Bad Tap water and RODI Filter

[Piranha76]

Looking for ideas. My phosphates out of the tap are over 10 ppm. I use a 7 stage ro/di filter. I am burning through cation and anion every three months. After three months my inline tds shows 3. Phosphate reading is 1.36 ppm. Suggestions?

I was thing of dosing LaCl in my freshwater reserve tank. But I do worry that this will cause issues after mixing and in the DT with gill respiration.

Tank is 7 years old. Everything grows at a slow rate. Every few months I need to dose Reef flux and Chemiclean.

Temp. 78
Salinity 32 to 35
NO3 2. NO4 low
PO3 .8 to 2 ppm


I dose Sealab 28 & Reef fusion 2 and LaCl into filter roller.

 

[jda]

We had horrible water when I was in Missouri. Do you have a good membrane, like a true 99% rejection one? I mean a good one and not one that says 99% on it - like Dow FilmTec or the like? It will help a lot over a 90%. Sometimes you have to call a good water place and skip BRS or other reefing sites.

Not all phosphate test kits for reefs work in freshwater, so be sure and read the label.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looking for ideas. My phosphates out of the tap are over 10 ppm. I use a 7 stage ro/di filter. I am burning through cation and anion every three months. After three months my inline tds shows 3. Phosphate reading is 1.36 ppm. Suggestions?

I was thing of dosing LaCl in my freshwater reserve tank. But I do worry that this will cause issues after mixing and in the DT with gill respiration.

Tank is 7 years old. Everything grows at a slow rate. Every few months I need to dose Reef flux and Chemiclean.

Temp. 78
Salinity 32 to 35
NO3 2. NO4 low
PO3 .8 to 2 ppm


I dose Sealab 28 & Reef fusion 2 and LaCl into filter roller.

I had similar a few years ago and ran water to whole house filter before reaching my RODI unit which made huge improvement.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’d dump the Sealab before doing anything else. Uncontrolled release of whatever crap they put in it does not seem sensible to me.

 

[Piranha76]

I’d dump the Sealab before doing anything else. Uncontrolled release of whatever crap they put in it does not seem sensible to me.

I always thought it was Calcium Carbonite. Like a giant tums.

 

[Piranha76]

We had horrible water when I was in Missouri. Do you have a good membrane, like a true 99% rejection one? I mean a good one and not one that says 99% on it - like Dow FilmTec or the like? It will help a lot over a 90%. Sometimes you have to call a good water place and skip BRS or other reefing sites.

Not all phosphate test kits for reefs work in freshwater, so be sure and read the label.

It's a liquid gen. With spectra anion chamber and spectra cation chamber. It reads zero for three months, about 150 to 200 gallons of filtered water.

 

[Spare time]

What about filling an rodi canister with GFO before the DI resin?

 

[Piranha76]

What about filling an rodi canister with GFO before the DI resin?

Maybe. I would think the gfo would get exhausted really quickly.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I always thought it was Calcium Carbonite. Like a giant tums.

Calcium carbonate will not dissolve in tank water.

 

[KStatefan]

What are you using to test phosphate in your RODI water?

That is the tds going into your DI?

 

[Piranha76]

Hanna and red sea

 

[Piranha76]

Latest numbers
NO3 0
NO2 10
PO4. .88
Calcium 442
Alk 5.2
Salinity 35 PPT
Temp 79

Dosing AFR 60 ml a day
LaCl 10 ml a day


125 gallon with 29 gallon high sump
Total water is approximately 100 gallons

A lot of rockwork. Old school setup with rocks against back glass.

So I been using my PO4 reader from Hanna ULR and Salifert and my numbers are still high. I bought a new PO4 reader and still got the same results. My PO4 is high on the Hanna and over . 5 on Salifert. I am dosing a lot of LaCl concentrate. 10 ML of hot tub stuff. My tank is getting cloudy.

1) does LaCl become less potent when it's being stored?
2) is my issue the LaCl I'm using is just mostly water weight?
3) should I increase dosing? I am right now dosing 10 milliliters a day. 8 at 11 PM and 5 at 4 AM.
4) My alk has nose dived and is in the 5s. Tested with two tests and I bought the calibration solution. Using All for Reef and up that to 100 ml a day. Calcium is 444 All is 5.2.

 

[DrinkinPepsi]

Could look in to something like reef moonshiners as many people doing that stop doing water changes. That way you just reduce the amount of RODI you have to make.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Latest numbers
NO3 0
NO2 10
PO4. .88
Calcium 442
Alk 5.2
Salinity 35 PPT
Temp 79

Do you really mean nitrite of 10 ppm and nitrate of 0 ppm?

That's seems an unlikely result.

Assuming the alk test is accurate (use that kit on some new salt water), then you are substantially underdosing alkalinity via the AFR. I'd boost the alk back to 7 dKH with baking soda, and continue the AFR at twice the dose you are now. Then adjust it up or down after a few days based on alkalinity.

 

[ptrick21186]

Ok I think I'm a bit confused here. Correct me if I'm wrong. Is your problem that you're going through DI resin too fast or that your tank has too high phosphates? If it's the resin there are some things you can do to help.

1. Run your water to drain for about 15min or so (TDS meter helps at this point). The membrane needs to reach equilibrium before it functions properly. The initial influx of water upon start up is high in TDS (some people refer to this as TDS creep). This can be accomplished with a simple 3 way valve from BRS.

2. Let your RO water gas off for a day or so before pumping it into the resin.

3. More of an FYI but you say your resin only lasts 3 months? This is subjective to how much you're using it in that 3 month period. You should really get into the habit of looking at how many gallons you're getting out of it as opposed to how long it's been before you have to reorder more.

As for the too high of phosphates in the tank, if you're saying that it's coming from the RO water then the easiest solution in my opinion is to not use the water for the tank if it's not producing 0tds. Use distilled water until you can figure out the RO.

 

[Piranha76]

Will LaCl stop making my water cloudy if my Phosphates are zero?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Will LaCl stop making my water cloudy if my Phosphates are zero?

Yes, because you should stop dosing then. lol

It normally does not cause clouding if using a filter sock to collect the solids.

 

[Piranha76]

I have the LaCl dosing into a filter roller. But the filter roller are 30 morons

 

[Piranha76]

Yes, because you should stop dosing then. lol

It normally does not cause clouding if using a filter sock to collect the solids.

I read you only dose limewater. Is that still the case?

 

[Rjukan]

I have the LaCl dosing into a filter roller. But the filter roller are 30 morons

Hehe.. that's a lot of morons!