Auto Water Changes

[troynel]

I have set up an auto water change system changing about 1.5 gallons a day from my 130 gallon setup. Ever since I started this I have been getting red slime algae. My R/O water reads 0 tds and I use reef crystals. The only other change I can think of is that I also unclogged my bio pellet reactor. So the flows has picked up in there as well. One thing to add is my water change system is 30 feet from my tank. Would water sitting in R/O tubing have any bad consequences?

 

[bertoni]

The tubing should be fine. I think that the work on the pellet reactor could be an issue, and the Reef Crystals might have some nutrients in it, too.

 

[troynel]

should I put a bag of GFO in the mixing well?

 

[travis32]

GFO would help absorb the Phosphates, if any, in the new water, but, I've heard this happen on several threads on here about Reef Crystals salt. The additional nutrients, vitamins, and other stuff in Reef crystals is great for corals, but it also feeds bacterial blooms. That's the primary reason I don't use reef crystals on my 125g. Too many people have had the same issue you have with cyano outbreaks. If you're adding those nutrients everyday from Reef crystals, well, you're feeding the bacteria everyday allowing it to grow larger. Just like feeding a fish.

I use IO salt and add the necessary Alk and CA and MG I need, and have not a single spot of cyano in my 125 anywhere. I even had phosphates fairly high at one point, and had a HA outbreak, but no cyano anywhere to be found!

 

[bertoni]

I don't know whether the salt mix contains enough phosphate for the GFO to be useful. If it does, that's a bad sign. I might try checking some freshly-mixed saltwater.

 

[troynel]

Any recs on which salt to use?

 

[bertoni]

Not really. I've used mostly Instant Ocean.