Ro water high ppm readings!

[joker1535]

So I checked my ro water today. The water coming out of the ro unit directly reads 0.60. Not bad. But the water in my rubbermaid bin to store the ro water reads 270!! The water has a pump and heater in it. Water is only couple days old. How come it shows those high numbers?

[monocus]

is your holding container sealed?your water could be attracting airborne particles-also if there is any light ,you could be making some greenwater

[Dietmar]

Was the rubbermaid new before you used it for water storage?
New or not, is it leaching something into the water? RO water, because its so pure, has an affinity for anything it can get, minerals, gases, etc.

Just for file 13, RO/DI water should be used to top off batteries (in your car if its not maintenance free) and radiators.

[joker1535]

It was a new bin. But I have used it now for 2 weeks. Maybe I should put my ro water directly into the tank instead of storing it dor top offs. But this doesn't help for PWC. I still need to premix my salt somewhere.

[kelownaguy]

If you used the container to premix salt water previously,it is probably from the residual salt.

270 ppm seems high for merely leaching from the container,but,who knows.
Seems to me that any leachate would be mainly organic compounds that would not show on a TDS meter.

[Dietmar]

I may be wrong, but my understanding is anything in the ro water will show up on the TDS meter.
TDS-total dissolved solids

Ok I just looked it up
Total dissolved solids - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[kelownaguy]

Organics are part of true TDS but they don`t show on a TDS(conductivity actually) meter.
TDS meter readings are not really TDS measurements,they are conductivity measurements multiplied by a fudge factor that assumes what the TDS consists of.
Different salts need different fudge factors.

[Dietmar]

I didn't know that ! It worries me. I always thought that my water was good to go with a TDS of 0.
Does the DI cartridge take out the organics? I always thought it would, but now am not sure.
Thanks

[kelownaguy]

No,a deionization cartridge only removes ions.
RO membrane and carbon filter should catch most of them though.

If you are really concerned about organics,there are test kits.
I just received one of these the other day.
Coral Shop releases new organics test kit, improves other test kits
Seems to be quite high quality.
According to the instructions,organic levels above 0.6 millimoles/litre can lead to algae problems.

Don`t bother with the Salifert kit.It is garbage.