Bought A Used RO System need some cleaning advice

Hello all,

Newbie here, just recently found this site and I love it!!
I just purchased a Ginsan Water Lovers 4400gpd RO System. It hasn't been used in about 2 years and after looking closely at everything I noticed it has a thin film or coating of what looks like rust in all the tubes and the flow meters.

I was reading in the manual and it says to use Bleach to sanitize the system if it ever becomes contaminated. Basically run it through for a few hours. I was doing some online searches and I was reading that Hydrogen Peroxide works great as well. Just wondering if anybody has ever experienced this problem and has the best remedy to clean everything before I put this into service.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What you are probably seeing is either oxidized iron or algae residue. I have heard of some people using hydrogen peroxide with limited success. What you have to remember is that the concentration of the peroxide is low to begin with that the dwell time is much longer.

The best thing to use is bleach. The only key is to let it set for a few hours, if not overnight, and then completely rinse the unit so that there is no bleach residue left in the machine before you put in new membranes.

The stains won't affect the operation of the unit. If it bothers you to look at, you could remove the caps on the flow meters and wipe them clean. If you do decide to run bleach through it, remove the membranes or it will destroy them.

Bleach will destroy the membranes lickety split.

I can't testify to this, but it seems rust stains respond best to low ph products. Is it possible that a low ph membrane de-scaler would help?

Sounds to me like they are shot. Replace them and make sure you pre treat the water before it goes through the membranes. your looking around 2- 5 hundred each depending on the size.

Home Depot has phosphoric acid in the pool area. Cut it with water 4/1
Run it through as much as you can. Some times you can save them and....some times? Google all this so you feel sure its correct. You need a test kit.
Check before the acid and after.