Do you use dechlorinator after RO/DI

Kati537 · Oct 4, 2020

Hey guys, I’ve had chronic problems with my reef rank. Fish are doing great but no coral grows. Coral seems to be more upset after doing a water change. I was using a “RO buddy” that gave me a 6-12tds so I upgraded to a four stage BRS RO/DI unit that gives me 0tds after I run it for a few minutes. I let my water sit overnight with a powerhead while mixing red sea salt. But my coral still seem unhappy. Is chloramine something I should still be worried about?

xxkenny90xx · Oct 4, 2020

Your water should be good to go. Tell us a bit about your tank. What's in there? How long has it been set up? Parameters? Ect

reefer024 · Oct 4, 2020

What is your salinity at?

xxkenny90xx · Oct 4, 2020

Is your water change water the same temp, alk, Cal, and salinity as the tank?

homer1475 · Oct 4, 2020

The carbon block, and RO membrane should remove them. They do make chloramine specific filters if that id an issue.

Just need to check for total ammonia with a simple test strip before adding salt to see if it is. Any pool store should have ammonia test strips.

vetteguy53081 · Oct 4, 2020

I dont which in part defeats the purpose of an RO/DI unit. It is meant to purify and eliminate the chemicals and sediment contained in tap water

Bleigh · Oct 4, 2020

First, welcome to R2R!!!

You may want to look into what your city uses to treat water. Mine randomly switches to chloramines for a month out of the year, so I went to a 7 stage.

What are your parameters in the tank? If you're using a salt mix that doesn't match your tank parameters, it may e shocking the corals. I had that issue with a salt mix that had too high of an alk early on.

Kati537 · Oct 4, 2020

I had another post about the tank (you should be able to find it in my history but I’m not sure how to link it). Here are my parameters

salinity 0.0125
Temp 78
PH 8.1
Alk 10
Nitrate 15
Phosphate 0.05
Calcium 500

salt mix is red sea coral pro, but i’m now doing water changes with red sea blue bucket mixed with coral pro since my dkh/calcium/magnesium is kind of high. I used to use instant ocean and had similar issues

the tank has been set up for 3 years but I upgraded it about 6 months ago with a bigger tank (75g) and all new equipment that, on paper, should make a happy reef tank. Two 1250 gph powerheads, sump with live rock rubble and a reef octopus 150, lighting is one orphek bar and four T5 bulbs.

I thought my issue was no nutrients since I have 0 algae. Literally no algae. I bought a new salifert nitrate test kit and it was showing ~25 ppm after I dosed the tank with nitrate (the dose should have added 2.5ppm to my system). I think I just wasn’t vigorously shaking my API test and that was why I used to get 0 nitrates every time I tested. I did a few ~15% water changes the past couple weeks. Coral went from alive but not growing to actively receding. Still no algae, despite nitrates (which are now being lowered again). I had some traces of dinoflagellates before, which are now becoming more of an issue.

I do see some parcipitants, but I do not dose anything as far as alkalinity/calcium/magnesium go. It’s all from the red sea coral pro which has inherently high parameters.

I was thinking of sending off an ICP mail-in water test, but I don’t even know what I’d be looking for

reefer024 · Oct 4, 2020

Maybe post a picture and someone can tell what's going on. Seeing the corals condition may help

Kati537 · Oct 4, 2020

Coral just slowly recedes. I had a ricordea last about a year before jumping off the rock, same with a discoma. Kenya trees are sometimes doing well, sometimes they won’t open their polyps for weeks. I have one that dropped a few babies but now all have their polyps closed tightly. I’ve had a 4 polyp zoanthid frag that gained a couple more heads over the course of a year but now won’t open.

Previously I wasn’t seeing any growth. So I messed with my tank a bit, adding a few ppm of nitrate and then doing water changes. Now everything is worse.

reefer024 · Oct 4, 2020

When's the last time you changed your t5 bulbs? And have you checked anything thats magnetic to see if rust exist anywhere possibly leaching into the water.

Kati537 · Oct 4, 2020

Thanks reefer. I’m wondering if a screw or small piece of metal may be somewhere in my aquarium. I’m not sure if it would show up in an ICP water test.

The t5 lights are 6 months old, i’ll probably change the bulbs around the 9-10 month mark.

reefer024 · Oct 4, 2020

Your welcome, I'm not to sure either about the test. I hope your able to get to the bottom of this and get your tank happy again.

reefer024 · Oct 4, 2020

Check your wavemakers also, they have magnets I'm sure. Start with the metal pieces you know of.

sunken3 · Oct 4, 2020

You can check to see if your RODI carbon block is not working by testing your waste water with a chlorine test strip (LaMotte 2979 Insta-Test Total Chlorine Test) easy to get on Amazon. you can also dip one in your RODI pure water to see if any is getting through (as already noted above). Otherwise I would assume your zero TDS is good. next would be making sure you let your salt mix enough.. (best over 12 hours). After that, you might be doing too large a water change which might be shocking the system. - otherwise I would look for a rusty part or similar advice above. An ICP test should catch that - it will show toxic levels of heavy metal - though none of that explains why you have issues after a water change... unless your fresh saltwater is the issue.