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View Full Version : Before and afters.. I'm confused.


OCDP
01-08-2007, 06:14 PM
Looking back at my photobucket account of previous tank shots , etc.. man, I can't believe how much change my tank has gone through. Not all the change has been good.. I look at my tank before and it's so clean (or cleaner than it is now..) my tank was so simple back then it seems. I haven't changed anything really, in fact, I have lowered my fish count and lowered my lighting period and I feed as little as possible.. just doing small things to help my tank out.

My tank is filled with nuisance algae everywhere... (yes, it could be contributed by using tap water... but I was using tap water back then, and never had these problems..) I have this chaeto like algae that spreads over my rocks, taking away the whole rock appearance, I have cyano popping up in places, bubble algae, hair algae, this weird thick, easy to remove hair algae, its very brittle, bryopsis, etc... it's very discouraging when your doing weekly maintenance such as, skimmer cleaning, water changes, manual algae removal to keep it at bay.. I have even added a Phosban reactor which has been up and running for about 2 and a half weeks maybe. I am using phosar and carbon, and have my chamber 1/2 to 3/4 full, it's dialed in properly as per instructions. I am sure more time will help things along as well.

Anyone else where I am? Seems like my tank has tons of debris everywhere, I have no idea why... or where it's all suddenly coming from. I keep things as simple as possible these days, keeping hands out of the tank and so on .. I maybe have my hands in the tank once a week to grab a little algae here and there and to feed the fish. I am not doing anything to stir anything up or to cause any kind of harm.

Pretty useless post, just venting more than anything... I am frustrated. I won't let algae beat me out of this hobby, though. I just miss the good old days when I could put some zoo frags in and algae wouldn't take over the frag making the zoos like not so pretty. I miss all the thriving SPS frags, which I haevn't bothered to replace since the "crash" ..

Any suggestions ? I'm at a loss of what's going on , or what to do. Maybe just more time is all my tank needs.

Patwa
01-08-2007, 06:36 PM
i'd say the first step is to move to RO+DI water.....there may have been an adverse change in the TDS of the water coming from the tap that may explain why you had less algae then and way more now.....in Toronto, TDS direct from taps can vary from 154 (my tap) to 250 (my buddy in oshawa, just to the eats of Toronto).....you need to have water with 0 to 4 TDS (the range I aim for).

definitely move to RO+DI water....that's the #1 source for phosphates - the main food for algae

also increase your flow (yeah i know you have two SEIOs) try and keep your detritus in suspension, so the skimmer can get to it......and use a turkey baster and blow water at the rocks, like, everyday....until you're sure there is no accumulation.

this is just a start....:) good luck!

Zach.

OCDP
01-08-2007, 06:44 PM
Thanks Patwa..

I know RO/DI is the biggest given thing here... but RO/DI is just not working out for me in my house with my current situation. My parents arent' on board with hooking up an RO/DI unit to their kitchen, etc, etc.. so I guess one should re-consider being in the hobby if I can't use the proper water. (a little late in the game to realize this, perhaps.. :confused:) but, tap water seems to be my only solution.

I figured adding in the phosban reactor would help, but no luck yet... perhaps it's the media I'm using that's not very effective. Just have lots of other friends in the hobby using tap water and their tanks are looking just fine .. also, they are using phosban reactors with different media, which makes me question the media again.

Anyways, thanks for the post.. I guess I have some thinking to do.

Ruth
01-08-2007, 07:13 PM
Why don't you just buy RO water? That is what I have to do and I have 3 large tanks and 3 smaller ones. I know it is an extra cost but you don't have that big of a tank that it shouldn't run you that much extra $.

SJSobczyk
01-08-2007, 07:15 PM
Thanks to Ruth being a faster typer then me she took my original idea. But i second what Ruth said, i mean you are only running a 20 gallon so keep 2-3 jugs on hand is a minor cost if you want to see some improvements.

Now you owe me a frag of one of your zoo's! J/K

Steve

OCDP
01-08-2007, 07:16 PM
Why don't you just buy RO water? That is what I have to do and I have 3 large tanks and 3 smaller ones. I know it is an extra cost but you don't have that big of a tank that it shouldn't run you that much extra $.

That's a good idea, and I have no problems with that. The only thing is that I've heard it's not much better than tap and I'd be better off using tap and saving money... so I suppose I'm a tad confused? I am willing to try anything here..... getting RO isn't a problem, and if it means helping keep nutrients down then I'll give it a shot.

OCDP
01-08-2007, 07:18 PM
Thanks as well, Steve.

PM me and see if we can work out something for zoos.. I may have a spare zoo frag or a few loose polyps I can make into a frag for you. I'll check things out tonight.

Ruth
01-08-2007, 07:21 PM
At the place that I buy my water from I get them to test the TDS of their RO water (which they do regularly anyway). It comes out at less than 1ppm consistantly.

