Boiled Tank Water.

[Rosseau]

So I'm having some red slime algae problems these days. It started about 1.5 weeks ago almost instantaneously and is proving difficult to combat.

I have a good skimmer (Tunze Nano) that is pumping out lots of great skimmate. I do fairly regular water changes, about every 1.5 weeks i'll take out a few gallons and of course i'm constantly topping up with my "RO/DI" from a machine at the grocery store.



Flow may be an issue as the algae is confined to a "dead spot" in the tank.

However i'm wondering if my water is also at least partly the culprit. The skimmer should be stopping this. I'm cautious with my feedings.

..............

Anyways, I though last night i'll try boiling water and harvesting the steam to use as top up water. Terribly inefficient use of energy, but i'm going to try, for the hell of it anyways.... It should be (almost) pure water.



Has anybody done such a thing with their tank before?

 

[birdy607]

are you going to boil the ro? ive never heard of this but be careful

 

[glparr]

Maybe try a different RO water source? I've known grocery stores to get a little sloppy when it comes to changing the cartridges in their filtration machines. Have you tried simply directing a small powerhead into the area where you're getting slime algae to see if you can move the nutrients out of that area so the skimmer can capture them?
Gary

 

[Rosseau]

I'm not really practically thinking about using this long term. More so I guess I was just raising the idea of doing it.

Any water, RO, tap, saltwater, pasta water will boil off and this water can be condensed and used as its probably more pure than my grocery store's crap.

I'm upping my flow in a few days, i'm sure that will cure the slime problem. For some people perhaps this water could be a solution, though not energy efficient.

 

[ghostman]

Boiling water will do nothing to reduce dissolved solids that are in the water. Likewise, rainwater is thought to be "pure", but is not and contains pollutants from the atmosphere. Buy a TDS meter from an online sponsor store. They cost about $10-$15 and take a reading of any RO water you use. It is an easy, cost efficient way to test RO water purity before using it. Chain stores and even LFS do not always produce the best quality water. HTH

 

[Rosseau]

Rainwater isn't pure because it picks up atmospheric particles after it's been evaporated from the land. Rain drops condense on these particles and so they are mixed in with the water.

The concept I have mentioned does work. If you're ever stuck somewhere with only saltwater, do this for drinking water... but I don't think that will happen to most of us.


Again, this isn't overly practical but I believe it can be done. Only water will evaporate, just as the salt and pollutants remain in your tank when its water evaporates.

 

[acrodave]

what are your po4

 

[Rosseau]

That I don't know. Could be a problem for sure. Every other param is 0.


I don't have too bad of a problem though. More flow will probably work.

 

[Chupacabras]

I can't see this being a viable option for anyone. Just buy your own RO/DI unit and save some energy.

 

[DarkXerox]

Yeah what you basically are doing is making distilled water--in a really roundabout manner. Since you are listed as a university student also, why not go check to see if you can fill up a 5 gallon jug with DI water from the chemistry or biology labs? That's what I do, since I try to get my tuition's worth lol. That stuff is lab grade pure so it should be great.

Also check your PO4 since the only way to control dinoflagellates is to control nutrients.

 

[Rosseau]

Yeah I use the lab's distilled water all week long, to wash beakers... soo that could work