14ppm TDS in my ATO water....

[xtlosx]

Woke up with less cyano on my rocks (I've been dealing with the cyano outbreak from HELL) which this explains it.. Lord knows what that jelly bacteria is\was and what I was feeding my tank.

I felt it was never ending, and just as quickly as I got rid of it, it came right back. Duh.. I was putting it RIGHT BACK IN... slowly...

argh.. need to figure out what to do with this ATO over the weekend now.

 

[Peka]

The jelly/slime was probably some type of bacteria that forms. I dealt with that a lot in the seahorse fry tanks and had to wipe the inside glass of the tanks down daily. Those tanks had saltwater in them and the jelly housed ciliates.. I imagine the same happens with freshwater.

 

[xtlosx]

The jelly/slime was probably some type of bacteria that forms. I dealt with that a lot in the seahorse fry tanks and had to wipe the inside glass of the tanks down daily. Those tanks had saltwater in them and the jelly housed ciliates.. I imagine the same happens with freshwater.

Well what is confusing is some of the guys I have spoken to yesterday and on this thread have used buckets, and other containers without any jelly issues, so I was doing something wrong.

I'm wondering if I need to leave my aqualifter OUT of my ATo container and just put a hose in there. Right now it's sitting on the bottom of the ATO container.. Whatever happened, happened several months into my tank being up which since than has had issues.

 

[spoofer]

I've been using a pet(dog) food bin (food grade plastic), i got it at the container store - holds 5 gallons but it has a nice seal tight lid, easy to move and it keeps light out. I throw it in the shower every 6-8 weeks to clean it up but i also do use kalk so it usually has some paste, but I've heard of ATO bins building up nast. Good luck

 

[xtlosx]

I've been using a pet(dog) food bin (food grade plastic), i got it at the container store - holds 5 gallons but it has a nice seal tight lid, easy to move and it keeps light out. I throw it in the shower every 6-8 weeks to clean it up but i also do use kalk so it usually has some paste, but I've heard of ATO bins building up nast. Good luck

I think what I was doing is fine, just need to actually clean it.. i hadn't cleaned it since setting it up last December.. argh, my own laziness comes back to bite me in the arse.

edit:

Just noticed the frags in my tank that were doing fine are have the best polyp extension I have seen so far, cyano in my sand is dissapearing, and there is even less cyano on my rocks than yesterday when I did a WC and siphoned out tons of it...

I think I found my problem and it seems to be correcting itself rather quickly......... Wow.. just wow. This hobby is so complex, but sometimes, so stupidly simple.

 

[rcgogo]

I had an aqualifter that would siphon water back into the ATO water. Not sure if that could be why you have PPMs in there. I made sure that the hose going to my sump was not under water to stop the siphon.

 

[xtlosx]

I had an aqualifter that would siphon water back into the ATO water. Not sure if that could be why you have PPMs in there. I made sure that the hose going to my sump was not under water to stop the siphon.

So right now my aqualifter is in the ATO on the bottom pushing water up the tube into my return area... Would it be better and "cleaner" to just have my aqualifter on the outside of my ATO container and let a hose dangle in to just suck water up thereby leaving my pump outside of the water at all times?

 

[rcgogo]

So right now my aqualifter is in the ATO on the bottom pushing water up the tube into my return area... Would it be better and "cleaner" to just have my aqualifter on the outside of my ATO container and let a hose dangle in to just suck water up thereby leaving my pump outside of the water at all times?

That is how I have mine setup, with the pump outside of the ATO container and the hose stuck to the bottom of the ATO container but don't allow the hose going to the sump to be under water.

 

[xtlosx]

That is how I have mine setup, with the pump outside of the ATO container and the hose stuck to the bottom of the ATO container but don't allow the hose going to the sump to be under water.

Yea, that's what I'm going to go too after I clean this container..

My hose is actually sitting on my return PVC kinda hanging in the air on one of the valves.. It's in the air so as to inhibit bacteria growth or any growth.

I feel a sense of immediate relief today.

 

[xtlosx]

Wonder how long it will take for the full effects of this to manifest, since it's a slow replacement of water.... I'm hoping that because I did a nice sized WC yesterday, and caught this a couple hours after, it should very much help in due time...

 

[lovereefs1]

So right now my aqualifter is in the ATO on the bottom pushing water up the tube into my return area... Would it be better and "cleaner" to just have my aqualifter on the outside of my ATO container and let a hose dangle in to just suck water up thereby leaving my pump outside of the water at all times?

Hey Tom! If I'm reading this correctly, you have the Aqualifter submerged in your ATO? If this is the case, this is an issue because it is not designed to be used as a submersible pump.

 

[xtlosx]

Yea I have removed the aqualifter, cleaned it and it's external now.

 

[nmbeg]

that's amazing that results are so quick--it seems like a toxin you were continuously feeding into your tank, which you have now stopped feeding, and the results are immediate.

 

[xtlosx]

that's amazing that results are so quick--it seems like a toxin you were continuously feeding into your tank, which you have now stopped feeding, and the results are immediate.

Well it's pretty close to immediate.. I fully expect some of this cyano to come back like it did after last WC but it came back less and took a LOT longer to get here..

Within the couple of water changes, I should have this licked, but good so far... My SPS are very very happy and it's nice to see big fat happy polyps out in the water

 

[skunkmere]

i never knew you could run a aqualifter submerged.

 

[xtlosx]

i never knew you could run a aqualifter submerged.

Well it came to my attention that you can't. I'm not sure how I missed that one when I setup my ATO last year. It's been out of my bucket for days, so not sure if that is helping my case as everything has been coming back for weeks (when it was submerged).

I'll likely get a new one at some point, but for now it's working like a champ.... Woops.

 

[TheReefNinja]

Lol Tom only you and me would dunk a pump in the water. I only had mine in overnight before I bought more hose. Glad you may have found your issue.

 

[xtlosx]

Lol Tom only you and me would dunk a pump in the water. I only had mine in overnight before I bought more hose. Glad you may have found your issue.

Yea dude, tell me about it... I think my problem has been a combination of things from fighting an unknwon nitrate issue, phosphate issue that was probably made worst by the nitrate issue, and this pump being submerged. With my entire course of action things are getting better, and real quick..

BTW, when're we getting the families together again? There's some beer to be drank my friend!

 

[spoofer]

Wow, ur lucky nothing worse happened, glad to read this thread and see things are turning around for you

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[tassod]

After reading your thread and battling some cyano issues myself, i decided I should check my RO water as well. Now i'm really confused. I have an inline dual TDS meter on my BRS RO unit and it tells me that my TDS is 0 coming in and 0 out. I borrowed my friend's portable pen style TDS meter and I dipped it in my BRUTE 32g container where i store my RO water all the time and it came back with a reading of .092? is that 92ppm or 9.2ppm? I also tested some fresh RO water and it tested with the meter at 0.15. I recently replaced my setiment, carbon block and DI resin a couple of months ago. For my RO membranes, i have 2 of them as part of my upgrade of my RO unit to the 150gpd from the original 75gpd that i bought. Could my RO membrane need replacing? i thought these lasted 3 years and mine is less than a year old and the second memberane probably about 6 months old.