First, I'd like to thank you for the positive comment about the staff at our store. Our #1 goal is to help people be successful with their aquarium and that starts with good staff, health animals and helpful info.
About our water: I believe our RO/DI system is the most advanced in the area. We purchased the 3,000 Gallon Per Day (yes that is three thousand GPD) RO/DI that was the workhorse for water at DC MACNA 2015, and added a Granular Activated Carbon stage, booster pump to account for our poor water pressure in our building, and 2 additional stages of DI
Water passes through:
1.5 cubic feet of granular carbon
1 micron 20 inch "Big Boy" sediment filter
1 micron 20 inch "Big Boy" carbon Block
pressure booster pump
3,000 GPD membrane
Then 4 20" cartridge stages of DI (Mixed Bed Deionization resin)
Water is made in minimum batches of about 75 gallons to prevent TDS creep and maximize DI resin life
a TDS meter is permanently in place and checked weekly to measure the total dissolved solids between stage 2 and 3 of the DI and the cartridges are changed when we see any detectable TDS in the water. The meter is on display and you are welcome to check it any time you are in the store buying water.
Water is regularly checked with our Milwakee Low range (0.00 to 2.50 ppm ) professional phosphate photometer
We frequently send water samples off to TRITON to confirm our own tests and get numbers for parameters we can not test for.
Having said all that, nobody is perfect, and anything is possible. We all know that bad batches of salt making it to market and something could have slipped passed our processes. I appreciate you pointing out that the numbers could have been corrupted by something in the bucket and/or time from it leaving our store. We like to use every opportunity to learn, and I think this is one. I'm curious when you were in, and if you have any of that water still left? Perhaps we could run our tests and yours side by side on the same water sample and compare the results?
Please email me at Phil@reefescape.net or give us a call at the store. (703)261-6996 or on my cell phone (703)943-6631
THANKS again for bringing this to our attention.
Oh, and there are some new at-home RO/DI systems that are both inexpensive and can be put just about anywhere... even under a small bathroom sink. Let us show you some options next time you are in.
Phil