Water chemistry

[Ohioutony]

Hellos all my 180 tank has been up and running since mid October and I have green hair algae pretty bad. My water temperature is 78°, my ph is 8.2,ammonia is .25ppm,nitrite 0ppm, and nitrate is 5 ppm. I keep my salinity at 1.025 can anyone give me any tips?

[drillsar]

Check your phosphates?

[Ohioutony]

I don't have a phosphate test?

[Ohioutony]

This is my first tank and I just started in October

[drillsar]

most likely high phosphate issue. It's normal for your tank to get high algae outbreaks. Get yourself a phosphate test recommend Hanna checker or Red Sea pro phosphate. Dry or Live rock did you add and where you get it? To deal with hair algae have to basically clean it by hand add some cleanup crew maybe, more water changes, decrease lighting..

Make sure makeup water is pure.

[Ohioutony]

Mostly dry rock and I purchased a few pieces of live from LFS and a cup of live sand from established reef tank in of a friend and I have a 2" sand bed that was live but I rinsed very well

[drillsar]

Most likely high phosphates.. You can go get a phosban reactor and run GFO if not doing so already.. This will lower your phosphates which most likely the cause. Hair algae is a pain in the but.

[Ohioutony]

It was in buckets for about a week so I am sure all of the good bacteria was dead so I rinsed it well

[drillsar]

I noticed your ammonia at .25 and running since mid october? that is bothersome to me and just noticed that. How much rock you have? any cleanup crew?

[Ohioutony]

I also have a bigger issue... I cannot use ro water. I have well water and my well has a high brine content which leads to a TDS reading of 1200 ppm and an ro/di system doesn't work. Bulk reef supply has sent me two and I broke both in 1 day and they refunded my money, any ideas?

[drillsar]

why cant you use ro/di water that is your main problem right there.. some well water Im afraid has co2 in it but I can give you tips how to difuse the gas. However, you must use ro/di water in this hobby or go get some from your lfs or get at least distilled water but will be expensive in the long run

[drillsar]

your water most likely will leach Nitrites, phosphates, and who knows what else.. Well water is pretty high in sediments im afraid. That's most likely your corporate for ammonia present possibly as well.. GEEZ TDS of 1200? That isn't even drinkable I dont think.. Someone with water chemistry can chime in on that

[drillsar]

if your TDS is that high I wouldn't even shower with that water.. Geez.. I don't know what to tell you but for sure your not going to have a nice tank unless you get good quality water from somewhere.. U either can use distilled water or get RO/DI water from someone or you can also use premixed saltwater from petco that im not sure how good that is..

[Ohioutony]

It is drinkable I just built this house and dug this well the water passed the health dept standards and is very clean. They told me the reason for the high TDS is because the well is over 369 ft deep and has a high bromine content so I got an ro system to extract most of the salt and it tastes great but even Ruth the ro system I still have a 250 TDS reading

[Ohioutony]

With*

[drillsar]

This is what I would do asap:

get 45 gallons of distilled water and do a water change since you can't get ro/di you said..

get yourself a phosban reactor run GFO.

[drillsar]

That is your main problem, TDS 0f 250 is high and unfortunately could mean anything could be in that water. For a reef tank has to be 0-10 tds anything more your going to get major algae outbreaks unfortunately

[Ohioutony]

What does run GFO mean?

[Ohioutony]

Isn't salt a devolved solid? Couldn't that be why it is 250 still?

[drillsar]

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-bu...ric-oxide.html

Run that in a phosban reactor and helps lower phosphates

[drillsar]

yes but really don't know tds just tells us there is some sort of solids that are in water. the ideal tds of water is 0 or at least close to that as possible..

[drillsar]

All I know is you somehow have to use better water period for starters. Do at least a 25% water change and go from there. Get phosphate test kit as well.

[Ohioutony]

Thank you!

[billdogg]

Tony - just answered your PM, then saw this. Talk to Russ at www.buckeyehydro.com about what to do for your water. I agree completely that getting a RO/DI unit up and running will help a lot with your problems. As I guessed in the PM, your dry rocks are leeching PO4 and are probably the major cause of the HA. I would suggest a BRS reactor for the GFO. They work very well and are easy to set up and clean. Get one for carbon too. (I prefer 2 x single reactors rather than the dual reactor - much easier to regulate flow)

[Ohioutony]

Awesome thanks