RO filter failure, chlorine in my tank

[Futureproof]

Hi gang, I did an oopsie.
As stated I've been happily running tapwater through my RO filter for six months or so, then I noticed some Green Hair Algae. I took the Bubble Magus apart, knocked the salt out of the airline and got some good gunk flowing through again but it hasn't knocked it back at all.
Now I do test my water weekly, but my test kit doesn't have a chlorine thingy, because dur, we all use RO right? Then while unpacking a box I found a couple of old dipstrips and thought well what's the harm?
The harm is that Chlorine showed up positive, not max on the scale but still positive.
I suspect I need to backflush the RO and change the media but what can I do about the tank? Are mega water changes my only option? I have a 330litre tank, ish, the sump is a diy job so hasn't been measured, and only three 25 litre jugs to transport the saltwater back and forth from the LFS. That means I can change nearly 25% of the water each go. Should I beg, borrow and steal more containers to do a bigger change or should I do four 25% changes realistically over four or five few days?
Or is there a product that I can dump in there that won't hurt my softies and inverts? And those other things, fish, which are secondary to all my lovely corals and coralline-covered rocks.

 

[Quietman]

Did your test indicate if city uses Chloramines? If using test strips for free and total chlorine when they are equal - no chloramines, if total > free then chloramines.

If no chloramines, your tank if probably fine and chlorine free as it is a volatile chemical and will naturally dissipate in 24 hours. This is also not likely the cause of your algae problem. You may have damaged your livestock but if only small water changes, it's probably minimal.

If chloramines are used, you can add water conditioner per directions to neutralize or do water changes to dilute or both. You could have damaged your livestock a bit more than just chlorine as chloramines will still dissipate but it takes days longer. Plus part of that includes increasing ammonia which is also toxic (which is what conditioners also take care of).

Or perhaps if your livestock appears healthy now, do a water change or two (or not) and monitor for ammonia and do nothing unless it shows up. Chloramines will still dissipate but as I said it takes longer. If it's been a week since last water change and only been using top off...not sure you'll improve with any action. I'd be interested in others comment on that as well.

In short, damage is likely done but if you stop adding water with the chlorine/chloramine now, it shouldn't get much worse. Adding a conditioner (there are several and most carried in pet stores) can't hurt and could help some in the short term.

 

[steallife904]

You also state RO, is it an RO filter only or an RO/DI? If you do not have the DI stage I would suggest adding that onto it. that stage is what removes most of the stuff from the water.

 

[SeaDweller]

1) get new filters
2) add DI if you don't have it
3) can use some Prime or the likes to temporarily to bind to the Cl for now
4) perform alot of water changes to essentially change out 100% of the water volume.


at least that's what I would do...

 

[Billdogg]

As someone who used tap water for the first 20 or so years, I feel I can reliably assure you that whatever harm might have been done is minimal. You must also remember that your test strips (and test strips in general) are rather inaccurate at best. At worst, they are expired for an unknown period and may be giving false readings anyway.

When I finally did make the switch I just started using rodi instead of the tap. No major OMG! I've gotta change out 200% of the water YESTERDAY! moments. I kept all manner of fish and large variety of corals during that time.

All will be fine. Do as others have suggested and call your water suppier to see which they use - chlorine or chloramines. Order the appropriate prefilters for your rodi unit and if you want, replace the ro membrane at the same time. Add a DI cartridge if you don't already have one. Dose a little PRIME if you want, but as has been said, the chorine/amines dissipate fairly quickly anyway.

HTH!

 

[LC8Sumi]

Are the tests not expired? Do they work in saltwater (you know, NaCl, CaCl2)

 

[Futureproof]

All good advice, thanks. I had no idea there was a difference between the two Cl's, and I guess most things have been living fine, coralline, feather worms and softies spreading well and my chaeto and grape algae in the sump are growing like weeds. The GHA may well be because my skimmer was underperforming, although I swear it gets worse when I top the tank up with ro water. And yes, test strips probably were out of date! Thanks for putting my mind at rest, I'll do a few more water changes and look out for RODI instead of my RO, although with the amount of water it wastes right now it's probably worth the drive to the LFS to buy theirs.

 

[mfinn]

You tested the freshwater after your ro unit right? Not the tank water?
With a ro/di unit the carbon filters should be taking care of any chlorine in the tapwater. Chlorine can mess up a ro membrane.
Change out the carbon and sediment filters.
Check the tds after the membrane to see if there is damage to it.
If you have healthy corals and fish in your tank, I wouldn't be worried to much about doing any large scale water changes.
Any chlorine will dissipate fairly fast, doing any damage to corals or fish right away. You would see noticeable effects immediately.