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anglfish
10-07-2006, 05:18 PM
Hello you Experts out there!

I always do my water changes with RO water bought from any grocery store. Normally that is "Arrowhead Premium Drinking Water" (only ingredients are water and ozone and it says TDS < 5 ppm) whatever TDS means :neutral:
Last two times I used Canadian Springs and since then I'm fighting a diatom bloom. All my water values are fine (ammonia, nitrite = 0, nitrate 0-5, phosphates 0.25, ph 8.2-8-3, salinity .023).
Now as I read diatoms at the beginning are normal, I still wonder and try to find the source of this. The reason why I wonder is because I had no cycle (no ammonia spike) as I used LR from an established 3 year old tank.
Couldn't find a silicate test kit so I'm hesitant to just get a silicate removing media. besides the only thing I've seen in the stores is Kent phosphate remover. is that the way to go?
anyhow... back to the scope of this thread.... now I start wondering whether the water I used could be the source of the problem. Please see details below... any advice is greatly appreciated as I have another water change planned for today.

Canadian Springs:
dissolved mineral salt content 210 ppm
fluoride Ion 0.1 ppm

Analysis (mg/l):
HCO3 136
CA 60
F 0.1
Mg 5
NO3 0.6
Na 4
SO4 58

I go for a run with my doggie... but I trust that this issue will be extensively discussed and resolved by the time I return...

:twised: hahaha I'm just kidding.

A million thanks in advance.

Todd
10-07-2006, 05:37 PM
I am certainly no expert, but...

TDS = Total Dissolved Solids (ie minerals). 210 ppm (parts per million) is quite high and certainly wont help prevent a bloom!

What I wanted to say is where I get my water - As I don't have a RO/DI unit, I get it from the Alternate Water store. They have RO/DI water treated with Ozone, and it is only 35$ for 11 x 5 gallon fills. I have heard that Victoria water is 'very good' and would think that using dechlorinated tap water would actually be better then using the mineral water.

Beverly
10-07-2006, 05:37 PM
I would not use the spring water, only RO. From the analysis of the spring water, you've got stuff in there you don't really want. Use RO water only.

fishyfolks
10-07-2006, 06:57 PM
Here is another option. I live in Vancouver and I have found a company that installs a reverse osmosis water system in your home for $ 25.00 a month. It is a month to month rental plan with no contract, and they come and service it for free. The unit looks like a regular water cooler, but instead of having to go out and buy water from the stores, you just pour the filtered water right from this unit. (a heck of a lot cheaper than installing one of those $ 500.00 reverse osmosis systems a lot of us fish lovers have priced out) Since I have been using this water for my water changes, I have had zero problems with algae blooms. I also went from having to clean my glass every other day to once overy ten days or so!!!! It takes out the phosphorous, chlorine, metal particles but leaves in some of the calcium. I don't know if they offer something like this in Victoria, but I am sure that an internet search would turn something up. Good luck!

Tarolisol
10-07-2006, 07:01 PM
Here is another option. I live in Vancouver and I have found a company that installs a reverse osmosis water system in your home for $ 25.00 a month. It is a month to month rental plan with no contract, and they come and service it for free. The unit looks like a regular water cooler, but instead of having to go out and buy water from the stores, you just pour the filtered water right from this unit. (a heck of a lot cheaper than installing one of those $ 500.00 reverse osmosis systems a lot of us fish lovers have priced out) Since I have been using this water for my water changes, I have had zero problems with algae blooms. I also went from having to clean my glass every other day to once overy ten days or so!!!! It takes out the phosphorous, chlorine, metal particles but leaves in some of the calcium. I don't know if they offer something like this in Victoria, but I am sure that an internet search would turn something up. Good luck!

$500 im not sure where you came up with that price but thats crazy and 25 bucks a month is alot to since you can by an aquasafe RO-DI system for less then $100.

fishyfolks
10-07-2006, 07:08 PM
WOW!!!!

I will have to research that better! Thanks for the info!

anglfish
10-07-2006, 07:32 PM
Thanks you guys for your input on this...
and..

I KNEW IT!

so it IS the water. Well that kinda is a release as now at least I know what I can do to fix this. I just have a 24 gallon so I don't think the $25 month plan will work out for me. But I make sure to use only RO water treated with Ozone that has very little TDS.
Will do a big water change today and then another one in a week and see whether this helps. the diatom should "starve" out after two weeks, given I don't everfeed. right?
any other short term solution I can use until then?

Todd, where is the Alternate Water Store?

Thanks again!

Todd
10-07-2006, 07:41 PM
There are two. One is in the Saanich Center (by Thrifty's Foods - Quadra and McKenzie, conveniently a few blocks from me!) and another in Royal Oak Shopping center (on West Saanich Road near Royal Oak).

christyf5
10-07-2006, 09:02 PM
My understanding is that spring water has alot of minerals and stuff in it which are probably fuelling your algae. I used to get my water from the grocery store but I would imagine that an actual "water store" would keep their RO units serviced better.

1bigstud
10-09-2006, 05:42 AM
I've always thought about going to a grocery store to get R/O water. If I do ever end up doing this anyone in the Richmond Bc area done it before and have any feed back they would like to share?

gbeef
10-09-2006, 06:07 AM
i use arrow head im my reef i havent had any problems yet. and yes its RO water. i have a 7 gallon tank it not worth it for me to buy an RO unit and have it sit there.

kwirky
10-09-2006, 06:56 AM
maybe run some rowaphos or phosban for a couple days, to deal with any phosphates that might be in the water? And then just wait?

anglfish
10-09-2006, 09:37 PM
maybe run some rowaphos or phosban for a couple days, to deal with any phosphates that might be in the water? And then just wait?

I don't seem to have phosphate in my water. strangely. I got a test and tested the water 3 days ago and it was just at 0.25 ppm.

I did a 20% water change yesterday morning. but the sand and rock still turns brown after a couple of hours of light. :sad:
will do another one in a couple of days.

kwirky
10-09-2006, 10:21 PM
I don't seem to have phosphate in my water. strangely. I got a test and tested the water 3 days ago and it was just at 0.25 ppm.


test kits don't test organic phosphate, only inorganic, so it's useless to test for it. 0.25ppm of inorganic phosphate isn't a clear picture of what the organic phosphates are at. Organic phosphates are the nutrients used by algae, not inorganic. And even if you could test for organic phosphate, the algae could be eating it as fast as it's entering the water (fia feeding or liverock die off) to make testing for it difficult.

you can read up on it here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Water changes can only do so much for dealing with any nutrient problem. Even if the algae dies from changing some of the water, some of it's leftover to provide nutrients for yet another algae problem. It took a whole month to straighten out my tank's algae problem.

anglfish
10-09-2006, 10:45 PM
test kits don't test organic phosphate, only inorganic, so it's useless to test for it. 0.25ppm of inorganic phosphate isn't a clear picture of what the organic phosphates are at. Organic phosphates are the nutrients used by algae, not inorganic. And even if you could test for organic phosphate, the algae could be eating it as fast as it's entering the water (fia feeding or liverock die off) to make testing for it difficult.

you can read up on it here:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/rhf/index.php

Water changes can only do so much for dealing with any nutrient problem. Even if the algae dies from changing some of the water, some of it's leftover to provide nutrients for yet another algae problem. It took a whole month to straighten out my tank's algae problem.

:eek: who knew

thanks for the link. that was rather educational for me. hahaha am I glad I got that test :rolleyes:

kwirky
10-10-2006, 07:22 AM
hahaha am I glad I got that test :rolleyes:

yeah mine's a useless paperweight now too :biggrin: