Hi all,
This may get a little lengthy so please bear with me.
The problem is this - my neighbour has a reef tank setup, which he has had for around 12 months now. He uses RO water with an ROman system. Every so often when he does a water change, 1 of the 10 litre buckets of fresh RO water will become cloudy when the salt and buffer is added to the water.
When i say cloudy - i mean really murky and milky looking. You can't see the bottom of the bucket - nowhere near. The water in each case always appears crystal clear until the salt and buffer is added.
Both the salt and buffer are from the same batch he has been using now for months so i think this can be ruled out as he changes 60 litres at a time and this only ever affects 1 bucket - the problem is that it's not always the 1st bucket of RO water that has the problem, which would make some sense as it could be the RO system not flushing properly. This doesn't happen every water change and sometimes can be the 3rd or 4th bucket in the process.
I'm no scientist but this would appear to be some sort of chemical reaction between something already in the water and the salt and/or buffer.
The RO system filters have been completely replaced 5 weeks ago and the system is flushed once a week before doing the water change. He thought replacing the filters had fixed the problem until it occured again yesterday.
I also have a marine tank and use an RO system and have never had this problem so i also think the mains water supply can be ruled out.
I think he will need to get a sample of this cloudy water professionally tested to get an answer but i just wanted to make this post on the off chance that someone has experienced something similar or has any ideas as to what the problem could be.
This isn't affecting his tank by the way as obviously none of this water goes anywhere near it and all his water stats are fine. (slightly high nitrates but then he is a little overstocked )
Any idea's/suggestions very welcome and much appreciated
F
This may get a little lengthy so please bear with me.
The problem is this - my neighbour has a reef tank setup, which he has had for around 12 months now. He uses RO water with an ROman system. Every so often when he does a water change, 1 of the 10 litre buckets of fresh RO water will become cloudy when the salt and buffer is added to the water.
When i say cloudy - i mean really murky and milky looking. You can't see the bottom of the bucket - nowhere near. The water in each case always appears crystal clear until the salt and buffer is added.
Both the salt and buffer are from the same batch he has been using now for months so i think this can be ruled out as he changes 60 litres at a time and this only ever affects 1 bucket - the problem is that it's not always the 1st bucket of RO water that has the problem, which would make some sense as it could be the RO system not flushing properly. This doesn't happen every water change and sometimes can be the 3rd or 4th bucket in the process.
I'm no scientist but this would appear to be some sort of chemical reaction between something already in the water and the salt and/or buffer.
The RO system filters have been completely replaced 5 weeks ago and the system is flushed once a week before doing the water change. He thought replacing the filters had fixed the problem until it occured again yesterday.
I also have a marine tank and use an RO system and have never had this problem so i also think the mains water supply can be ruled out.
I think he will need to get a sample of this cloudy water professionally tested to get an answer but i just wanted to make this post on the off chance that someone has experienced something similar or has any ideas as to what the problem could be.
This isn't affecting his tank by the way as obviously none of this water goes anywhere near it and all his water stats are fine. (slightly high nitrates but then he is a little overstocked )
Any idea's/suggestions very welcome and much appreciated
F