So I had an idea

[Gillie]

I have an old water softening system in the basement and was wondering if I could turn it into a central filter system for my tanks? I'm also wondering if it would be a good idea to connect the RO directly to it so when the time comes to top it off after a water change all I'll have to do is turn a valve on.

 

[tjudy]

A system of treating tap water that is becoming more popular is to run the water through a series of mechanical and chemical treatments before running it straight into the tank. The usual sequence is two micron filters, the first being 5-10 microns and the second smaller, followed by one or two 5 micron carbon blocks. The result is water with no large particulates and no chlorine or chloramine. The system does not soften water all that much. That prefiltering can also be used before running water through an RO, and will greatly increase the life of the RO membrane.

The only problem I see with what you are suggesting is that your water softener canister is probably set up for only one type of media.... usually a deionization resin. What you could do is fill it full of activated carbon and link it in line after a couple micron prefilters. You could also use it after the prefilter series and fill it wil deionization resin and remove quite a bit of TDS and hardness... but the resins are exhausted quickly and expensive to replace. RO is cheaper, but the DI method does not waste any water.

 

[Gillie]

Ted, thanks for the info. I miss worded my post, the system is not in operation with just the two tanks and a jumble of tubing and my intent was to turn one tank into something like a giant canister filter and connect it to my breeding tanks. I was figuring it might save some money on filters and tubing along with a little tank space, but you gave me an idea for what I can do with the other tank.

 

[chris1932]

If the tank was a water softner it has resin in it and the head has five cycles it goes through and they are;
Backwash
Slow rinse/brine draw
Fast rinse
Slow rinse/brine refill
Service

To use it as a filter you do not need two of the cycles, they are slow rinse brine draw and brine refill

Another concern is the backwash rate, resin, carbon, sand, anthracite, all have different rise rates. A rate that will backwash carbon will blow sand out of the tank.
I think the best thing you can do is use the tank and purchase an in/out head. You need to be careful when you take the head off to remove the resin. There is a distributor inserted in to the head and it is sealed with an o ring. If it moves up even a little bit you will need to empty the tanks to reposition the hub in the bottom of the tank. There is also a layer of coarse stone/pebbles in the very bottom. The vertical pipe should be flush with the top of the tank. I would put gravel in the very bottom, fine sand over that and bio balls in the rast of the tank. When you backwash the bio balls will be the lightest and remain on the top level and the substrate will settle itself by weight also with the coarse on the very bottom and the sand over it. I used a similar tank to make a blackwater generator. Coarse red flint on the bottom Fine red flint over it and saphnum peat, almond leaves, and alder cones. Now when I want blackwater all I have to do is open the tap and I have two gpm of coffee colored water that has a pH of 3

 

[Gillie]

I know where I went wrong. I gave a pretty bad description of the set up. There are the two empty tanks, some tubing no control box to run the system. What I was initially thinking was run the intake lines into pvc that is connected to an adjustable flow external pond pump ,which will flow into the tank pushing the water through a series of media baskets and out to the other tank where by a second pump be distributed back to the tanks via a series of pvc spraybars. Sorry for any confusion, sometimes I just suck

 

[aquaticclarity]

Chris,

Do you have an issues with the balckwater generator going anaerobic?

Jeff

 

[chris1932]

I run at least half the capacity of the tank on any given day. The water going into it has passed through a UV. There is no distinct anerobic odor and when I am run ATP tests I never get anything higher than 1-2 so I really dont worry too much about it. It would be a concern if I hardly ever used it and its a valid question.