Home Depot and lower cost/budget RO/DI warning

[paulrw]

Hello everyone, I haven't posted or been on the forum in quite awhile but i wanted to make a quick post about an experience i went through.

 

So I guess about a little over a year ago I got sick of lugging water from my lfs which was a long drive from my house and Through reduced hours at my job I was on a tight budget so the cost of the Gas and paying for the ro/di water was putting me over budget as well. I decided I had to get an RO or RO/DI unit. I don't believe in using credit cards so i have/had none except a Home Depot credit card for emergencies. Being a home owner these tend to come up. So this being my only option at the time i went to home depot and found a unit that was not to expensive *with* an RO membrane a sediment filter and carbon block they had no DI chambers or DI cartridges. I think the unit was $160 and i made the purchase.

 

I took the unit home read the directions and installed the unit. No leaks up and running. Now here is where I take full responsibility of being a moron. No where on the box or in the literature did it say i needed to purchase and install said sediment filter, carbon block or RO cartridge, and also no where it said it came with them. I'm a dumbass I should have opened all the chambers and inspected them but in the literature it said hook the unit up, let it run and inspect for leaks then your good to go.Which I did there were none and I started using.

 

Fast forward a few months and work started picking up and inevitably the tank got neglected a little. I started to notice a little hair algae and kind of disregarded it turned down the lights a bit and carried on. Then I started to notice small amounts of cyno in places and started to do more frequent water changes. Then the issue got quickly out of hand and in a couple months i got fed up I didn't have the time to baby the tank and I tore it down and set up a small 5 gallon holding tank. it had no live rock in it just Marinepure balls in it and a frag rack to keep my corals on, 1 korallia nano 420 and an Aquaclear hob and went on with life. I neglected this tank even worse only doing top offs and replacing Chemipure sacks and the little tank did great.

 

Fast forward again a few months, everything's good and work being very busy i started to squirrel money away towards a new set up, fusion 10, prime, Tunze ato, Jebao power head, new rock, new sand, and i slowly bought all the stuff I took the time to properly cure the rock and just wanted to do it right. With in 3 months of finally setting everything up I start getting hair algae and it quickly took over the tank. Turned down the lights tested phosphate, nitrates and ammonia basically none even registered. I was getting great growth on everything but frustrated i just let it go.

 

Now let me repeat I AM AN IDIOT! I didn't have a tds meter and never even gave the RO unit a thought. The house was on very clean well water, It had been tested multiple times in the past. My uncle worked for the EPA for years and is currently a hydrologist working for some big company infact there was a book written about his figuring out why all these people in some town were getting cancer.

The house was originally my grandfathers so when the well was drilled my uncle did extensive testing of the water.

 

Now, two months ago i sold my house and bought another one 200 miles or so north of where i lived and the house is on town water and years ago had a papermill on the river. So I knew the water would be heavily treated and having some extra cash decided to purchase a good RO/DI unit from BRS before i moved in. I took the old unit with me to use for drinking water so the new unit could be dedicated to my tank water. In the move one of the canisters on the old unit broke and being so busy with the move just put it aside I had the new one no big deal. Three days ago i decided to hook up the old unit and took all the canisters off to replace the media and there was not any filters inside just empty canisters no membrane nothing. So for about a year and a half i was doing water changes and top offs with tap water. No wonder all the algae problems. Duh.

 

So again I'm an idiot i should have had a tds mete. I should have checked the unit, but i can not believe Home Depot would sell a $160 dollar unit with no filters. With filters that would have put the cost well over $200, Which you can get a great RO with a DI chamber and ALL of the appropriate filters for that kind of money from BRS Spectrapure or other online vendors.

 

So the moral of this long ugly story is this, Be wary of purchasing "budget" or readily available units from home stores or big box stores and if you have to go that route don't be a dummy like me, check make sure and know what your getting. You're better off waiting a little longer saving your money and buying from a reputable source. It will end up saving you money and headaches and possibly getting out of the hobby.

 

Thanks for reading and be good.

[seabass]

Glad you finally got a real unit. For those of you still looking for a good inexpensive system (with filters ): http://spectrapure.com/Refurbished-90-GPD-RODI-System

[ajmckay]

Haha that's crazy. Glad you got it sorted out though!

[Elizabeth94]

Hey, we are all human! Mistakes are bound to happen. Unfortunate that it went on so long but I am also glad that you are still in the hobby. Thank you for sharing your experience!

[paulrw]

Hey, we are all human! Mistakes are bound to happen. Unfortunate that it went on so long but I am also glad that you are still in the hobby. Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

Honestly, it was seeing all the killer fusion 10's like yours and getting one of my own that kept me going.

[Elizabeth94]

Thank you, that really means a lot to me!

 

We all work hard and bend over backwards to keep our tanks going strong and keeping our inhabitants happy. Like you, I was drawn back into the hobby from seeing all the amazing fusion 10's on this site. I realized then that I should have just kept my old tank up since I spent so much time and money into it. It would have been five years old this year

 

 

Honestly, it was seeing all the killer fusion 10's like yours and getting one of my own that kept me going.

[paulrw]

I try not to ever look back in regret in this hobby or in life. Learn from mistakes but don't dwell on them. Move forward and keep progressing. As we all have learned, stagnant = death.