The Importance of Cleaning your RO and Salt Water holding tanks!

Pawlu

Pawlu

Member
Ok so I thought I would share this tip, many advanced hobbyist's might already know it, however considering I now have 1 year of reef keeping experience and have read countless articles, I never came across this topic.

This all started as I decided to ramp up my efforts and eliminate the GHA and Cyno outbreak that has been plaguing my tank for a while. The original cause of the outbreak was due to several mistakes I made and no real big mystery. However despite the several positive changes I made, the algae, though greatly reduced lingers on.

So I decided to double check the quality of my RO water, I have an inline TDS meter which still reads 0, which is why I always assumed the water was pure. I took a sample of the water coming out from the RO clean discharge line with my hand held TDS meter and still got a zero reading. I then placed the TDS meter directly into the holding tank and the readings were off the chart. Off the chart meaning > 330! :banghead:, I had to triple check to make sure my hand held meter was not malfunctioning, it wasn't.

I then grabbed a strong light and shined it down the RO tank (Brute 15 gallon food grade) and noticed a slime build up on the walls, pump and hose. I drained all the water and used a paper towel to wipe down the sides, a brown, reddish slime showed up on the paper towel. The tank also had a strange small, not bad, but not right either. I am assuming this slime build up is in fact some sort of algae, why the high TDS readings I do not know. All I know is that 5 hours later, after thoroughly cleaning out the holding tank with water and vinegar, drying it out and replenishing my RO reserve, my TDS readings are back down to zero inside the tank.

I also went ahead and dumped all my salt water (inside another Brute container), it was made with the previously contaminated RO water, and who knows how long this has been going on for, possibly months. The salt container had a brown build up too (some of which I originally assumed to be left over from the salt mixture), the bottom also had hard salt deposits that needed a good scrubbing.

The end result was that I was dumping bad water into the display tank through my water changes as well as through my ATO. It is safe to assume that this red, brown sludge is phosphate rich and the GHA must be loving it.

After this experience I will be cleaning out those tanks once a month , I had never cleaned them up before.
 
Pawlu

Pawlu

Member
Yes it was however, I often keep it open to remind me to shut off the water supply as I do not like to rely on the float switch all the time. It also has small holes on the side but not enough to run any light through it. I would say that 80% of the time it was closed. It is also not in an area of any natural light, dark corner in the basement.
 
Pawlu

Pawlu

Member
@Fishdad1, no do not have any circulation in the RO holding tank, just in the salt holding tank, I keep it moving all the time.
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I bleach my holding tank about once a year. It gets a bacterial slime on it and eventually it clogs the small line that feeds my tank
 
Pawlu

Pawlu

Member
Paul B said:
I bleach my holding tank about once a year. It gets a bacterial slime on it and eventually it clogs the small line that feeds my tank
Click to expand...

What ratio of bleach to water do you use? And do you clean with tap water? Thanks
 
L

larrypueblo

Member
I clean mine every couple of months with bleach and hot water I use half a cup of bleach 15 gallons just tap water and even run it thru my pumps and wash the heater to kill the slime doesn't do any good to clean the ro and salt water holding tanks if the pumps and heater are still gross rinse really good the set them out side to dry in sun then rinse again and start refilling!
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
What ratio of bleach to water do you use? And do you clean with tap water? Thanks
Click to expand...

I just pour in a cup or so of Regular Clorox and leave it for an hour or two, then rinse it with tap water and dry it with some paper towels. Then I am good to go. You have to use Regular bleachn no scents or additives that make it pour easier as I know that stuff is very toxic, don't ask.
 
swissgaurd

swissgaurd

Member
I usually give mine a scrub down with water then vinegar then rinse.
I found this out the hard way as I fought a redslime outbreak and noticed I had a black algae growing in my holding container,
 
Choff

Choff

Well-Known Member
Interesting. I just changed out my blue barrels for white ones after 9 mo of service. My SW barrel had brown sludge, but my RO barrel was clean. I bought a handheld tds Meter for this very reason. To check the barrels and to verify the inline tds Meter. Is your RO water always 0 tds going in?

...stupid auto correct
 
PSU4ME

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
This is the reason I haven't gone to big mixing/holding barrels. Like Vic, I give mine a vinegar soak about every two months as my SW mixing always get build up. I don't get algae cause I dry it.

Might be worth adding a small uv if you have an enclosed barrel.
 
wscttwolfe

wscttwolfe

Active Member
So did this solve your GHA/cyano problem?

