Bored? How about Mentoring a Newbie?

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

Valve open all the way:
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AoWoUIU9pTyNheo1tJXN1bUi0TtG3w

If I screw the valve down all the way it easily overflows. Video shows it backed up to right before an overflow. Hopefully that makes sense.
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AoWoUIU9pTyNheo2sNDZu-1bQGEwbA

seahorse_man · Jul 3, 2019

RtomKinMad said:
Question, I went and looked at our RODI again, no TDS monitor and we don’t have one. I don’t think we have ever checked TDS in 5 yrs. we have a well and septic system and frequently get fin rot for our fish, can this be related? My husband changes the filters when needed and the baffles. We have a BRS stage 4 75gpd. We had chlorine strips which makes no sense considering we have well water. This is what LFS told us we needed 5 yrs ago. Use different LFS now but he only said we need to change the filters and never mentioned TDS. Thank you in advance. Thought I’d ask since you guys are talking about RODI units. We have 55 gal barrel. 2 300 gal tanks and 93 cube. Thank you

Get yourself an inline TDS meter. I got the triple (because I wanted to measure my tap or "starting" TDS, but a dual would work. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/triple-inline-tds-meter-trm-1-hm-digital.html

I didn't buy the the BRS Premium Plus unit for this reason though, it comes with a Dual and I wanted a triple. So just bought the extras separate.

I have one TDS sensor on the tap input (the red line on the left), one after the RO membrane (it's the blue line behind the canisters), and then one on the output of my DI resin (blue line to the far right). Now I have a baseline for the filters of what the TDS should be, and if it ever goes up I know to swap filters. Also when you first start making water you get what's called "TDS Creep" where for the first bit the TDS is higher, I can easily tell when the TDS Creep is done and water is ready to be made. The censor on the tap inlet is just for fun mostly but allows me to see how bad my water is and gauge how long the filters should last...roughly.

road_runner · Jul 3, 2019

RtomKinMad · Jul 3, 2019

Ohashimz said:
TDS is what you use to understand how good your RODI water is. you want zero TDS, when its 1 or above its time to change filters. measuring TDS is very important if you have an RODI unit for your aquarium otherwise its hard to know what kind of water you putting in, or when o change filters.
you can buy cheap TDS meter. there are hand held ones out there. you can also easily add an inline TDS meter on your RODI unit, which I think is the best way to go for its convenience and continues measurement so you do not need to deal with contaminating the prob head in case of hand held.
am surprised your BRS do not have TDS, the 7 stages is one of their flagship RODI and it always come with 3 TDS measurement points...its this blue device on top of the RODI..you do not have it on? not sure how do you decide to change filters without TDS? how do you define when needed?
I cannot tell if the fish disease is from your water or not honestly, diseases are more biological (bacterial or viruses) I cannot imagine how your water can be contaminated with bacteria, if it is, RODI will not really help, bacteria are way too small for the filters to filter out I believe. unless if this issue is stress induced, as an example: your water quality is bad, stressing out the fish, reduce their immune system and be prone to diseases...
I recommend you first get a TDS meter, maybe the one from BRS that you can add inline, its easy. then you at least start understanding the type of water you putting in.

hope that helped.

Wow that helped a lot. My husband just changed when the last filter changes color. I can’t believe we’ve been doing this so long and never knew this. I will order the inline TDS today. Thank you so much. I’m not sure about the bacteria either but all three of our tanks have gotten fish with fin rot. Have never figured out why my fish are prone to this. All healthy currently .
Scott, sorry to interrupt but you are getting really good information and I appreciate the information sharing! Thank you guys! Very cool
? Someone mentioned the mandarin. Was it in the tank when you got it or did you add it? Is it healthy? We’ve added pods to both our reefs one before getting a mandarin and the other just because no mandarin.

road_runner · Jul 3, 2019

RtomKinMad · Jul 3, 2019

seahorse_man said:
Get yourself an inline TDS meter. I got the triple (because I wanted to measure my tap or "starting" TDS, but a dual would work. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/triple-inline-tds-meter-trm-1-hm-digital.html

I didn't buy the the BRS Premium Plus unit for this reason though, it comes with a Dual and I wanted a triple. So just bought the extras separate.

