Why did my stored RO/DI go bad?

LosingSleep

Non-member
I only keep 10g stored for such a small tank. It's kept moving with a MJ. I went to top off the tank and noticed the RO/DI smells nasty. I was under the impression that water could be stored forever as long as it's kept moving.
 
Should not go bad. If it's really RO/DI then there is not really much of anything for bacteria to grow on. Should not matter if it's aerated or not.
 
My RODI water is stored in a Brute 44 gallon barrel and it went bad smelling like mold mildew. I have a heater and powerhead for water circulation. The cords for both had a brown slime as well as a slime on the inside of the barrel. I've replaced the membrane and the other 3 filters. The barrel, power head and heater are outside soaking in water and bleach. This is the second time this has happened. The RODI is 8 months old. I have an inline TDS. Water in is at 149, RODI water out 8. First time it happened I washed the barrel out with baking soda and didn't use a heater or powerhead. I do water changes every week to week and a half. I take out 5 gallons every other day in a bucket for water evaporation of 2 1/2 gallons a day. I don't have a top off system so I manually top off. When it's all clean I'll be good for 2 months.
 
same thing here.
I noticed a mildew smell. emptied my 32g barrel, gave it a good clean out.
Put a powehead in for circulation.
RO/DI is unit brand new 2 months ago from air water & ice.

I see that Greg says that adding a pump shouldn't matter.
What's do you think?
 
RO/DI water will start to deteriorate the moment it is exposed to the atmosphere it will not last indefinitely.

Jim
 
Just picture RO/DI water like a sponge that is dry & has been dropped in a bucket of water. Ro/DI water is stripped of everything which makes it easy to take contaminants in (so to speak) You also must be careful to use a proper container for storage as well. Some containers will leach out or the Ro/Di water will act as a solvent & pull out properties from the barrel. BTW....there's no need to heat product water & areation may be forcing properties into the water. (from the container or the atomosphere) ;)
 
If I leave my RO/DI water un-aerated it smells like cat pee.

Or maybe the cat is peeing in it? :D
 
>Water in is at 149, RODI water out 8.<

That's not RO/DI water. Should read zero. My opinion, take it for what it's worth, is that RO/DI water could be stored for decades. The ONLY thing that will happen to it is that over time some of the components of whatever it is in will dissolve into the water. If plastic, that means that trace amounts of plastic components will dissolve into it. Not enough to matter. Trace amounts of bacterial will also grow in it, but they will mostly be living off of the nutrients from the plastic or whatever surfaces are in the water. I would have no hesitation in using the water even if there was a slight smell of mildew (this again assumes that it was DI water with a TDS of zero to begin with). Also, you should understand that the water will absorb carbon dioxide from the air until it is in equilibrium with the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, which, thanks to our industrial society, gets a little higher every year. When the CO2 dissolves in the water it creates small quantites of carbonic acid and will depress the pH of the water, again, not important, water is still fine, but might not read 0 anymore on your TDS meter (might read 1-2 maybe at most I think).
 
I THINK I found my problem with stinky water. I just grabbed one of the MJ used for circulating the stored ro/di and it STINKS! Guess it went bad? I've only been using it for about a month.
 
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