Saltwater ****es me off

canadianbudz604 · #1 05-29-2013, 02:53 AM

Lesson learned. I bought an API tap water filter thinking that it would be good enough for my 30g mixed reef. Man was I wrong. After using it for 3 weeks to make my saltwater and top ups my tank has hair algae growing, bubble algae is coming from everywhere, sps doesn't look so hot, palys are like half open, zoas lost color. I'm ready to just give up. I've had the tank running for 7ish months now and have had great success buying water from culligan. Why I changed it up I don't know. For the people that have success using tapwater and ur tank is clean, I hate you

. My bulbs are all newer (3-4months) kz bulbs. Now I've been doing 10% water changes every 4 days, what can I do to help my tank recover? More water changes? I'm running some carbon, any help is appreciated. I want my tank back to normal

mrhasan · #2 05-29-2013, 02:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canadianbudz604

Lesson learned. I bought an API tap water filter thinking that it would be good enough for my 30g mixed reef. Man was I wrong. After using it for 3 weeks to make my saltwater and top ups my tank has hair algae growing, bubble algae is coming from everywhere, sps doesn't look so hot, palys are like half open, zoas lost color. I'm ready to just give up. I've had the tank running for 7ish months now and have had great success buying water from culligan. Why I changed it up I don't know. For the people that have success using tapwater and ur tank is clean, I hate you

. My bulbs are all newer (3-4months) kz bulbs. Now I've been doing 10% water changes every 4 days, what can I do to help my tank recover? More water changes? I'm running some carbon, any help is appreciated. I want my tank back to normal

Hair algae = clear sign of phosphate. GFO should help. Maybe the water source got temporarily bad or something?

HaZRaTTy · #3 05-29-2013, 03:01 AM

I would like to say that you don't even know me, how could you hate me! Ha I have always used tap water and apart from the three eyed fish and a little slime algae in the spring I have never had an algae problem!

Correct me if I am wrong I'm going to go look at this tap filter? Is it similar to a brita filter? Curious if you measured your TDS after your filter.

canadianbudz604 · #4 05-29-2013, 03:06 AM

Yeah the phosphates are up. Now I added chemi pure elite a week ago to help and it made it much much worse. I know a lot of people love chemi pure but I will never ever use it again. It made my tank cloudy and much worse. Ppm coming out of the API was 3ppm

scherzo · #5 05-29-2013, 03:09 AM

I used to use the API tap filter. It is basically a DI filter. It should bring it down to 0 TDS. With our water on the lower mainland it should last about 200 gallons or so. At least that is what I found. My TDs out of my tap was about 5-10.

Did you check your TDS?

mrhasan · #6 05-29-2013, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by canadianbudz604

Yeah the phosphates are up. Now I added chemi pure elite a week ago to help and it made it much much worse. I know a lot of people love chemi pure but I will never ever use it again. It made my tank cloudy and much worse. Ppm coming out of the API was 3ppm

I am not sure but you might be blaming the wrong sources

I can't comment on the tap water issue but chemi pure works. It won't lower high amount of phosphate but it won't make anything worse. Something is wrong with something inside the tank. Just my 0.05c!

canadianbudz604 · #7 05-29-2013, 03:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaZRaTTy

I would like to say that you don't even know me, how could you hate me! Ha I have always used tap water and apart from the three eyed fish and a little slime algae in the spring I have never had an algae problem!

Correct me if I am wrong I'm going to go look at this tap filter? Is it similar to a brita filter? Curious if you measured your TDS after your filter.

The API tapwater filter should have worked here especially where tds is like 10ppm without a filter. It's a deionizer. I need some serious help here.

scherzo · #8 05-29-2013, 03:11 AM

If your TDS is 3 then you're running it too fast. Just slow it down until you get 0.

3 shows a depleted DI filter.

Are you on well water?

canadianbudz604 · #9 05-29-2013, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrhasan

I am not sure but you might be blaming the wrong sources

I can't comment on the tap water issue but chemi pure works. It won't lower high amount of phosphate but it won't make anything worse. Something is wrong with something inside the tank. Just my 0.05c!

Defiantly not blaming chemi pure but I am defiantly not a fan. It even says helps remove phosphates.l, and it didn't do a damn thing but make my water cloudy.

canadianbudz604 · #10 05-29-2013, 03:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scherzo

If your TDS is 3 then you're running it too fast. Just slow it down until you get 0.

3 shows a depleted DI filter.

Are you on well water?

I had the API filter running at a slow slow drip like taking 4 or 5 hours to fill up a 5g jug slow. Plus it was brand new. No well water city water