The Miracle Of Water

[Liquid360]

I began the current iteration of my tank around 2.5yrs ago. In that time, I’ve killed more coral than I can count.... many thousands of dollars worth and untold hours in trying to figure out what was wrong. I tried literally everything. From high end protein skimmers and LED’s to various nutrient additives to GFO and a huge sump with lots of macro. I only use RO/DI clean water. Thing is that my water tested perfectly every time. I tested it and had two local shops test it. Even so, my coral never survived more than a month or two. Fish were fine, coral dead.
The water filtration system was a 75g/day filter, but I was cranking out lots of saltwater as I tried to figure out what the f was going on. I upgraded to a 500g/day system with a built in pump. It felt good to be able to fill a 55g container in no time. I changed the filter around a month ago. At the time I had sick coral and zero coraline algae. Over two years and nothing. Here’s a couple pics of my tank today. The best analogy I can come up with is that I was driving a car with the brakes pressed. Let off the brakes and your off. Whatever it was that was wrong with my water and showed up in no test... the new filter fixed and dramatically so. My tank has gone from looking almost like a freshwater tank into a beautiful pink/purple reef.

 

[ZoWhat]

Define "filter"

Are you talking about a canister filter?

I'm not following the logic bc "filter" can be so many things/devices

 

[Rpc07]

Define "filter"

Are you talking about a canister filter?

I'm not following the logic bc "filter" can be so many things/devices

Sounds like he’s talking about his RO/DI upgrade. Whatever the new system is removing the old system wasn’t.

Here is a follow up question to the op, Other then the gpd production what’s different with the new system? More stages? I just upgraded my 4 stage to a 5 stage with an extra carbon block. Mostly for piece of my mind but I always had a gut feeling the 4 stage wasn’t cutting it. I’ve only done a few water changes since the upgrade so nothing to report yet.

 

[ZoWhat]

Sounds like he’s talking about his RO/DI upgrade. Whatever the new system is removing the old system wasn’t.

Oh, ok, now I'm seeing the logic.

He never talked about having a high quality handheld TDS meter. Imo why would you have a RODI system without having a super high quality handheld TDS meter to monitor water quality???

once I start getting readings of 1-2ppm TDS, I start questioning everything about my RODI system

 

[Liquid360]

Define "filter"

Are you talking about a canister filter?

I'm not following the logic bc "filter" can be so many things/devices

RO/DI filtration

 

[Liquid360]

Sounds like he’s talking about his RO/DI upgrade. Whatever the new system is removing the old system wasn’t.

Here is a follow up question to the op, Other then the gpd production what’s different with the new system? More stages? I just upgraded my 4 stage to a 5 stage with an extra carbon block. Mostly for piece of my mind but I always had a gut feeling the 4 stage wasn’t cutting it. I’ve only done a few water changes since the upgrade so nothing to report yet.

My old one was a three stage AquaFX filter. Here’s the new one...i wish i could provide more info, but it’s all i have. I changed to the new system and coraline exploded.

 

[Liquid360]

Oh, ok, now I'm seeing the logic.

He never talked about having a high quality handheld TDS meter. Imo why would you have a RODI system without having a super high quality handheld TDS meter to monitor water quality???

once I start getting readings of 1-2ppm TDS, I start questioning everything about my RODI system

The water was TDS was nothing. Water tested perfect across the board. Whatever the problem was it did not show on any test. There were no other changes made to the tank except the new filter. These water tests were conducted by three separate sources.

 

[Mykesocalreef]

Are those the threads of a bolt coming from the rock work on the right?

 

[Liquid360]

Are those the threads of a bolt coming from the rock work on the right?

A plastic/nylon screw that once held rocks together.

 

[Liquid360]

This is the filter I had been using. Filters were always changed and monitored regularly. I’ve been keeping reef aquariums since the late ‘80’s. I’m fairly confident in my ability to keep a reef tank. I had done everything short of sending a water sample off to a lab for testing. This was to be my next step. It was the absolute last resort to figure what was going on. In hindsight, I should’ve done that sooner, alas I didn’t. My point is that you can do everything correctly and have things go wrong. I have no answer as to what exactly was not being accomplished by the old water water system, but it’s obvious something was making it through.

 

[BestMomEver]

The water was TDS was nothing. Water tested perfect across the board. Whatever the problem was it did not show on any test. There were no other changes made to the tank except the new filter. These water tests were conducted by three separate sources.

If you hadn’t resolved your problem, I was gonna suggest you do a Triton test on your tank and RO water. It’s eye opening!

 

[Liquid360]

If you hadn’t resolved your problem, I was gonna suggest you do a Triton test on your tank and RO water. It’s eye opening!

Yeah I really should’ve done that sooner. I was making changes and then waiting months to see if anything changed. Lesson is that if coral is dying slowly and TDS/water quality shows nothing, it’s time to employ a lab to point you in a direction rather than changing equipment and/or chemistry. Lesson learned. All there is is water/light/food. If you know that light/food is taken care of, that leaves water and you can’t fix water without knowing what’s wrong exactly and need a lab for that.

 

[BestMomEver]

Yeah I really should’ve done that sooner. I was making changes and then waiting months to see if anything changed. Lesson is that if coral is dying slowly and TDS/water quality shows nothing, it’s time to employ a lab to point you in a direction rather than changing exquipment and/or chemistry. Lesson learned.

I did mine just out of curiosity. My corals had good color but weren’t growing. Turns out I had high lead levels and little trace elements. I don’t know where the lead came from. I bought tritons heavy metal remover and sent tests of for my source water. I found no more lead and haven’t since. As for trace elements, I bought Red Sea A, B, C and bioactive stuff. Also bought a Red Sea test kit for those things. Started dosing and corals took off. It was incredible. Now I’m a believer in Red Sea.

 

[Liquid360]

I did mine just out of curiosity. My corals had good color but weren’t growing. Turns out I had high lead levels and little trace elements. I don’t know where the lead came from. I bought tritons heavy metal remover and sent tests of for my source water. I found no more lead and haven’t since. As for trace elements, I bought Red Sea A, B, C and bioactive stuff. Also bought a Red Sea test kit for those things. Started dosing and corals took off. It was incredible. Now I’m a believer in Red Sea.

Yeah I’ve always liked their products. Perhaps I’ll go ahead and have the water tested just so I have a better idea what’s going on, a baseline of sorts.