Silica and diatoms in tapwater

[Jocephus]

Okay, controversial topic. We can all get along. I use the dreaded tapwater for my tanks. They are doing well, I know what an RO/DI does, thank you in advance.

Now, has anyone ever seen a study of "dechlorinaters" as they pertain to adding silacates to water? My tanks will only have diatom blooms if I add this stuff to the water. If I let the water dechlorinate naturally (let it sit for 24 hrs) I have no diatoms. I'm careful not to use the types that have a "stress coat" component as they make your skimmer go apespit, so I know that's not it.

Just curious if anyone had seen anything.

 

[icy1155]

Well, I dont really have any input into the question, but if you want to get RO for top off I should have mine set up by the end of the week... you could stop in once a week and pick some up if ya want.

 

[kaptken]

It dont make much sense Joe. most dechloranators are sodium thiosulphate, or a methanosulphate. no silica. but perhaps the sulphur in it feeds the diatom. a little. If curing the water works well. no problem.

 

[a1amap]

Not all water companys use Chlorine to disinfectant the water. Some use Chloramine:
Chloramine is a substance used in many larger municipalities in systems where the level of chlorine is at the highest acceptable level but need still more disinfection. Chloramine is a chlorine/ammonia compound. Chloramine is represented as totally safe but it rather bad. Don't give chloramine-treated water to your animals or use it in your fish tanks (it kills fish)! It also does not evaporate into the air like chlorine. So hopefully your municipallity continues to use chlorine vs chloramine.

 

[Jocephus]

Thanks, Al. My understanding is that the city water here has a chlorine feed. I haven't worked on the treatment plant in Dover, though, so I'm not positive.

Ken, I'll look into the sulpha as a possibility.

 

[hottuna]

get yourself a kold steril ...best investment i ever made...the additional phosphate /silicate removal media works like a charm...I live in milford and have similar tap h20 problems as you.

 

[kaptken]

well, most water utes dont use elemental chlorine gas to disinfect, they us sodium hypochlorite, ie bleach. Keeping tanks of chlorine gas around in our neighborhoods would be a real safety hazzard in case of a leak.

when bleach reacts with an organic molecule it ozidizes it and reverts back to NaCl and H2O . Salt water.

Yeah, those Kold sterile units always looked good. How long does the media last? its basically polypads and aluminum oxide media plus the sub micron sieve to remove pathogen microbes. seems one could make a similar unit with poly pads and a feric oxide cannister. and or a DI filter. and skip the microbes.