Water opinions!!

[Hookman]

Since I put my PC's on, I have green hair algae growing on some of my LR. I have been using distilled water, is the algae from the water? Should I consider a RO/DI filter when I can afford it? I was just wondering if changing my water to RO water would minimize this algae?

 

[lando]

Using ro/di water for top-offs and water changes would help with the problem. Also, how long are your lights currently running and do you know how old the bulbs are?

 

[fishfreek]

Have you always been using distilled? What are your water peramiters like the phosphate level and nitrate levels?

The hair algae growth is signs of excess nutrients in the water and also its being fuled by the brigher lights. This nutrients could be from the water source, could be from the food your feeding or could be from over crowding and under filtration.

Do you have a skimmer?

 

[dwculp]

Test your distilled water, properly distilled water is more pure than RO/DI water. The distilled water I purchase from the grocery store for my freshwater tank has been carbon filtered, then run through an RO filter and then steam distilled and I have 0 problems with algae, I am also using this water for my newly setup saltwater tank.

 

[Hookman]

The PC's are brand new, I did add some LR that probably gave off some die off into the tank. I thought the distilled water worked a little better than the Grocery stores RO water?

 

[Anemoneman]

Should I consider a RO/DI filter when I can afford it?

Absolutely! I now consider this an essential part of my reef keeping equipment.

 

[phases99]

When I upgraded to PC's my tank was still fairly new and the hair algae took off also. I use DI water. The lights also bleached most of my coralline which was a bummer. I doubled my Astrea population and sat back and waited. One month later the hair algae is gone and the coralline is coming back. If your water parameters for phosphate and nitrate test OK your tank may just need some time to adjust to the brighter lighting.