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DIY deionizer



I’m looking for advice on building a water deionization system for plant +
S.A.
cichlid tanks.

My plan is to create a three-stage system:  1) Granular activated carbon
(GAC) cartridge, 2) Anion resin, 3) Cation resin.  I plan on using the
deionzer chambers from Cole-Parmer ($75 each) plus anion and cation resins
from Spectrapure ($85 and $41/gal respectively).  While the resins are color
indicating, I’ll also make a resistivity probe for my voltmeter to measure
water quality.

The main reason I want to build my own DI unit, is so that I can plumb it
for very easy recharge.  I plan on plumbing it so that I valve off each
deionzer chamber when exhausted and gravity fill with recharge solution.
After recharge, I’d gravity flush a 5 gal carboy of DI water through the
chamber, through a marble chip bath, and down my household drain.  While my
initial cost will be high, I hope to have a portable, high capacity source
of high purity (< 1 ppm) water that can be recharged cheaply, easily, and
“forever”.

Will my recharge scheme work?

I plan on connecting directly to my cold water line and flow control by
adjusting the cold water faucet.  Will my city water pressure be enough to
drive a filter housing and two DI chambers in series?  The DI units are
rated for 15 GPH.

I’m thinking a GAC cartridge is the way to go, since I don’t think I need to
filter out particles less than 10 microns.  Is a carbon block a better idea?
But would I need a pre-filter to keep the block from clogging too soon?


Joe K