Tank Journal Archive

jart

Member
Apr 10, 2015
207
106
The Numbers Don't Lie... Unless They Do!
Life has been hectic and not much time for the tank the last few weeks other than topping up water (manually as my second Tunze ATO is playing up) and feeding.

Algae continues to grow slowly and take over some of my rocks, which has been frustrating. Chaeto has gone crazy. Will write another post about a frustrating fish-related issue when I have time.

Phosphates up a bit, so with this and the algae issue I decided to bring a small reactor back online. Haven't had time to test, but no visible difference over 2 weeks. Then I believe I found the problem.

Read Megsez' recent post about her algae issues with the most likely culprit her top up rainwater. Had been assuming the last few months that my Algae issues were caused by my new Hydra LEDs. Meg's post made me realise I needed to troubleshoot it from scratch with no assumptions.

I now believe the base issue all along has been my top up RO water, possibly exacerbated by the new, more powerful lights. Turns out the second hand TDS meter I have had a prob with its little screen. Specifically the centre digit's horizontal 'middle bar' is much, much fainter than the rest. So what I have been reading as an output value of 002-006 from my second hand Scorpion RODI system has actually been 082-086!! The numbers don't lie... unless they do!

Have since bought a new-to-me PSI/Boss branded RODI filter with new cartridges and an inline TDS meter. Made up my first batch of RO water yesterday (in 087, out 000), so fingers crossed this is the primary driver of all this algae and I have started back on the path to my tank getting back on track.