troubleshooting with Ro/Di Water and Corals..!

[zeroblake07]

Hello reefers..!! good night to everybody..

well i will like to start with my Ro/Di system , i just bought a portable system , because i live in a apartment and i can not make changes in this place..

So, i start to use my system since a couple weeks , everything starts really good, but after some days my corals start to change , like my frogspawn won't open anymore, sometimes its open but not fully open , my zoanthids start to close up too:headache: today when i just came to work i saw my pink panther zoo, weird , like if something is hurting it, yesterday was fully open with the polyps really extended , but tonight was like stressed , the polyps extended to the half , looks different ..!! my other zooa' is a green one with brown , i don't know the name..! that one is one than makes me feel worry about my aquarium because this one never close up, and today this one keeps all the polyps completely closed , and that really makes me worry, this never happened before, i was using regular tap water , filtered to be exactly and once or twice a month i used to buy real ocean water from petco, and that really works great to my aquarium ,
but since than i start to use my rodi system everything has been changed ,

i check my water parameters tonight and that was i just got..

phosphate- 0.25
carbonate hardness- 322.2
calcium- 380 to 400
ammonium- 0.25
nitrate- 0
nitrite- 0
ph- 8.0 to 8.2
salinity 1.024 to 1.025
temperature- 76 to 78

i hope somebody could help me or to tell me what i'm doing wrong..!

thank you everyone, have a great night ..!1 thanks :help:

 

[Xcraft]

check for low Mg

 

[edd]

my zoo's do the same thing and every thing else looks fine, except my frog spawn doesn't seem to open all the way. my mag is 1400. i hope some one has some advise.

 

[MatthewScars]

H.

phosphate- 0.25
carbonate hardness- 322.2
calcium- 380 to 400
ammonium- 0.25
nitrate- 0
nitrite- 0
ph- 8.0 to 8.2
salinity 1.024 to 1.025
temperature- 76 to 78

What is a portable RODI? Aren't all rodi systems portable? I didnt have to make any perminate changes to my sink plumbing to connect mine.

Your Phos is high, your cal is a little low, what is your ALK/MAG?

Your rocks have leeched everything from your tap rust/silica/phos whatever else for the entire time you've had you system up. That not good new. Also, im not sure about buying premade sea water. the salt mix you get is specifically made for coral. I would stick with that, and save some money.

Did you get the TDS of the RODI water? Did you rinse the mixing bucket out with rodi water to clean it?

 

[Matthew1675]

phosphate is high and so is your ammonia. i'm wondering if the tank is recycling?

 

[zeroblake07]

What is a portable RODI? Aren't all rodi systems portable? I didnt have to make any perminate changes to my sink plumbing to connect mine.

Your Phos is high, your cal is a little low, what is your ALK/MAG?

Your rocks have leeched everything from your tap rust/silica/phos whatever else for the entire time you've had you system up. That not good new. Also, im not sure about buying premade sea water. the salt mix you get is specifically made for coral. I would stick with that, and save some money.

Did you get the TDS of the RODI water? Did you rinse the mixing bucket out with rodi water to clean it?

Hello Matthew, well i just bought a portable Ro/Di system i'll take a picture to show you!' And i don't understand this part !! "Leeched" what does means!!
How can i work with the phosphate, how i need to do to make it down, i have a calcium buffer calls B-ionic and also i have the other part of it, the alkalinity B-ionic , i add this ones once a week ,
My ALK is 322.2 i'm using the API to make my water test!

I got not magnesium test yet, but as soon as i have a little time i go to get it!
I only have 6 months with this little one, after 5 months this aquarium starts to makes me headache , i've been doing the same thing since i set it up, the weekly water changes , dose the alk and cal every week as the store were i bought it told me!
The 5 month works excellent my corals start to grow up really healthy , but the 6 month has been doing really hard! And thats when i want to know what i'm start to doing wrong ! Well i used to buy some pre made salt water , and that works really good, but was a little expensive to buy it every time , that's why i prefer to buy a Ro/Di system but i couldn't buy a regular system because i live in a small apartment and the manager are a little strict with the rules,
I have not the TDS meter yet , i ordered from ebay , so i'll get it on the next couple days! And yo clean my pocket i use regular water to clean it, and i use a little brush to keep very clean , because i keep the water in that pocket ready to use it in the aquarium, in this part i don't really know if to keep mixed water in this pocket will be good idea, to me is better because is more easy to me when i have to make my water changes .
So , tonight when i came to work i notice than my frogspawn , my mini anemones and my pink zooa' are closed but the frogspawn it's really tiny, looks like really stressed , and that makes me worry!!

