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Diatoms


mbaxter

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HI all, Have not been on here in a while. My tank has been going for 8-9 months now and I seem to be having a constant diatom problem. I siphon vacuum the tank, perform a 10-20% water change and within a couple hours the sandbed is rust brown again with diatoms. Any suggestions? My nitrates and phosphates are both 0 and I have no other algae issues but Im not seeing much coral growth because turning up the lights makes the diatom bloom even worse.

Any suggestions?

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Im using a Lifereef skimmer, sump and refugium and use 2 6' BML lights.

Leaving the white channel off on the lights helps but as soon as it come on even under 50% its covered within an hour. Like I said, I have no other algae issues, In fact I cant seem to get more then a tiny patch of coraline to grow, but Im also not increasing the intensity of the lights because of the diatom issue.

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I always DI resin and discard it when it turns brown. I seem to go through it very quickly. Im using a BRS 4 stage system. Perhaps I should change out all the media in the RODI unit? Carbon, filter, DI, membranes?

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You may want to look into degassing your water of CO2 first before running it through the RO/DI system. I believe your area has higher than normal CO2 in the water and it causes the DI resin to be spent prematurely, allowing more impurities into your made water.

Also, I believe they sell specific silicate filters that you can add to your RO/DI system to target their removal.

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I use DI resin very quickly. 30 gallons of RODI wil use about 1/4 of the DI resin in the canister.

My RODI unit is using softened water. Perhaps that is contributing to the problem? I could put it before the softner. I only do that because they installed a hose bib just after the softner when they installed it.

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I agree with Ty, in that I think you may be feeding silicates. What are the frequency of your water changes?

If you're using BRS color changing resin, and it burns up in less then 200 gallons - it's a strong indication that it's doing too much work, regardless of initial water quality. I would recommend changing out your other blocks. You want less then 5 TDS going into the DI to get the most out of it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Ive been doing water changes every 3 weeks and it sounds like Im making the issue worse with each one.

That makes sense because I have no other algae issues as you may be able to see in the pic. I have the BRS TDS meter on the RODI and the input (raw water) is usually at 7 TDS and 0 on exit.

I have the original blocks that came with the RODI from BRS. I'll order new ones and see if that helps. Ill also see about moving the input to the non softened water side of the loop in my garage.

The converted to PEX when they installed my softner so I need to figure out how to put a T in it.

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Question list.

What is your TDS into the membrane?

What is your water pressure into the system?

Does Round rock run chloramines?

How old are the filters in your system?

What kind of salt do you run in your water softener.

Here is mine for example. I'm 215 into the system at 80 psi. Out of the membranes that I flush regularly I'm at an average of 2 TDS. Sometimes as low as 1. I use a canister of DI Resin every 400-500 gallons made or so. I'm plumbed in after the water softener using the blue bag solar salt. I get a 3/1 ratio meaning that I use 4 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of Rodi. I replace the sediment filter every 2500 gallons, the carbon blocks every 5000 and the membranes every 10,000 or 6 months which ever is first, and the DI when it's exhausted. And the replacement gallonages is water in not water out.

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In addition to a softner I also have a whole house Carbon filter. Its another 4 ft canister like the softner resin but filled with carbon. According the to the TDS meter the inlet water is around 7 TDS and it routinely exits at 0. Water pressure is right around 50 psi. Softner salt....Morton (Yellow bag)

Based on your replacement schedule Im probably due to replace everything. sediment and carbon block for sure. Ill give that a shot and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks for the help everyone!

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You really need to know what the TDS is going into the system. Not just what's going into the resin. 7 going into the resin is too high IMO. 50 psi is on the low side. You definitely should replace your membrane at the same time and you need to stay with the 50 or 75 Gpd membrane your pressure is too low to go with a 100 or 150 Gpd. The whole house carbon filter will help with chloramine break down. The only way to know for sure would be to test your systems waste water for chlorine and chloramine and ammonia. The whole home carbon canister needs periodic full carbon replacement as well. I don't know what the schedule should be.

Stay away from the iron guard softener salt (green bag). It can be quite rough on RO systems.

I order my membranes off of amazon for almost half the price of BRS, for what it's worth.

Rants from the resident RODI system fanatic. (And victoly lol)

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You really need to know what the TDS is going into the system. Not just what's going into the resin. 7 going into the resin is too high IMO. 50 psi is on the low side. You definitely should replace your membrane at the same time and you need to stay with the 50 or 75 Gpd membrane your pressure is too low to go with a 100 or 150 Gpd. The whole house carbon filter will help with chloramine break down. The only way to know for sure would be to test your systems waste water for chlorine and chloramine and ammonia. The whole home carbon canister needs periodic full carbon replacement as well. I don't know what the schedule should be.

Stay away from the iron guard softener salt (green bag). It can be quite rough on RO systems.

I order my membranes off of amazon for almost half the price of BRS, for what it's worth.

Rants from the resident RODI system fanatic. (And victoly lol)

OH! The TDS meter is measuring TDS at the DI Resin not at system inlet. I was not aware of that. Ive ordered a new sediment filter, carbon block, DI resin and 75 GPD membrane. Ill see if that makes a difference. Good to know on the membranes from amazon...

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I wouldn't spend the money on another inline TDS meter I would just get a TDS pen with calibration solution. You don't need to know the inlet of your water everyday just periodically. The pen is also handy to test you barrel water to make sure it's not contaminated some how.

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