Clearwater/Cleanwater resin

[EddieW]

I had a bit of a problem with nitrate/phosphate in a newish nano tank and I saw this product which is "an actively absorbing granulate that binds nitrates, nitrites and phosphates". I have used other products such as this on my other nano and was very pleased. I hadn't tried this so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Big mistake.

I put it into the external cannister on Thursday evening with some activated carbon (as I had it open). On Friday when I came into work the tank was very milky looking and the denizens were looking very sad. I got the resin and carbon out as soon as I could and put a double layer of polyfilter in instead. This morning the tank is back to nice clean & clear water but I lost a fair amount of softies that have just melted away. These were not major colonies thankfully so I haven't had a major spike, just odd frags that I got either with LR or as freebies from the LFS.

The xenia looked very poorly on Friday and had retracted right down to a stump - this had totally vanished now.

Some green hairy mushrooms were shrivelled and very closed up on Friday - one has survived but doesn't look too happy.

An odd green fluorescent mushroom was very shrivelled on Friday - this has survived and is looking a bit better today. I hope this makes it as it seems to be getting ready to split.

GSP, Zoos, clove polyps and aiptasia (damn) all looked OK on Friday and still seem to be OK today.

Crabs & snails are all fine as well.

I have no idea what caused the problem - it definitely wasn't a bacterial bloom. I did read somewhere that some of these resins can release aluminiun, but I have no idea whether this is one of those.

All I can say is that SOMETHING in my set up seemed to react badly to the resin - I cannot point the finger directly at the resin as I made other changes at the same time. I am just posting this here as a word of warning - don't put anything in your filters or tanks unless you have knowledge of it, or it has been recommended by someone you know, or it is from one of the larger well known manufacturers.

Eddie

** DISCLAIMER ** These are MY opinions and NOT those of William or the forum. I am NOT saying this is a bad product, just relating what happened to me and what I THINK was the cause.

 

[ste2k3]

maybe a daft question but was it definatly sutable for salt water. if it contains metals, then probably not. like you say, it could have been anything such as a knock on effect of the resin on something else.

hope everything starts to do better now.

ste

 

[Great Lakes]

Bummer Eddie.

Kinda sounds like a ph crash. Have you checked it? If the treatment you used wasn't toxic in and of itself, that is the one parameter in which a large change would be possible.

GL

 

[EddieW]

Ste - it did say for frshwater and saltwater use, but I am less than happy with it. As it was from a smaller company that I have not heard of I am wondering whether they may not have been able to test it as rigorously as the bigger ones.

GL - It did have a big effect on pH, it went up to 8.6. I have been monitoring, doing water changes and it is back down 8.3 now (which is what it was before).

Things were looking better yesterday before I left, came in this afternoon and the glass has loads of critters. There are 2-3mm long white ones with legs down both sides, which I think are probably copepods (good!). However there are also 1-2mm square brown things which I think are flatworms (bad!).

Not having a lot of luck with this tank so far. Things can only get better

Cheers, Eddie