Significant algae growth and bleached corals????

With the ro/di filters going bad could it have let copper from the water pipes into the system?
Just thinking outloud, and wondering.
 
Since the corals began to bleach I have started feeding Nutramar ova and reef caviar to the SPS just about every night. Thats kind of a catch 22 though. The more I feed the more it induces the growth of algae, but hopefully in the next couple weeks I can get a couple tangs and maybe a sea hare to work on the algea.

I'm going to get a copper test as well. Excellent thought!

I am doing larger water changes on a regular basis. My total system is around 600 gallons+ and I've been doing about a 50 gallon water change every two days.

Appreciate everyones input:)

Jeremy
 
In regards to the RO/DI unit. What are the opinions here about putting the RO/DI units intake before or after the water softener?? In the past I've heard very mixed and conflicting thoughts.

Jeremy
 
jlinzmaier, My experience was similar. I put a SR1200 Vertex LED over my tank and had all sorts of algae issues and coral bleaching. I spent almost 2 years trying everything I could read or taking help where I could get it. In the end it was a combination of 2 things that was doing me in.

My RO system was purchased from and installed by a plumber not a reefer, this meant that although I requested a RO/DI system I didn't have the DI. This was the algae issue I believe. The biggest issue I had the whole time though, was that my LED's weren't in the right spectrum. I had to much white, and not enough blue. As I'm sure you are aware, coral loves the blue spectrum, and algae loves the white.

Long story short, when I first got the light I hadn't allowed enough acclimation time, and then playing with settings got me out of the right range. I have FINALLY got it all balanced and what a huge difference. I have colors coming up that I have never noticed before.

Not saying it's your issue, just trying to provide input for you!

Cheese
 
My understanding of copper is that it would outright kill the corals & other inverts, but it won't hurt to test for it.
 
jlinzmaier said:
Excellent question. Forgot to mention that. It had been a while since I changed my RO/DI cartridges. I used the inline meters to give me an idea of when they need to be changed and it had been quite a while since they had given a reading above 0. I took another reading with my com-100 tds meter and found it to be 8.6. I've since swapped out all cartidges and my water purified water now has a reading of 0.4 from the com-100. The first round of clean water is being made today so maybe a few water changes with cleaner water will make a difference.

Jeremy
Click to expand...


Is 8TDS "reaaally" that big of a deal? I dont know, just asking. I am sure it doesnt help, but, thats a lot of algae!




brandon429 said:
Nope, by all means continue on current path. The first few pages apparently aren't enough to answer the questions, so skip the rest which do address them and remain skeptical...ive put too much work to retype it all again. Submerged spot treatment is well defined and covers how you treat the tank. There are links a plenty to other forums using it on large tanks if you want to read it.

Its highly possible that putting in a hundred more scavengers might work, really it might.

Never put anything into your tank you doubt, sounds like this isn't the treatment for you man

B
Click to expand...

I have spent a majority of time at your site and it is a PITFA to read through. If your going to come onto the big tank site touting a peroxide cure, start a big tank peroxide only thread. I am in no way interested in reading through 1,000 posts how to clean my 125 with a q-tip. You spend so much time here, why havnt you? Quick clue, were not nano nor want to be!
 
to me if you add say 8 nutrients to you tank today from your topoff tomorrow you add 8 and so forth. Thats the way I look at it anyway may not be right, but to me its 8 times as many as I want
 
Buzz1329 said:
"TDS is now 0.4 based on the com-100 reading. Hopefully I'll start to see some positive results. If the source water is the problem that's easy to fix."

I could be wrong here, but I thought that anything above 0 TDS is a big problem?

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2166609&highlight=tds
Click to expand...

Yes a tds of completely 0 is what were shooting for, however it would be extremely difficult and costly to achieve that. Most people use inline meters which are really quite inaccurate. They say 0 but they only read in whole numbers. My com-100 reads down to 1/10th of a point and thats a pretty small increment when you look at what we're trying to achieve with our RO/DI units. My inlines were reading 0 and the com-100 read 8+.

To achieve a TDS lower than 0.4 would be quite a feat. I run a TFC membrane and two DI resins after the membrane. I suppose if I ran a couple more casisters of DI resin I could get lower than 0.4 but that just isn't realistic. 0.4 TDS is quite good and lower than what other people say is "acceptable" (by a long shot) IMO.

Jeremy
 
jlinzmaier said:
Yes a tds of completely 0 is what were shooting for, however it would be extremely difficult and costly to achieve that. Most people use inline meters which are really quite inaccurate. They say 0 but they only read in whole numbers. My com-100 reads down to 1/10th of a point and thats a pretty small increment when you look at what we're trying to achieve with our RO/DI units. My inlines were reading 0 and the com-100 read 8+.

To achieve a TDS lower than 0.4 would be quite a feat. I run a TFC membrane and two DI resins after the membrane. I suppose if I ran a couple more casisters of DI resin I could get lower than 0.4 but that just isn't realistic. 0.4 TDS is quite good and lower than what other people say is "acceptable" (by a long shot) IMO.

Jeremy
Click to expand...

Hmm. Excellent point about the decimal point (sorry for the redundnancy :D). My TDS after the DI resin with the inline meter is 0, but I guess it could be anywhere from 0.00 to 0.49. TDS after the membrane and before the resin is 2, but it could easily be 1.51 to 2.49. My tap TDS is 130, but no need to decimal point that one. You make me want to get a com-100!! :)

Just curious now, though. What's your TDS after the membranes?
 
Palting said:
Hmm. Excellent point about the decimal point (sorry for the redundnancy :D). My TDS after the DI resin with the inline meter is 0, but I guess it could be anywhere from 0.00 to 0.49. TDS after the membrane and before the resin is 2, but it could easily be 1.51 to 2.49. My tap TDS is 130, but no need to decimal point that one. You make me want to get a com-100!! :)

Just curious now, though. What's your TDS after the membranes?
Click to expand...

I hadn't used the com-100 for over a year and almost sold it. Glad I kept it now:)

Tap water is about 280. After my membrane and before the max cap DI resin the tds is 5-6. After the max cap DI resin, but before the silica buster DI resin, the reading is currently 3. After the silica buster DI resin the TDS reads 0.4-0.5

The inline monitors are OK but aren't really precise with very low TDS levels. For those who are OK with a TDS of 1-2 then the inline meters are OK. Considering my inline meter read 0 on the purified water and the com-100 read 8 I'll never trust the inline meters again. I wonder what the com-100 would read when my inline meters were reading 1-2:)

Jeremy
 
Algal turf scrubber, set up contained algae area to hopefully out compete problem algae. Google Walter Adey reef aquarium method
 
brandon429 said:
Also, Santa Monica is a poster who makes ATS threads on every board on the web, search his name and ats
Click to expand...

Duh!! I ran an algae turf scrubber for almost 18 months when I had my 180 set up.

Right now there isn't a great spot in my set up to run an ATS, but it's a good idea. Maybe with the new upflow design I can come up with a spot for one.

Jeremy
 
I hope Jeremy finds a large scale fix in his tds adjustment these large tanks are a challenge. Many large tank runs are a slower cure than nanos but they share similar biology
 
If you could use an ATS it would take care of your algae problem I had gha when I set my tank up put in an ATS and problems went away
 
ATS's don't fix the problem. The problem is nasty water that's causing nuisance algae to grow. If you install a ATS, you just move where the nuisance algae grows. You still have nasty water fueling that growth, so you haven't fixed the problem. Your animals still have to live in that nasty water. Clean up the tank, and the water your pets live in, and nuisance algae won't be a problem.
 
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