Ro water setup

[Foxpuppet]

could it be the calibration of TDS pen?

[jayc]

Calibration of the TDS pen would just affect the reading. It might be off, but it will be constant, if TDS is not increasing.

150 to 200 ppm is definitely not a calibration issue.

Daniel,

you removed a rock which was the suspect.

Did you remove all of it? ie. did small, brittle pieces fall off it back into the substrate?

Did you figure out what type of rock it was? Limestone perhaps?

Those can be brittle in water, and fine particles can drop off back into the tank/substrate.

This will continue to leech minerals into the water thus increasing TDS.

What pH is your water, is that constant?

[CNgo2006]

Ph can be explained by the rock pushing it up' date=' but the soil buffering it down. By removing the rock the soil is able to do its job and buffer to 6+.[/quote']

yes but it would not have buffered that quickly right? look at the post times there is no way it could have buffered that quickly (if I read correctly he was sitting on ph 7.6)...and what about the tds drop? How without doing a water change will it drop?

I would check the filter media and do tests on them as I remember I was using some ceramic noodles that was pushing up my ph.

[DG17]

Is your carbon in the filter seachem carbon matrix? This will raise ph 100% it even says it on the box that it can rair demineralised water to no higher than a ph of 7.

As for TDS, do you have mineral balls in the tank maybe or are you supplimenting with fertilizers or anything like that for plants?

[Hughes78]

Hi squiggled white filter there are no ornaments in the tank. The media is a course sponge , matrix , couple of handfuls of eheim pro ,purigen and white filter sponge. Running a eheim 2213 filter the only other thing in tank is a ceramic disk with stainless mesh for moss ( java in at the moment) and some grass things. Substrate is black earth premium and a bag of benibachi super powder.

[Hughes78]

I am not dosing with any ferts but was using seachem stability to help cycle tank . But stopped that a couple of days ago . I also took out the carbon this morning but it was a no name brand carbon from a bulk supplier. Just done a 30 lt water change as tds was 227 when I got home and is now 160 so ill see in a couple of hours if it goes up.

[Hughes78]

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[Hughes78]

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[Hughes78]

Sorry about the pics now I know what way to have the iPhone for pics

[Hughes78]

Yeah they are still increasing not as bad though could this be from not fin cycling

[Hughes78]

Well they are back at 210 not sure what to do next ???

[Hughes78]

Are you suppose to rinse the benibachi before use as I have noticed that my heater has a dust like substance on it? Or is the canister to strong for the tank and disturbing the powder? It's a eheim 2213 on a standard 2 ft tank? As seen in the pic it has a sponge filter over the pickup and I've drilled out the spray bar a little .

[Hughes78]

The plants have some thin black hair algae on them could this do it ?

[Squiggle]

Are you suppose to rinse the benibachi before use as I have noticed that my heater has a dust like substance on it? Or is the canister to strong for the tank and disturbing the powder? It's a eheim 2213 on a standard 2 ft tank? As seen in the pic it has a sponge filter over the pickup and I've drilled out the spray bar a little .

Definitely do not rinse the soil before use, you wash all the good stuff out of the soil, the powder you see on you heater is normal & is what helps buff your PH.

I can't help but think it may be something inside the canister, you'll have to put some of each of the substrates in a jar & measure the TDS over different periods of time & see what's causing it. :encouragement:

[Hughes78]

Thanks this makes sense , as the eheim pro is about 3 yrs old and was from my cichlid tank could this be it??

[blindfisherman]

Is there any coral or anything in the filter to buffer the water when you had cichlids?

[Hughes78]

I did have Texas holy rock in buts that's all

[Hughes78]

I have taken the eheim pro out and put some in a glass . The ro water in glass was 13 ppm ( without substrate) then put substrate in glass and went straight to 22. The only things left in canister are matrix and purigen both brand new.

[jayc]

Eheim substrate pro again. If this is raising tds, that will be the third time I've heard it doing that this year.

Becoming a bit of a trend. Maybe new formulation is not as good?

[Hughes78]

Oh this is the first I've heard of it I thought it was good stuff but mine is 3 yrs old might be to old and I didn't rinse before I put it in , thinking it is this if so I will need to get some more matrix for canister as its only half full now . Should I use anything else besides matrix and purigen in the canister??

[Squiggle]

What Cichlids did you have? The texas holy rock will raise the PH, KH & probably the TDS too, I think the rocks have had an effect on the substrate in your filter & it has absorbed some of the minerals from the rock. :encouragement:

[jayc]

Well maybe not a trend, but certain heard of this 3 times now. For media that is supposed to be inert and not alter water chemistry, that's too often.

[Hughes78]

Ill do a water change tonight after work and see what happens , but interesting that the tds in the glass went from 13 to over 20 in only 5 mins ... IntInteresting as for the holy rock I didn't even think of this , the cichlids I had were gold and green Severums , angels, red horse face , clown loaches and a gold spot pleco. They were all over 20cm huge fish

[jayc]

Texas holey rock is perfect for those fish as the rock makes the water hard and alkaline.

It's not preferred by shrimp unfortunately.

If you do another water change, maybe do a gravel vacuum, to see if you can get out "stuff" that might be in the gravel that is increasing TDS. Might as well. Instead of just syphoning out clear clean water, get some detritus out, since that increases TDS as well.

[Squiggle]

I wouldn't recommend siphoning the gravel because you said you have Black Earth Premium so I'm guessing you've replaced the gravel since the Cichlids were in the tank & you don't want to remove all the buffing powder & minerals from the shrimp/plant substrate. Also I'm guessing that there wouldn't be much detritus in the soil since you said you've only just cycled the tank. I would look at replacing the substrate in your filter, most substrates only last a couple of years anyway so it would be good to get a fresh start in your canister, don't replace it all at once though, you want to keep some of the bacteria to seed the new substrate, once this is done then replace the last of the old stuff. :victorious: