R/O & Nano's in Calgary

[DiscusZ]

I have always used RO, even when I was keeping fresh water fish (Discus, Austrialian Rainbows, Angels etc) Seemed to have heathier fish, little to no Algae problems.

I want to move to an RO/DI system as my next purchase.

Jim

[OCDP]

I have just setup a 20g tank on august 31st. I was told by fellow reefers on reef central to get an RO/DI unit ASAP.

I have used Nutrafin tap water conditioner up until a few days ago, I bought prime by seachem. I am getting lots of nuisance algae... how come? does anyone else get lots of algae using Calgary tap water??

I do weekly water changes ... sometimes every 10 days. I run carbon and phosguard in my fluval 404, skim with an AquaC Remora..

I am wondering if this is from a newly setup tank?? I was getting a lot of diatoms.. now i'm getting a lot of green algae buildup on the tank walls and crush coral. I also have quite a bit of hair algae growing where my live rock gets the most light (2x65w PC's) .. if anyone has any suggestions or reasons as to why this is happening.. that would be great..

I plan on getting an RO/DI unit from aquasafecanada after christmas.

[richtg]

Try not to worry too much about problem algae for a while. It is hard, but you have to be patient with it. If things are getting smothered with hair algae, consider a lawnmower blenny. I battled nuisance algae for months on my 45 gal, and, like most people in the hobby, it slowly went away. Keep up with your water changes, try not to feed with foods high in phosphates (mysis, etc-silversides are a good supplement) and don't slam your tank with fish and corals for a while. I recomment buying some good live rock every payday and build slowly. If you are not careful, you can quickly spend large sums of money to beat the algae, and you may not have better results than someone who patiently waits it out. Please consider a RO/DI unit only as a long term investment as it won't necessarily 'cure' your algae blooms. Rich.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by richtg

Please consider a RO/DI unit only as a long term investment as it won't necessarily 'cure' your algae blooms. Rich.

That's one of the best comments I've ever heard. That's a great way to put it.

[gbeef]

If you want a RO/DI unit at a really good price get an aquasafe unit. there a 5 stage unit. I purchased one on ebay for 65US, they work really good. and you can get a box of 20 filters for 50.00

[OCDP]

Hey, thanks for the speedy replies guys and sorry for the silly hijack.

It's so great to be able to communicate with Calgarian reefers!!!

So.. if some of you are not using RO/DI water... you must be conditioning your tap water. With what? I just started using Prime.

May I ask another question? Is the reason that I'm seeing so much nuisane algae is becuase my tank is still fairly new?? (august 31st) .. and I noticed more algae grow when I upgraded my lighting .. I went from a single powerglo bulb (18w) to the fixture by Coralife that I mentioned.

At the moment I have (20g tank) 2 clowns, purple firefish and a yellow watchman goby. That's all I plan on keeping in there for fish. I have no cleanup crew... (I don't like them hehe) I used to have a Hammer Coral (stupid newbie buy) that died and a pearl bubble (again, stupid) and some zoo's. I am now left with only the zoo's but they are doing great.

So I guess I have made some typical newbie mistakes ... but I definitely am learning from mistakes... and I know patience is everything. I wasn't going to add anything until I get an RO/DI unit... but now I'm getting more mixed opinions. I find myself very confused now lol... more input would be great.

Scott