Tds readings help please

[saltyvixen]

I swear i stay having issues... anyway, so im getting hair algae in my setup pretty bad and i cant figure out why, im out of test right now so i have just been on top of wc every week. i check my output water striaght from the rodi and it read 2-3 ppm. I decided to check the water from the container it read over 500ppm. The water was stored for about a week in that container, I made a new batch and retested it read 300ppm. I used a little 10qt bucket instead of my usual 5g storage buckets ( the ones from premium aquatics.) and it reas 2-3 ppm, can the storage container be leaching tds? because everytime i get a bucketful of water in them it goes from 2ppm to like 300ppm. My tap reads between 40-60ppm

 

[raz0945]

Have you used the bucked to mix salt water or any other chemicals in?

 

[saltyvixen]

Raz0945;959256 wrote: Have you used the bucked to mix salt water or any other chemicals in?

ive used them when draining a tank

 

[y-not]

SaltyVixen;959257 wrote: ive used them when draining a tank

I use "dirty" buckets to drain into and "clean buckets" to transfer new water into the tank.
Just to avoid cross contamination.

You might try giving the buckets a good vinegar bath, let them soak for 24 hours then a final rinse with fresh RO/DI water.

Like you, I measure TDS of my fresh water before adding salt. Just to make sure that it's as clean as possible. The water sits in my transfer buckets just long enough for me to carry them up the stairs and pump it into the tank.

 

[ringo®]

Is it an un-rinsed new bucket?

 

[saltyvixen]

ok so i didn't let them soak in venager but i shook vinegar and water around in each bucket for about a minute and then rinsed the same way. Im waiting on the first bucket to fill to see if there is a result. And no these are not new buckets, they are about a year old

 

[y-not]

Ringo®;959262 wrote: Is it an un-rinsed new bucket?

I've got two, 30 gallon water containers that I use. One holds fresh. The other mixes and heats the saltwater. I check the TDS coming out of the RO/DI. Then I'll do a spot test of the water coming from the fresh water container.

As far as buckets go, when I was collecting buckets I always rinsed them very well then did the vinegar bath/soak/rinse routine for the transfer buckets.

They were new, Home Depot buckets. Now-a-days I'm using the empty salt buckets that I now have a small collection of. :tongue:

 

[jennm]

I'd worry less about the TDS and more about the clean water in dirty buckets. You'll get all kinds of bacterial slime and whatnot.

Use one bucket for clean RO water. Use a different one for waste water.

What's the TDS of unfiltered tap water? If your product water is 2-3, it's time to change some filters, IMO.

It's not unusual for TDS to read higher if the water has been sitting in a container for any length of time. Even dust/pollen in the air that falls into the water will cause a TDS reading - because that's what it becomes - a dissolved solid.

Jenn

 

[rk4435]

Perhaps I just found a possible link to my algae issues. I use a dirty bucket for draining but I have some buckets that I use interchangably for storing ro/di and mixing.

 

[jennm]

Possibly. Think about it... we change water to export waste and excess nutrient. Dirty bucket = full of the crap we wanted to remove from the tank.

Mingle new, clean water that you went to all the trouble of running through an RO/DI filter, to strip out all the impurities, and put it in with dirty water? Makes no sense.

If you MUST reuse the same bucket, wash it out after you use it for waste water.

It always made me shake my head when people would come into the shop with water jugs (not buckets), to buy new RO or saltwater, and the jugs had dirt and sand and junk, and they'd been sitting like that, closed up, for a week or two before they came in for more water. Sometimes the jug would be stinky when the lid was taken off.

I'd always suggest a new container or bleaching out the dirty one(s) before using for clean water.

You wouldn't pour yourself a glass of drinking water into a sludgy glass, would you?

Jenn

 

[rk4435]

So I conducted the first of many tests tonight. I have a couple of buckets that are for draining only and they are marked with a sharpie. Tonight I put ro/di that was .001 ppm from the filter into one of the buckets that I use to carry water from my mixing area to my tank. In that bucket I was .025 ppm. I'm not sure if that was from left over salt or something else.

I plan to clean a bucket and test again to see what reading I get and then give one a good vinegar cleaning and try again. I'll post those results here. Ultimately all of the transfer to tank buckets will be cleaned with vinegar.

I'm hoping that this will solve my ongoing algae issues.

 

[heathlindner25]

what we strive for his 0 tds is in our fresh makeup water, but once it has been made tds can accumulate in our freshly made water... either by dust or some salt remains in our bucket or our hands , whatever.
I would suggest getting a salifert nitrate- phos test kits to find the real culprit of your algae.