Safe way for 100% water change

[alvssaxo]

So I moved where I’m 45 min away from my favorite lfs. I was buying water from them where they used tropic Marin pro salt. When I moved, driving that far was a hassle. I had a bucket of reef crystals and was buying distilled water and mixing myself out of laziness. I did a total of 20 gallons of that (5 gallons every 2 weeks) and I’m having problems with gha and I believe that’s the issue. Btw, I have 32 gallon biocube. I called the closest lfs and asked what salt they used and they said instant ocean. So I was wondering the safest way to do 100% water change and changing salts. I also worry about alk levels being different. I use soda bicarbonate mixture for regulating in my tank. Would I match the alk in new water if it’s off? Or would the slow water changes help that? Thank you!

 

[vetteguy53081]

My phosphate is at 0.03
Nitrate 10
Alk 8.3
Ph 8.0
My mag runs high like a little below 1500, haven’t tested in a week tho
Calcium 480
Phosphate got up too .25 and stayed that way for a month til I started bag of regular Brs gfo. I also have a refugium with chaeto

Other than Phos- Good numbers.

 

[JasonVH]

Perhaps I missed it- was the distilled water tested with a tds meter? I'm thinking if it reads 0 then it shouldn't have anything in it..? Are there things that doesn't register to a tds meter?

Let's go with tds meter being 'very reliable at detecting things in water' until further information comes along. Then this would mean the LFS was giving bad info? I could believe that perhaps some brands of distilled water either don't do it properly and/or add things to the water after the process so in the end, it's not really distilled despite the label. There's distilled water for babies, for example- the ones from Walmart at least has a very distinct smell.

From personal experience: tap water registers 150-160 ish on a cheap tds meter. Three stage ro unit(got this before going into reefing) registered 3-6 tds. I always got the generic cheap distilled water from grocery stores- several different brands all registered 0.

Here's something I thought that was very interesting... the ro/di water from three different LFS ALL registered something. I forget the exact readings- they were in the 80-100s, even the one from a shop specializing in corals and saltwater fish only. One shop's water registered something like 185- "worse" than my own tap water. I did not point it out to the owners of those shops- two are highly opinionated with a tendency to become hostile if they perceive someone to be even as much as 'questioning them'. So I won't find out what exactly was going on with their water.

Based on my own experience, I'd test the LFS distilled water also. Also due to above I just went ahead and got a 4 stage RO/DI unit with 0tds output. I see getting a RO/DI is not really an option for OP, just mainly suggesting to check the distilled water from any source to help determine if that's a potential source of the issues or not.

 

[alvssaxo]

Perhaps I missed it- was the distilled water tested with a tds meter? I'm thinking if it reads 0 then it shouldn't have anything in it..? Are there things that doesn't register to a tds meter?

Let's go with tds meter being 'very reliable at detecting things in water' until further information comes along. Then this would mean the LFS was giving bad info? I could believe that perhaps some brands of distilled water either don't do it properly and/or add things to the water after the process so in the end, it's not really distilled despite the label. There's distilled water for babies, for example- the ones from Walmart at least has a very distinct smell.

From personal experience: tap water registers 150-160 ish on a cheap tds meter. Three stage ro unit(got this before going into reefing) registered 3-6 tds. I always got the generic cheap distilled water from grocery stores- several different brands all registered 0.

Here's something I thought that was very interesting... the ro/di water from three different LFS ALL registered something. I forget the exact readings- they were in the 80-100s, even the one from a shop specializing in corals and saltwater fish only. One shop's water registered something like 185- "worse" than my own tap water. I did not point it out to the owners of those shops- two are highly opinionated with a tendency to become hostile if they perceive someone to be even as much as 'questioning them'. So I won't find out what exactly was going on with their water.

Based on my own experience, I'd test the LFS distilled water also. Also due to above I just went ahead and got a 4 stage RO/DI unit with 0tds output. I see getting a RO/DI is not really an option for OP, just mainly suggesting to check the distilled water from any source to help determine if that's a potential source of the issues or not.

Very interesting! Thank you for your help! I bought like a $13 dollar cheap tds meter on Amazon so I never really know how accurate it is. I figured I would just take it to reef2reef and see if anyone had experience with distilled water

 

[JasonVH]

Very interesting! Thank you for your help! I bought like a $13 dollar cheap tds meter on Amazon so I never really know how accurate it is. I figured I would just take it to reef2reef and see if anyone had experience with distilled water

Welcome! It was an eye opening experience. I've since talked with a local longtime reefer about the lfs water- he said it was 'common'. He said the gist of it was the shops trying to deal with expenses related to filtering volumes of water. He filters his own water, mainly because he has gigantic set ups.. but um, that's "not the only reason", ha.

He also mentioned that local water shops could be worth checking out. Sometimes cheaper than lfs water. I have not tried the local water shops but if there's some by you, that tds meter would come in handy. At least it could help point you in the direction of which sources to try out and use going on forward. I'm thinking if the water shop ro/di or distilled if they have it, reads 0 and the lfs water gives numbers, I'd use the water shop.

Other than that, distilled water is fine. Stick that tds meter in, reads 0, use it! I've used grocery store bottled distilled water as top offs for both salt and fresh water tanks. Also used grocery distilled water for freshwater water changes(with re-mineralization) in the past with no problem.

 

[alvssaxo]

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let y’all know I’ve continued to do water changes weekly with the distilled/iorc salt and haven’t had any problems. I added a lot of snails for my gha problem. I’ve been manually removing algae weekly and have had most of it cleared up so far using a tooth brush and siphon. I heard nightmares with gha and saw tanks with them full of it and I’m happy I stayed on top of the removal so it wouldn’t get that far. Thanks for everyone’s help!