Any comment to fix this problem , i will really thankful !! Thanks you

 

[zeroblake07]

phosphate is high and so is your ammonia. i'm wondering if the tank is recycling?

In this part i'm confused , how my tank could recycle!! I s that bad!!

 

[frankieboy]

I'm new to this hobby but maybe tank is recycling because you were using different water type tap seawater now ro/di water. Corals can be stressed or unit is not making good ro water. Hope someone chimes in good luck hopefully things will get better that's why when I setup I do it once but right.

 

[Matthew1675]

well your amonia is coming up (according to your test kits) and your nitrite and nitrate are 0. so im wondering if something happened to cause your amonia to come up and tank is started to cycle again.

your phospate needs to be as close to 0 as possible. so 0.25 is still relatively high, especially when some tests measure phosphate to the hundredths of a value.

 

[zeroblake07]

well your amonia is coming up (according to your test kits) and your nitrite and nitrate are 0. so im wondering if something happened to cause your amonia to come up and tank is started to cycle again.

your phospate needs to be as close to 0 as possible. so 0.25 is still relatively high, especially when some tests measure phosphate to the hundredths of a value.

Thanks for your answers!

Q? How my thank could make a cycle again? Is that possible! But what does means is bad or good thing!! Hehehe sorry to much questions!!

And how i could make down the phosphate, i make another water change tonight so i will see tomorrow early to make another test! Is a little hard to me keep an eye all the time to my little one, because i work more than ten hours every day!! But i really hope than this hard time ends!! Thank you Matthews for your help!! Have a great night !!

 

[Matthew1675]

has anything recently died in your tank?

to get phosphate down, use RO/DI water and frequent water changes. i wouldn't do large water changes EVERY day but maybe every 2x a week. dont want to stress the fish and coral out too much.

 

[selkoner]

Quick dumb question .... When you hook up the Ro the 1st time did u use the 1st batch of water the it made ???
Also what salt are u using ??

 

[Matthew1675]

when you first plug it in, you're supposed to let the RO/DI unit run for an hour without using the 'good' water. i guess it gets the sediment in the filters flushed.

 

[selkoner]

when you first plug it in, you're supposed to let the RO/DI unit run for an hour without using the 'good' water. i guess it gets the sediment in the filters flushed.

^^^^ yup that can be what's the problem .....also the salt the salinity mite be off and he was using ocean water now he using something else ... STRESS !!

 

[selkoner]

Are u runing carbon ?? Or doing anything else new ??

 

[Matthew1675]

i doubt the sediment in the filter is causing those results. its the tap water and all its 'additives'

 

[selkoner]

Nope because if it couldn't do anything it's wouldn't be on the label trying to worn you .... Even if carbon bag gets rip open can do damage

 

[zeroblake07]

has anything recently died in your tank?

to get phosphate down, use RO/DI water and frequent water changes. i wouldn't do large water changes EVERY day but maybe every 2x a week. dont want to stress the fish and coral out too much.

Yes, on this days i lost 2 snails and one hermit crab, but my corals still alive!!
And yes i'm start to do twice water changes a week, i hope that works!! Thank you very much

 

[zeroblake07]

Hello, well the first time than i hook up the ro system i let it run for about 30 to 35 minutes and the. I start to use the water !!

 

[zeroblake07]

Are u runing carbon ?? Or doing anything else new ??

I was running carbon , but in the store than i buy my corals they told me than i not recommended to use carbon if i want to make a reef tank, but i'm not really sure about it! Is that true !!