FINALLY getting somewhere.

Covey · 09-26-2005, 10:46 AM

Ok I have been fighting a growing hair algae problem since June when I moved. Change some stuff. When from a seaclone 100 to a Coralife 125(3-4X improvement)should have helped, not. DIY'ed a canopy which fired my bulbs got new bluer bulbs should have helped, not. Cut back 50% on feeding the fish and coral should have helped, not. Bought a R/O started using only the water I made not supermarket water and distilled water from Walgreens. Did that help, nope. I tired to fix everything I could think of no luck algae still winning. I order a dwarf sea hare from Reefer Madness but they messed up my order and now I am waiting for it. Anyway I wanted to fix the root cause of the problem and not he symptoms. I got a Kent Hi-S add on DI for my RO last week. Hooked it up to my 12GPD R/O filled my Auto top off and started filling a tub for a water change. SURPRISE, SURPRISE, woke up the next morning and the blue part of the DI was a 1/4 spent! To make like 20gal of water my DI was a 1/4 used up. That should of taken months. My Ro is a GE and must have been passing a ton of crap. So and got a Phosguard and a poly filter on the tank and hopefully it will stop the growth. If my seahare ever gets here I think I might have this algea beat.

inwall75 · 09-26-2005, 05:27 PM

Yikes...what is the TDS coming out of your RO unit? It sounds like a blown membrane to me.

Birdlady · 09-26-2005, 05:52 PM

Yeah, what brand ro? 12 gpd? That is a really slow one...I didn't know you could get them that slow really....

Covey · 09-27-2005, 06:08 PM

It is a GE RO from Home depot it was like $149.99 WITH the drinking water kit. It is only 2 months old though. I thought it was going to be part of the solution instead I think it is part of the problem. I think I am going to get a kent Hi-S membrane here soon and ditch the the old membrane. Anyway the plot thickens I downloaded my city water report and discovered that my city water has around 2.5 ppm of chloramine with a range of 4ppm to 1.5ppm. So without a DI I was dosing ammonia on a daily basis in to my tank. I live like a half a mile from the water plant so I am guessing I am on the high side too. No wonder I was tirming my calerpia twice a week. :mad:
I think I might have to get a double carbon prefilter or one of the chlorimine DI to take out the chlorimine.
Does anyone know if Air, Water and Ice post here or if there are any other RO Gurus that could help?

Matt Rogers · 09-27-2005, 10:19 PM

If you email Walter at Air, Water and Ice he will help you out. He has done it in the past.

Covey · 09-29-2005, 12:15 PM

I was reading the instructions for the RO and noticed that the membrane rejection rate was only 92.4% so that can't be helping the DI

90_Berlin_joe · 09-29-2005, 01:16 PM

Covey, thank you for posting this information I believe that this might be the cause of my cyno break out with no changes. I have a Kenmore RO 3 cell unit and have just been doing 20gal water changes twice a week on a 90 and still breaking out like a teenager on prom night. I am going to be replacing this for my wife is not going to like the water bill anymore if i keep this up.

Let me know what you come up with for i really need a good RO but don't have that much to spend either.

Covey · 09-29-2005, 04:33 PM

Where did you get the Kenmore from?
The membranes from Air, water, and ice seem like a pretty good deal.
http://theh2oguru.zoovy.com/product/TW301812-75
It has the higher rejection rate, 98% and is only $45. It would be nice if I heard back from Air, water, and ice.
Hey Bird lady don't you have one of their ROs?

Birdlady · 09-29-2005, 04:44 PM

Yes, I have the typhoon 75 gpd unit. Walt is usually really good at responding...how long have you been waiting for a reply?

I usually get compliments on how white my sand is, but I am currently also having a cyano outbreak, but my filters are a year old I just got the replacements yesterday;... another job for this weekend...

Covey · 09-30-2005, 08:13 AM

I got a email from him this mourning
"> Hi ,
>
> I am certain your R.O. is not up to the task of dealing with your
> chloramines. We insist on two carbon beds prior to the membrane .
First
> may strip 97% and the second catches the remainder. That remainder is
> enough to destroy a membrane in pretty short order .
> Most home owners are never aware of the TDS so G.E. knows they can
get by
> with it.
> It's only when you really expect your system to produce pure water
that
> the deficit of design becomes apparent .
> You can replace the sediment and carbon filters with high quality
carbon
> block filters . I am not sure about the membrane . If it is a
standard
> size then you could replace it with a real membrane the FilmTec
membrane
> from Dow .
> In any event you should start with a tds meter.
>
> Walter"

I am proably going to get a new membrane and one of their filter arrays and that should atleast solve the input part of the algae problem