Treating Top off Water

[soriano]

Have been reading some posts on ATO holding tanks and the possibility of PO4 being released in the holding tank due to uncleaned conatiners/bins.

Assuming one has a GFO+carbon reactor - has anyone thought of running ATO line to an functioning GFO/Carbon reactor chain?
I was thinking of placing a T on the 'in' line of my GFO and Carbon reactor chain and having ATO water run through the GFO and Carbon before hitting the tank... (I would obviously install a check valve on the RO line to prevent back flow of the already running reactor).

Thoughts on if this would work or if it's worth it...?

 

[Pat24601]

Hmm. I can see where you are coming from, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone even talk about it.

 

[DaveK]

Why not just clean your ATO holding tank? Typically you use RO/DI water in an ATO tank, so it really shouldn't contain any PO4.

While I have heard of containers releasing PO4, it's usually with new containers. If your in doubt, treat the container, especially a new one, to a salt soak. Fill it with FW and use rock salt, since it's cheep, to make a brine solution and let the container soak for a few days. That should leach out most bad stuff in the container. Drain the container, rinse with FW and you should be good to go.

Also, you can test for PO4 in the ATO water. If you don't get a reading, you don't have a problem.

I don't think it would be worth the change to run the ATO water through the GFO and carbon first. Even in a very large system your going to add only a few gallons of ATO water a day to it. Since the water is now in your system, it's going to go through the GFO and carbon anyway. No need to set up special for that.

 

[saintsreturn]

My feelings are with Dave. I would not see the value in converting your setup, especially since it will not fix the actual problem (assuming there is one).

The only issue I have ever encountered with ATO water is with the refugium light on my clear containers. This has been resolved as I have removed my refugium and just run a sump now.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[soriano]

cleaning the ATO tank would be always be #1, i was thinking more for redundancy

 

[DaveK]

If you using RO/DI water and it'd working You really are noit going to have a problem there. If your still in doubt get an inline tds meter for your ro unilt and if you see a reading of 0 or 1 you don't have a problem. An inline tds meter is a lot less expensive than a GFO and Carbon reactor, and it gives you more information.

 

[SantaMonica]

New plastic bins have a mold release still on them, which is organic and decomposes. Just clean them first with some soap, then alcohol, then vinegar, then rinse several times.