New Member and TDS Measure?

[jtreath]

Hi all;

New to the forum so a big Hello to all!

My question is in measuring water quality of RO water. I have been doing water changes and top offs with some RO water I purchsed from a store. I have been fighting algae and cyano blooms for 3 weeks now. My params are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates <5
pH 8.2
Temp 78
SG 1.0255
Ca 450
Alk 110
Cu 0
Fe 0
PO4 0

All of these values have been steady for 3 weeks (Daily testing). I did have an ammonia spike 5 weeks ago that settled down after 4 days. This is a new to me set-up that I purchased 6 weeks ago. The spike happened after the move and the LS and LR had been disturbed.

With my Nitrates and Phosphates both being 0 I decided to get a Hannah TDS metre to check my RO water. It registers at 23. Is this an indication that he RO water is not good quality? Should my TDS reading be 0? What is a good reading? BTW my city water supply measures at 30.. so I can only assume that the RO water is not good. Would this be why I am still fighting a losing battle vs. algae and cyano?

[Willow]

if your city water is 30 even a half assed ro unit should be able to pull your tds down to 0. it sounds like the store might need to change their inserts in the ro unit. you should consider getting your own unit they are pretty cheap these days. question though, are you storing your water in a food safe container? if you stored (or the shop) in a non food safe bin or a dirty bin then your water might have been zero and the container shot the tds back up. you must use food safe containers to store your ro water. non food safe bins can also leak phosphates. also if your testing your tank water for phosphates and you have algae you will always test zero because the algae is using the phosphates to grow.

if you did disturb the rock and bed you probably shifted all kinds off stuff up. im sure everything will settle down soon. if your algae problem continues you should consider a phosban reactor, it will pull phosphates from your water helping eliminate the algae problems.

btw welcome

[jtreath]

Thanks for the reply Willow. I am using White Plastic buckets from Home Depot. I was assured they are foodsafe and non toxic, non reactive. The one thing that occurs to me though is I did use them to mix salt in once. But that was at least 6 fill ups ago. I suppose I may still be getting some residual salt into the fresh water though.

Would I be better off getting a couple of Big Blue water containers used for camping? Or are the plastic pails from Home Depot still ok?

[Willow]

food safe containers are marked on the bottom that they are certified food safe. they usually have a logo on the bottom that can be looked up. nsf or something like that. rubbermaid sells a 32 gallon bin at home depot called the "brute". its food safe and also 40 bucks, that’s what i use.

having salt in the bucket before shouldn’t make a difference. i would highly recommend you spend a little money and get your own ro/di unit if your making any quantity of water, its pretty economical in the long run and you don't have to go out for water when you need it. i think you can get them for around 100 bucks cdn now days.

[jtreath]

tks again willow. I have in fact ordered a RO/DI unit from Filter direct. Bought it on E-Bay a week ago and I am eagerly waiting delivery.

I had heard about the Brute... but it is too big to haul around by myself..lol SO I was thinking these pails would be good. On the bottom there are 3 logos.. NRC, ICL and HDPE

[Richer]

Plastic pails from HD will work just fine. I use them for mixing salt, water changes, etc. I used to use rubbermaid bins, but found that I didn't need all that space since my tank is relatively small.

-Rich