Shallow 30g rimless cube. Battling green slime......

[jinx]

Also thinking about swapping out the green and red leds from my fixtures. It's possible they are playing a small part in this too. The fixture that I rebuilt for the sump is not using green or red, which could be why I'm not seeing the same outbreak going on in there..

[jinx]

So far everything is looking better, though I'm still seeing patches of the green slime showing up on the rocks. I'll be replacing all of my RO filters just to rule those out. My membrane is getting close to a year old already again, so yeah.. I've seen some regrowth from monti's that I swore were completely dead. I've also decided to quit reusing my filter socks permanently. I'll be replacing them quite frequently from now on, rather than washing them and reusing for about a month each.

[jedimasterben]

The membrane should outlast everything else in your RO system so long as you change your prefilters (so it doesn't get clogged with sediment or allow chlorine to pass over) and you ensure your waste ratio is correct and it doesn't hurt to flush the membrane, either

[jinx]

I'm on a well, so it's tough on everything even with regular flushing...

[jedimasterben]

I'm on a well, so it's tough on everything even with regular flushing...

Do you have a booster pump? I'm on a well, too. Extremely hard water, sulfur levels through the roof, total TDS is around 480 before the softener and 330 after it. I had to get a booster pump, TDS after the membrane is 2-3 now. I am moving my RO system to under my sink now, too, for drinking water access with a pressure tank, and I bought a different booster pump, the Aquaticlife Smart Buddie, which will auto flush the membrane every time it turns on. I'm lazy

 

I'll also be selling my booster pump once I get the new stuff hooked up (hopefully this weekend), let me know if you'd want it.

[jinx]

No booster, but my well runs higher than normal pressure. I've actually been looking to pick up a booster since all this came up, but I'm really hurting for spare funds these past few months. PM me the details of what you're offering

[jedimasterben]

No booster, but my well runs higher than normal pressure. I've actually been looking to pick up a booster since all this came up, but I'm really hurting for spare funds these past few months. PM me the details of what you're offering

Will do

[jinx]

Woke up with a decent coating of green slime yet again.. Peroxide dosing maybe??? I've tried just about everything short of removing the main rock for good. 3 day blackouts do nothing but make it go dormant and it comes right back even with a shorter lighting period. Since I barely have any sps, I've kept the reactor offline.This is getting really annoying.. and I'm not going to be able to keep any sps until this neutralized. Water is testing fine besides ph being around 7.8 area. I've been doing 50% changes and the RO is testing 0..

[jinx]

After picking up a new TDS-3 meter thinking mine wasn't working right, looks like about half of the orange home depot buckets I've been using to store RO are reading between 1-3 tds once the water has been added. Looks like I may have found my problem! Guess I'll be looking for a better storage container asap.

Edit:

Tested my ATO container.. 8 tds!! Definitely finding more problems with leeching.

[jedimasterben]

After picking up a new TDS-3 meter thinking mine wasn't working right, looks like about half of the orange home depot buckets I've been using to store RO are reading between 1-3 tds once the water has been added. Looks like I may have found my problem! Guess I'll be looking for a better storage container asap.

 

Edit:

 

Tested my ATO container.. 8 tds!! Definitely finding more problems with leeching.

The Home Depot buckets are HDPE, which is completely inert. The TDS creep you're seeing in the buckets is what the water pulls in from the air. Deionized water is extremely aggressive and will pull in anything and everything that it can to try and reach equilibrium.

[jinx]

The Home Depot buckets are HDPE, which is completely inert. The TDS creep you're seeing in the buckets is what the water pulls in from the air. Deionized water is extremely aggressive and will pull in anything and everything that it can to try and reach equilibrium.

Considering they have air tight oring'd lids, highly unlikely air is getting in and tainting it.

[jedimasterben]

Considering they have air tight oring'd lids, highly unlikely air is getting in and tainting it.

Interesting. I really don't think that it is the buckets themselves leaching, and if it were, unfortunately you'd have the same issue with any other HDPE container. :/

[jinx]

Interesting. I really don't think that it is the buckets themselves leaching, and if it were, unfortunately you'd have the same issue with any other HDPE container. :/

They aren't food grade HDPE #2, so they probably use release agents during manufacturing them. Factor in they could have been improperly stored or handled during shipping. I've also washed them with well water before ever even using them. Could be a couple factors.. who knows.

[jinx]

Going to discontinue use of the homer buckets immediately and come up with a vertical water tank for storage instead. The fact that I can't kick this algae no matter what, it's a good idea. It's really the only thing that was overlooked. Some of them are over 2 years old now. There's a bunch of threads all over the net for brewing and brines about them being no bueno and out gassing into the contents.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/plastics.html

[jinx]

Just got back from picking up a new 90gal vertical food grade tank.

[jedimasterben]

Go big or go home

[jinx]

Go big or go home

I would of actually went with a 160gal they had in stock, but it wasn't food grade PE. So I took the 90. Now I just need to figure out how I'm going run my ATO pump from in it..

[Benny314]

Mount it above the height of the sump water level and just use an ro float valve and have a gravity fed ato. No risk of the pump dying and your system not being topped up when your not paying attention.

[jinx]

I've been running the smart ato without any issues. Just need to extend the pump wires a bit and I'll be able to run it directly from the RO tank eliminating my acrylic ato container in the process.

[jinx]

Yeah, no.. I'm not going to butcher the tank to run the ato in it. For now I'll just keep an eye on the ato container and see if I still get high tds with HD buckets out of the picture. Next on the list is a booster pump.. Now to kick this slime in the ass!

[jinx]

50g in with spent DI that I've already been using, the tank water is only showing what the RO meter is. Looks like the tank is fine on the interior. Figured I'd burn off the rest of the DI to double wash out the tank before repacking my cartridge with fresh DI resin.

[jinx]

Still need to build a stand with castors for the tank.

 

[jinx]

Looks like the algae has slowed considerably since the sand was removed Though it's still present, it's not taking over or blowing up in a days time. I think I'm just going to stay bare bottomed.

[jinx]

It was brought to my attention that the problems I've been having could be related to the large amount of sponges that are currently present and growing like crazy within this setup.. I have blue/purple/white sponges growing on my rocks and even my corals, this also includes a bunch of the pineapple sponges as well.. I have zero micro bubbles in my display and it's the exact opposite in my sump where there is no sponge and very little algae problem down there. Maybe I should do a little test and allow micro bubbles into the display for a week or so to kill off the sponges and see what happens with the algae.

[jinx]

Going to make a lid for the display later today and start injecting air into the system for the next week or so.