I have one TDS sensor on the tap input (the red line on the left), one after the RO membrane (it's the blue line behind the canisters), and then one on the output of my DI resin (blue line to the far right). Now I have a baseline for the filters of what the TDS should be, and if it ever goes up I know to swap filters. Also when you first start making water you get what's called "TDS Creep" where for the first bit the TDS is higher, I can easily tell when the TDS Creep is done and water is ready to be made. The censor on the tap inlet is just for fun mostly but allows me to see how bad my water is and gauge how long the filters should last...roughly.

Thank you so much! I can’t believe we never checked this. We got the BRS RODI from our old LFS. Going to order the TDS today! Thanks for the picture helped me and probably others following too!

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

Sounds good, I will keep you posted
Should we wait on increasing the water volume in the sump for now?
Any tips on getting rid of the sediment in bottom of the sump?
Can you please send more details on your replacement for filter socks?
On a positive note, the fish and corals appear to be very very happy right now!!

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

Ohashimz said:
perfect perfect.
you see how when its open the water is all the way down? if you look carefully you can see where water start turning to bubbles....
now I want you to slowly dial up and down so that the water is just at the skimmer neck...not the collection cup neck, the skimmer neck (where collection cup sits and connect to the skimmer body).
see if you can do that.

Will do and keep you posted

road_runner · Jul 3, 2019

Scott Christenson said:
Sounds good, I will keep you posted
Good

Should we wait on increasing the water volume in the sump for now?
Yup we can wait till you get good saltwater.

Any tips on getting rid of the sediment in bottom of the sump?
When you so water change, empty the skimmer, remove all this junk by hand or any means necessary. It should be hard once water in skimmer is out. You might need small pump to get water out of the skimmer. I use these cheap cobalt mj1200. They are versatile for water changes and cleaning since that are small and can get in tight spaces....but anything else should do

Can you please send more details on your replacement for filter socks?
I use multiple and diffrent brands. But the one I like the most are the "lifeguard aquatics bonded filter" they are white filter pad, there is a big fish head on the package you cannot miss it. Buy it from marine depot they are 6$. This give me at least 3 weeks of use...depending on the bio load and the size of the skimmer overflow area. Will take some pic for my setup for you.

On a positive note, the fish and corals appear to be very very happy right now!!
Bingo, that's why I am not doing drastic moves. You do not have an emergincy and fish seems to be happy, so what we doing now is preparing the system for more complex inhabitants like coral or sensitive fish(NO MORE FISH THU)

Dubs83 · Jul 3, 2019

This is an excellent thread for so many reasons. Nice job @Scott Christenson and @Ohashimz!

road_runner · Jul 3, 2019

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

I never judge. I so appreciate everything that you are doing more me, especially your patience ;Shamefullyembarrased

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

Have you ever heard of or used PURA PhosLock? It seems almost identical to RowaPhos and I have a bunch of it, would that work?

road_runner · Jul 3, 2019

Scott Christenson said:
Have you ever heard of or used PURA PhosLock? It seems almost identical to RowaPhos and I have a bunch of it, would that work?

I do not know it and I do not like speculating. Use rowaphos its soild.

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

Ohashimz said:
I do not know it and I do not like speculating. Use rowaphos its soild.

Will do

road_runner · Jul 3, 2019

Scott Christenson · Jul 3, 2019

Ohashimz said:
One thing you will learn if you spend enough time in this hobby is how advanced and data driven Europeans are when it comes to this hobby.
While you sadly see people speculating and undermining the importance of scientific or data driven decisions in the hobby in USA, Europeans are conservative and more literature driven..
I take European literature and translate into English to learn and boy how much I have learned from there..

Just yesterday am following a thread where they are asking the op to stop their skimmer and over feed to treat dino which is crazy to me...while when I fealt with dino, the only product that truly worked for me without crazy changes was a product I imported from germany.

Now days here in USA every brown looking thing is called dino. No longer people wait out diatom phases or distinguish algae from protozoan from zooxanthellae... dino is actually type of zooxanthellae which is the same that make up your coral. If you understand that fact, you can address dino better. Better yet, you should know how to truly identify dino from cyano from diatom.

I have done a write up in the past with microscope pictures to help people distinguish dino from cyano from diatom you can go look it up. The key to fix any problem is understanding its rootcause and its details..forums are full with darts in the dark and expermintayions based on something someone have heard from someone else.....sigh.
Bit of a rant here

I agree, I've been frustrated with forums in that you get 30 different opinions on one question. That's why I was seeking out a mentor like yourself with trusted experience.