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why do i have greenish water?

everyone,
I just setup my tank and my water is a greenish when i did water change. However, when I view it in my tank, it is clear ( not cloudy). I get 100 gallons from Feng on his main display tank and his water is crystal clear in a 5 gallon bucket side by side in comparasion. any suggest here? where should I check for such faulty weird water?
Mod, Please move the message to an appropriate forum.
thank you
Olivier
 
Olivier, could you possibly be seeing a phytoplankton explosion? I know shortly after I set up my tank my water appeared greenish as well, but it all settled over time.
 
Wendy,
How long is the start of your greenish water since you setup the tank? my water turn into greenish in about 5 days of setup. I use RO water however, I do not know my DI water quality. would this be a problem?
thank you for your response.
Olivier
 
Olivier, my water turned greenish about a week after setting everything up. After the water finally cleared up I had a massive pod explosion. It takes a while for all things to settle and harmonize. It would help if you knew the TDS reading of your RO water. What are you other parameters like?
 
Wendy,
pods are good. I need those pods. my water nitrate, nitrite, amonia are on mark. Slightly high in phosphorous 110 on TDS meter
Olivier
 
Did I read that right? Your TDS is 110 after using an RO/DI unit?

If thats the case, that's WAY out of whack. TDS after an RO/DI unit should be 0.
 

rodclement

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
agree...2 to 3 I have seen but that seems high...

also, since you have no livestock in there I would recomend simply turning the lights off for a couple of days, you MH running 7 hours a day now, turn them off, let the algae die-off, it should get sucked out by your skimmer and the carbon will help.

Good luck!

rod
 
thank you all for replies.
I will change my filter stage to small grid size then. I have first filter in 50micron and carbon filter in 5 micron and then 1 micron sediment filter. I will change to 1micron, .5micron and .5micron to see how tds look like.
will report back on wednesday.
 
You should have two solid block carbon filters to remove the chlorine. The 5 micron ones don't remove the chlorine. The first filter should be a spun poly filter (the solid type, not a wrapped one) You may have damaged your ro membrane from the chlorine, so I would flush it for awhile after you change your filters and check that your tds before the di resin stage is under 3.
 
You should have a bypass valve next to the flow restrictor. If not, you can unhook the flow restrictor and let it run into the drain for a few minutes. If you want a bypass and you don't have one, airwaterice or the filter guys sells them.
 
lastest update.

I got home around 7:30 p.m today and my tank cover with brown algea. god, less then 24hours and this already bloom.

I did change all of my RO filter. I now have zero reading on my TDS on output right after the DI stage. before the DI is 56

this is my RO/DI setup. from left to right

water input --> 1 micron sediment ---> block carbon ---> .5 micron sediment ---> T off here -- 1)Drinking water, 2) RO Membrane --->block carbon filter ---> Input TDS --->DI filter --->output TDS

Input TDS read = 56
output TDS read = 000

How do I put in my flush unit for RO membrane? I got one but confuse on instruction. it says, "system input at one end and other end is drain. close the valve for pure water) how? if i think it right, the system input end is connected to my RO membrane output right?
 
Thank you for such clear up. I got it now. the flush unit mount parallel to the drain flow restriction.
ah ha..
thanks


I will dump out all of my water (storage) and collect new one. I will change my water on the weekend.

hope this will help on greenish and brown algea
 
This is the correct way to run everything. You have to have two carbon blocks. The carbon blocks remove all of the chlorine from the water. You should have 2 or 3 tds before your di. I would stop running through your di until you have it run this way or you will exhaust the di resin very quickly. Also, you might have ruined your membrane from the chlorine in the water. If you run it the way I show and you can't get your tds down to 2 or 3 after flushing it, you will probably need a new membrane.

water input -->Input TDS ---> 1 micron sediment ---> block carbon ---> block carbon --->upper auto shutoff--> RO Membrane --->lower auto shutoff port--->T off here Drinking water (you will need a check valve and then a pressure tank before drinking spout) --->output TDS, DI filter

Where do you live, if you are close, I can stop by to help you sort it all out. Also If you tee off before your membrane, you will lose pressure to the membrane everytime you get a drink.
 
mbodell,
thank you for help. I live in Somerville, NJ. are you in the area?
I will try to suggestion tonight and report back.
 
Ok, well I am pretty far away. You could also go on the filter guys website. He has a lot of good diagrams for everything.
 
Update,
I change all my filter and try to flush the membrane but the TDS still report very bad. I then change the membrane and voila, the TDS reading before the DI is max at 8 and min at 4.
Olivier
 
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