Why Ro Water Is Good For You And Your Tank

[SkiFletch]

That size bulb will be more than enough . How much flowrate are you putting through it? Flowrate is key for determining what the sterilizer kills. Usually you want some pretty slow flow through them to kill off most parasites like ich

 

[Lynden]

Like, how slow of a flow are we talking about? I think mine goes at around 100 gph

 

[SkiFletch]

Thats about what you're looking for

 

[Lynden]

Thanks for all the help guys. Visibility in the tank has increased drastically and seems to be improving every hour. I also did a water change, but put only RO fresh water back in as the SG seemed a little high (1.027).

I hope I am off tap water for good. That stuff's for freshwater.

But anyways, if my parameters remain good, how risky would it be to put a Lawnmower blenny in the tank? He would still have plenty of food in the form of diatoms and hair algae.

-Lynden

 

[SkiFletch]

Short term prolly wouldnt be too risky at all. I'd just monitor him longterm to make sure he doesnt overpredate the tank and starve himself

 

[Lynden]

Good, I'm glad.

I'll post if anything in the tank differs.

Thanks,
-Lynden

 

[Lynden]

So now, I have both a Lawnmower Blenny AND an Ocellaris Clown-fish. I didn't have to pay for the Lawnmower Blenny; he was at my cousin's house after I hastily brought him there when my ammonia spiked last week. That was a real bummer

But NOW the tank is good. The Clown-fish scared me a little last night; at the petstore he was a little weak-looking; no diseases, just maybe a little underfed. I bucket-acclimated him and when I put him in the tank, he swam to the middle, found a deppression in the ground, and laid down, seemingly to die. But he got up and swam around a few hours later, and this morning he came out to greet me.

The blenny is also doing well. He ate some algae soon after I put him in the tank.

I'm looking out for an ammonia spike.


-Lynden

 

[SkiFletch]

NIce, glad to hear things are working out. Keep us posted and send pics

 

[Lynden]

I hope I am off tap water for good. That stuff's for freshwater.

I'm about ready to rip somebody's arm off.

My tank water levels were very low yesterday. I had no choice but to use a little bit of tapwater for the tank. I used a generous amount of water conditioner on this water, but a half an hour later I tested the tank water and, praise the devil , my ammonia spiked.

I captured the blenny, but was forced to leave the clown-fish behind, as he had ich and looked pretty dead already. I rushed the blenny to my cousin's house. It was so embarrasing. They must've thought that I couldn't keep that tank together if my life depended on it.

So, crushed, disheartened, and dissapointed, I await the fall of the ammonia once more.

-Lynden

 

[Lynden]

So now, I am left to wonder: where did the ammonia come from? I have tested our cistern water several times. All tests were negative for anything but hardness.

But I now know the truth: ever since we moved, tap water has given me nothing but hell. It is responsible for my second die-off, the one that killed everything. I just don't know how it is responsible.

I am renaming this topic now.
-Lynden

 

[Mr Miagi]

A suggested title "Why RO water is good for you and your tank!" No, sorry mate. I know several people have used tap-water, myself included for some period of time.

After buying my own RO unit, and filling my FOWLR with nothing but RO, I can easily tell the difference betweenthe FOWLR water quality and the Reef water quality (gonna do a huge water change (with RO) on my reef asap when I get more salt).

IMO you'd be just better off without all this hassle, and being able make it yourself is soooo much easier.

Edit: Woops, thought you were in the UK.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, its tough to say what caused the dieoff but tap water is far from being toxin-free. An ammonia tapwater conditioner probably wouldnt remove every treatment that goes into your tawpwater. Maybe you have an abnormally high concentration of flourine, or perhaps you guys use some other strange purification process over the boarder. Saltwater animals and bacteria can be very very sensetive to outside chemical stressors. Remember, where our bodies can tolerate and eliminate that concentration of chemical, saltwater species concentrate it in their tissues and end up perishing because of that biological need.

At least you know where your problem stems from and you can make changes to correct it. I'm sure your tank will look great when its all back up and running

 

[Lynden]

Well, its tough to say what caused the dieoff but tap water is far from being toxin-free. An ammonia tapwater conditioner probably wouldnt remove every treatment that goes into your tawpwater. Maybe you have an abnormally high concentration of flourine, or perhaps you guys use some other strange purification process over the boarder. Saltwater animals and bacteria can be very very sensetive to outside chemical stressors. Remember, where our bodies can tolerate and eliminate that concentration of chemical, saltwater species concentrate it in their tissues and end up perishing because of that biological need.

Sounds plausible. But the animals are not simply dieing off without me knowing what is wrong; they are definetly getting ammonia and nitrite poisoning, something the tapwater doesn't have. Also, it seems to only effect saltwater; the freshwater tanks are fine and dandy.

At least you know where your problem stems from and you can make changes to correct it. I'm sure your tank will look great when its all back up and running

Yes, that UV sterilizer obliterated the algae, the tank water is crystalline. Also, I got this special carbon that probably helped.

It's a shame that it has to be filled with s***.

A suggested title "Why RO water is good for you and your tank!"

Suggestion accepted!
-Lynden

 

[SkiFletch]

Ah, I think you missed my point . Mysterious tapwater chemical (probably flourine) kills microbes in your tank (bacteria, algae, single celled organisms). Microbes decompose and lead to an ammonia and nitrite spike. Fish concentrate ammonia/nitrite in their tissues, and chemically burn themselves to death from the inside out.

Now that I think about it, I seem to remember learning ant one point in the past that there's something strange about the water over there in BC. Not sure what I was told, but it had something to do with the fact that it came from a unique source and was treated differently than most other tapwater in the us/canada. What is your base water source? I know ours is lake erie and I'd risk hyposalinity before I put tapwater from that lake in my tank ever.

 

[crazyelece]

If your tap water has chloramine in it instead of chlorine you can get ammonia from your conditioner as well. Chloramine is chlorine and ammonia combined and the conditioners seperate the two and then bond the chlorine out, leaving the ammonia to be taken care of by bacteria. Usually this is such a small amount compared to the level of bacteria that it wouldn't cause an effect. But if you have a very low supply of bacteria (such as a new cycling tank) you can get an ammonia spike from actually treating the tap water with conditioner.