rodi vs. poland distilled ???

[farmerizzy]

my lfs shut down earlier this year. the next closest is not "local". i could buy an rodi unit but my demands are low(5 gals per week) i have been buying poland spring distilled from shoprite and get tds readings of 0 always. i did a tds on lfs rodi recently and no where near that low. at $ 1.00 /per gal. distilled is not bad .my problem is i recently started gettting hair algae developing. all readings excellent no3 po4- 0 etc. any thoughts as to whether distilled may be the culprit? i use instant ocean reef cystals. 30 gal tank w/hob fug multi stage external filtration and chemi pure elite in fug flow hold .very low bio load. 1 hawkfish/ small corals/cleanup crews such as snails/hermits -thats about it thanks for reading this -ray

 

[jeffaquarius]

How old is your tank? What kind of light do you use and how long are they on. What kind of food do you feed?

 

[Sniperhank]

The distilled water is the culprit. I've been running my reef tank off of this and the distilled water from Walmart with my ro/di down and never getting it back together again. There is algae in my tank, love it or leave it. If you are going to stick with this stuff long term, you need to find a way to export these nutrients before it shows up in your display. You are off to the right start, but it will show up with this water as your source.

 

[jeffaquarius]

Distilled water is supposed to be a purified water with all contaminants and minerals removed. If the distilled water you buy causes problem in your tank then that product is questionable. If the TDS of distilled water reads 0 then there should be nothing in there that can affect your tank.

 

[farmerizzy]

thanks for response. i have multiple lighting set up. inc. t5 quad. 2 x 10k(almost never on) 2 x blue actinic/led also spotlight leds and occaisionally incandescant clamp lts. mostly for assisting in maintenance but also to direct on to corals. the daylights are on for maybe a couple hours 6-8 at most. feed only hikari frozen mysis shrimp and occ. spectrum med . pellets. i usually feed 2x a day but only what is eaten in first min.
1 last question i bought a baseball sized chaetomorpha about a year ago and it is in fug. w/liverock/sand and green star polyp.. both are growing like crazy. i am not a "fragger" or ebay seller of live things. if chaeto gets out of control do you think anyone would want some of it? like lfs etc.
i have only been doing salt set up for 1.5 years and am still learning on the fly
thanks for reading this if you got this far - ray

 

[jeffaquarius]

Most t5 bulbs are recommended to be replaced every 6 to 8 months. Hair algae loves the daylight light plus the nutrients. May be you need to start reducing your feeding. Your macro growing like crazy is a sign that you have too much nutrients

 

[mr_X]

Feeding twice a day is excessive. I agree that you may be overfeeding, and this is where you are getting your excess nutrients. Cut back to a couple/few times a week for a while. Up your water changes/nutrient export as well.

 

[mrvincent]

I would say there's no significant difference between RODI and Distilled if they both read 0 TDS.

Did you tested for Nitrates and Phosphates ? They are the source of GHA. Also, are you using old fluorescents bulbs ? They can lead to algea problems when they're too old.

For nitrate and phosphates problem, NOPOX (works only with a protein skimmer) do the job. (NO3-PO4-X from RedSea). Daily dosing needed until NO3/PO4 read 0.

 

[Sniperhank]

Switching from distilled to ro/di will give you the real 0 TDS you want. Distilled is not 0 tds, but feeding so much is also feeding the issues.
Increased water changes, removal of algae, so on will keep things under control. There is no need to use chemicals or products.

 

[jeffaquarius]

If distilled is not reading 0 tds then yeah I agree you will have a problem. In that case you are buying a low grade quality product. It might just be an RO water labeled as distilled water. Like the other poster mentioned the ro/di bought from lfs is far from 0 tds.

 

[Fatboyfish]

Switching from distilled to ro/di will give you the real 0 TDS you want. Distilled is not 0 tds, but feeding so much is also feeding the issues.
Increased water changes, removal of algae, so on will keep things under control. There is no need to use chemicals or products.

I wasn't aware there was a fake 0 tds. Would you like to elaborate on that some more?

@farmerizzy Correlation does not imply causation. Just because you changed water types around the time you got algae doesn't necessarily mean it was the water.

I'd be willing to bet tank husbandry/overfeeding is to blame. If you arent exporting enough waste it's going to feed that algae regardless of what any testkit says. From my experience any tank I setup without a protein skimmer gets hair algae.

 

[Sniperhank]

I'm not saying it is fake, I'm saying that distilled water shouldn't give a 0 tds reading. It can be...but I'd never count on it. U.S. guidelines for the TDS of distilled water is UNDER 10 ppm, where tap is generally defined as running between 2-300 ppm...though this can obviously vary from where you live and so on.
I've never personally tested the TDS of the distilled water that I use. Just watched the differences in algae growth from one brand to another to find the one that is available to me that works best, with the least amount of growth. This is something that I have considered getting a pocket TDS meter and getting readings that I could actually show to others considering the same thing, but have never done it.

 

[Fatboyfish]

I'm not saying it is fake, I'm saying that distilled water shouldn't give a 0 tds reading. It can be...but I'd never count on it. U.S. guidelines for the TDS of distilled water is UNDER 10 ppm, where tap is generally defined as running between 2-300 ppm...though this can obviously vary from where you live and so on.
I've never personally tested the TDS of the distilled water that I use. Just watched the differences in algae growth from one brand to another to find the one that is available to me that works best, with the least amount of growth. This is something that I have considered getting a pocket TDS meter and getting readings that I could actually show to others considering the same thing, but have never done it.

I have the cheapo $25 (TDS meter) one from bulk reef supply. The few times I tested distilled it was always 0 tds. However someone not actually checking the tds could be slipped a mickey urry now and then I suppose.