[bongobrian]

I've posted some questions about my R/O unit in the past because I am skeptical that it is working correctly. I am almost sure of it now.. as I was running the unit this weekend I noticed that the product water coming from the unit smells like sulfur!!! the unit is filtering hard well water and only produces 5 gallons per day which I guess is normal because of the low water pressure. Is there some place that I can take this water to be tested to make sure it is reef safe? I've been using the water for months now and my tank seems fine except for high phosphate levels. My R/O water is very low in phosphate. Does anyone know what might be going on with the unit? is this normal for well water? and is there anywhere I can take the water to be tested and what should they test for?

The R/O unit is the Kent Marine 35gpd HI-S model.

[Steve]

How old is the membrane? How long have you been using it?

[bongobrian]

sorry- I should have posted that already.

The unit is fairly new... I've only been using it since july so it's about 4 months old. The membrane is the same one that came with it, so that is also 4 months old. I've probably only used the unit about 15-20 times, but since I'm using well water maybe the filters are getting exhausted very quickly. How can you tell when you need to change membranes and filters?

[Biomanjcs72]

Now, as I recall (I feel quite sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, and please do)

The membranes will dry and degrade if you don't run the unit at least once about every 24 hours?? is that right?? JAT

[bongobrian]

Oh really? I've been trying to run the unit at least once a week hoping that would be enough to keep the membrane saturated. I never open the canisters so I thought running it once a week should not cause the membranes to dry out. The guy at my LFS said it would probably take about a month without running the unit to make the membrane dry out.

[Biomanjcs72]

Well, that's just what I remember hearing, I don't have an R/O unit, so I'm not speaking from experience, just heresay.


I'm hoping someone who is more knowledgeable on the subject will pipe in, so we'll wait and see.

[Steve]

Membranes must be kept wet and should never be allowed to dry out. As long as you are not opening the casing that the membrane is in or exposing it to air, you should be fine. I would suggest that you use softened water if possible. Hard water can cause the membrane to scale (or so I have been told) and decrease the life of the membrane. The best way to test your RO unit is with a TDS meter. The Kent Hi-S should filter out 97-99% of the TDS. You should test the water going into the filter and the water coming out. The waste water can be tested also. It should be higher in TDS then the water going in. I have no idea what would cause a sulfer smell. You are suppose to replace the carbon block and prefilter every 6 months. Hopefully, replacing the carbon block would get rid of the smell. You may want to send Kent a email directly to ask them the question about the sulfer smell.

[bongobrian]

Thanks guys, I emailed the LFS that I bought the unit from and a guy there gave me some advice as well. He said to replace the carbon filter and that will get rid of the sulfur smell. I am currently using hard water, so hopefully when we get our water softner that will extend the life of the filters and membrane.

How can I test for TDS? I'm assuming that stands for total dissolved solvents. Is there some kind of test kit that I can buy? thanks again.

[Steve]

There are many places that sell test meters or pens. Here is the one I have: http://www.petwarehouse.com/webstore...8?OpenDocument
This place has good prices, but my dealings with the company have found their customer service questionable: http://www.aquariumwaterfilter.com/R...cessories.html
TDS stands for Total Disolved Solids.