Definitely, deionising (DI) columns can be used by themselves to produce purified water for use in a marine aquarium.  DI uses ion exchange resins, which exchange the ions in the water, such as iron, magnesium, copper for hydrogen and nitrate, sulphate, phosphate for hydroxide.  The advantage of using DI to purify water is it does not produce waste water while in use, can be recharged almost indefinitely, and is cheaper.

DI columns (like any other piece of equipment) have to be operated correctly to perform at their optimum.  If the water is flowed through the unit too fast, then the resins do not have time to do their work and exchange the ions.  That speed at which the water can flow through depends on the amount of resin present within the column, the more resin the larger flowrate that is possible.

The DI column should also contain activated carbon, so this part needs to be replaced every now and then, but the cationic and anionic resins can be recharged.  Recharging of the resins within the DI column are achieved using hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide solutions.  The procedure is rather simple to do and takes about 1-2 hours to perform. Need to be careful of course since you are using dangerous, corrosive chemicals.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment!