UPDATE: I have been emailing with Aquatic Life customer service. We ran a few tests, including the ones I had been sharing here, and determined that the Smart Buddie has a faulty restrictor valve. They are going to ship me the replacement valve, since sending the whole unit back would be more expensive than buying a new one because of international shipping.

The customer service was great. They responded quickly and did not even ask for proof of purchase. That makes me think they may be aware of this issue in some of their units and, rather than issuing a recall, are handling it directly with customers, though that is only my assumption. He seemed to know exactly which test to run, but maybe he is simply an expert.

Thanks for all the insight you gave me. It took me a while to pinpoint where the issue was, since this is my first RO system after all. I hope this helps another fellow hobbyist.
 
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