I have a 2 stage coralife RO/DI. I want a better one...just like my skimmer. Work in progress. I want to get one of the 5 stages from BRS that carey mentioned. As for skimmer, I won't think about that until I start building a new sump. That won't come for awhile either.
Anyway, did another major overhaul on the tank today. Continuing to clean up the mess. Scrubbed down all sides of the tank. The addition of the marineland maxi-jet 1200 has made a considerable difference in the flow of the tank. Don't think I like it put together as I did it, so I'll be changing it up later.
I also took my skimmer off and am cleaning it. I actually have cyano growing INSIDE the tornado chamber...can't see inside the thing. It's running on a bucket with vinegar. Has only been going for 40 minutes and you can see the difference already.
Also got my salinity in the tank down to 1.028. I'm still dumbfounded as to how it is moving so slow. Removing 5 gallons of saltwater and adding straight ro/di should make a larger change imo, but a .002 drop won't stress out my fish.
The fish are doing better btw. The clowns are happy now that the royal gramma is out of the tank and my indigo dottyback has taken up residence in a big cave rock I set up for a goby. He has become alot more active as well, I'm accrediting that to the salinity.
As for the corals, still housed in the 36. The ric is doing great. The duncan is finally starting to show its tentacles. This is a flow issue, I moved the PHs around and it opens up more...just dont have enough flow in that tank for corals to begin with! The scroll is existing. No polyp extension, but has shown no signs of bleaching! That was my biggest worry that it would bleach like everything else has. The acan and chalice didn't make it though. They are now sitting on my porch with the worm brain's corpse. Even their skeletons are pretty, maybe I'll do something with them after I finally get my tanks under control, as the 36 is up to 1.030 salinity now... Just don't ask me how I'm pulling this off. I'm literally mixing water up with the help of my refractometer, calibrated everytime with ro/di, to give me 1.021 salinity.
Also, I was dosing both tanks to raise alkalinity since it was at 7. Haven't tested since, but the duncan started doing better right after I dosed and has continued to show improvement.