Reason i'm asking is because I'm wondering if we know that a 300 tds reading due to "slime" in your container is actually a bad thing. Obviously 300 tds out of the tap would be unacceptable.... but it seems like your TDS meter is counting little bits of freshwater "slime" (bacteria and/or algae?) as dissolved solids. Are microscopic bacteria/algae that grow in freshwater necessarily bad for reef tanks?

I'm also wondering what the slime would be growing on in your containers, since there is apparently no light, and only pure water going into the container

Just thinking out loud here...
 
Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson

Well-Known Member
I'll inject my 2 cents. First, a holding tank for RO/DI water that is covered should hold water indefinitely. RO/DI water is so aggressive that it will pull in dust out of the air or from your fingers or containers being dipped in.

Performing specific tests on pure RO/DI water (like for phosphate) are inaccurate as there are so few ions. Using a reliable handheld TDS meter is a much better way.

There is no need to aerate or move (with a pump) RO/DI water and is actually a bad thing - like pulling in dust.

DI resin will release contaminants before it is exhausted, especially weakly ionized substances like phosphates, silicates, and nitrates. Your TDS out of your DI could be higher than out of the RO because your DI is releasing stored substances.

Now, on to the saltwater mixing containers. Water comes out of your RO/DI unit with near zero dissolved oxygen. So, you will get a lot less calcium precipitation in your holding containers if you aerate or agitate, with a pump, the water for 10 - 15 minutes before you add the salt. I suggest everyone reading this try this method. You'll be shocked at the difference. No more brownish crud on the bottom. No more calcium precipitation on your pump.

This will also greatly increase the stability of your tank because some of the components aren't missing, thus keeping your salt mix at a ratio it was intended to be.

I run 25 gallons of RO/DI all at once and then shut of the inline valve. Use that water then fill it up all at one time again. You don't want your RO unit coming on for little amounts of water due to evaporation or taking a little out.

I might rinse out my RO/DI container once every six months, but it has never been dirty.

Wife saw this and said, "two cents?, that's more like a quarter."
 
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Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
My RO/Di container is many years old and although there is never any dirt in it, it builds up a bacterial slime on the walls. This is not bad and it does not have to be cleaned. I clean it almost yearly only because I empty that bucket occasionally for maintenance of the tubes and what not and while I have it empty, I clean it. But I doubt it ever really needs to be cleaned as bacterial slime is not hurting anything. I use small 1/4" tubing to keep the water level in my tank steady and eventually those small tubes become clogged with that bacteria so I run bleach through them about once a year or two. There have been times when they actually clogged from bacteria and that bacteria sometimes produce bubbles that also clog my fill system as it is small.
 
Mrsalt

Mrsalt

Active Member
PREMIUM
Mike Johnson said:
I'll inject my 2 cents. First, a holding tank for RO/DI water that is covered should hold water indefinitely. RO/DI water is so aggressive that it will pull in dust out of the air or from your fingers or containers being dipped in.

Performing specific tests on pure RO/DI water (like for phosphate) are inaccurate as there are so few ions. Using a reliable handheld TDS meter is a much better way.

There is no need to aerate or move (with a pump) RO/DI water and is actually a bad thing - like pulling in dust.

DI resin will release contaminants before it is exhausted, especially weakly ionized substances like phosphates, silicates, and nitrates. Your TDS out of your DI could be higher than out of the RO because your DI is releasing stored substances.

Now, on to the saltwater mixing containers. Water comes out of your RO/DI unit with near zero dissolved oxygen. So, you will get a lot less calcium precipitation in your holding containers if you aerate or agitate, with a pump, the water for 10 - 15 minutes before you add the salt. I suggest everyone reading this try this method. You'll be shocked at the difference. No more brownish crud on the bottom. No more calcium precipitation on your pump.

This will also greatly increase the stability of your tank because some of the components aren't missing, thus keeping your salt mix at a ratio it was intended to be.

I run 25 gallons of RO/DI all at once and then shut of the inline valve. Use that water then fill it up all at one time again. You don't want your RO unit coming on for little amounts of water due to evaporation or taking a little out.

I might rinse out my RO/DI container once every six months, but it has never been dirty.

Wife saw this and said, "two cents?, that's more like a quarter."
Click to expand...

Makes a lot of sense, and I prefer this answer so I'm going to run with it lol, cheers mike :)


http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/red-sea-max-owners-club/83315-als-red-sea-650-a.html[url]
 
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