OCDP
01-08-2007, 07:24 PM
At the place that I buy my water from I get them to test the TDS of their RO water (which they do regularly anyway). It comes out at less than 1ppm consistantly.

That's good to know...

We're talking about RO water you can get from grocery stores and what not, correct?

What's the (rough) cost to fill a jug of RO water? (the bigger jugs they have) I top up with about half a gallon per day, and I'd like to try and calculate my costs if possible..

Ruth
01-08-2007, 07:26 PM
I pay around $3.25 for a 5 gallon jug but you might be able to get it cheaper down there. One thing I would recommend is that you get it direct from a water store and not the grocery type store as who knows how often they change their filters etc. Also a water store is more likely to have testing equipment right there that they can use on the water. I know in some of the bigger centers (probably Calgary) that you can get door to door delivery.

OCDP
01-08-2007, 07:30 PM
That was my main concern with buying from a grocery store.

I'll have to look into this a little further. Thanks for the suggestion :wink:

Richard_Dicosimo
01-08-2007, 07:59 PM
you could still get a Ro/Di unit, all u need is a male screw on fitting on your sink tap. You could just setup your ro system whenever u needed water, and then just keep a 5 gal jug full so that u dont have to pull out your ro system that often. Then just store it when your not using it. but if u did go this route your supposed to let the ro unit run for about 20 minutes to get rid of any built up nitrates from sitting stagnant.

Richard

ed99
01-08-2007, 08:15 PM
you could still get a Ro/Di unit, all u need is a male screw on fitting on your sink tap. You could just setup your ro system whenever u needed water, and then just keep a 5 gal jug full so that u dont have to pull out your ro system that often. Then just store it when your not using it. but if u did go this route your supposed to let the ro unit run for about 20 minutes to get rid of any built up nitrates from sitting stagnant.

Richard

Another source could be in your laundry room. In my old house I tee'd off the source for the washing machine and added a tap.

andsoitgoes
01-08-2007, 08:28 PM
I just tossed my unit in the bathroom in a cupboard, you can tie it in so it's a low profile (trust me, we have NO room) and it'll pay for itself in a few water changes - never need to go for expensive bottled drinking water again!!

110 bucks is a small, small price to pay!

Der_Iron_Chef
01-08-2007, 09:03 PM
I buy water from Superstore. I've been considering going to a water specific store, but just haven't bothered yet. I have bubble algae, and the usual filmy algae on the glass every few days....but nothing outrageous.

It's $10 down payment for each bottle, but less than $5 for the actual water (about 5 gallons, I think).

How often do you siphon out the crap that accumulates in the bottom of your tank? I've noticed if I don't do that regularly (several times a week at least), things start to get cruddy. Also, in response to all the stuff at the bottom of your tank....mine seems like that, too. The live rock breaks apart slowly, it seems, and there are deposits of sand on the bottom of my tank.

jgoldsney
01-10-2007, 10:45 PM
Well I must give credit where credit is due.....I overheard a sales guy at Big Als telling a customer this the other day and it actualy made sense....

he said to do water changes with tap water and just use RO for topups.....this was for a larger tank for sure but his argument was that yes you would gain some minerals etc frrom your water change but at least by toping up with RO the minerals weren't building up in the system....

Der_Iron_Chef
01-10-2007, 10:53 PM
I mentioned before that I buy my water from Superstore. If you decided to go that route, they do sell two kinds. One of them guarantees >10ppm, which is pretty good to me! And refilling those 5G jugs costs around $3.

adidas
01-10-2007, 11:05 PM
At the place that I buy my water from I get them to test the TDS of their RO water (which they do regularly anyway). It comes out at less than 1ppm consistantly.

wow thats good..my RO filter water comes out at 14

danny zubot
01-10-2007, 11:15 PM
I too have been pondering the pros and cons of RODi versus tap water lately. Yes, there are cons to RoDi water, it is totally void of any minerality. That is a good thing right? Maybe, maybe not.

andsoitgoes
01-10-2007, 11:22 PM
The RO water is void of minerals, but the salt ADDS those minerals back into the water - and it's only the good minerals it adds, not any of the bad stuff.

For FW, RO isn't a positive option, due to the fact that you're not adding anything in the form of supplements. But for SW, with the salt providing the nutrients, using Tap Water (from my understanding) is an overload of nutrients.

Adidas - TDS is 14 after RO? What is the rating on your tap water? When was the last time you replaced your membrane?

Richy44
01-10-2007, 11:58 PM
wow thats good..my RO filter water comes out at 14

Adidas...When was the last time you changed prefilters? flush membrane?

14 no good.. should be 0/3 max..

adidas
01-11-2007, 12:36 AM
Adidas...When was the last time you changed prefilters? flush membrane?

14 no good.. should be 0/3 max.. membrane is new, other filters are old...