Where is all this TDS coming from!?

[Stephane Cote]

Hey all.

maybe you guys can help me shed some light on something i cannot seem to put my finger on.

i still have brown sand, (after over 1 year) and im fighting brownish algea(IMO). I have my nitrates to 0, and my phos is undetectable. I have a reactor running that takes out silicates and phosphates (rowsphos or something).

on my RO unit i have a dual TDS meter.. in shows 0.03-0.05 to out 0.00.

Even though i have "0" i was still suspicious as i still have brown sand even with reg water changes... so i purchased a small reg TDS meter. I started filtering water and after a few minutes i tested the water in the bucket. 000. Excellent. I tested my other stored bucket (done the day before) and it showed 023. I dumped the water.

when my fill up bucket was about half way, i tested again, and saw 010. thinking my filters are in need of replacement i put a class to capture the filtering water and tested that.. 000.

is it really my plastic buckets causing all of this? if so, how do i get around that? i obviously cannot filter water directly into the tank.

thanks

Steph

 

[DianaKay]

If I thought my water holding container was contaminating my RO-Di water, I would replace it ASAP.
What brand of plastic bucket are you using?
It does seem a little strange to me that your TDS meter reads that much difference that quickly

 

[sirrealism]

Sure sounds like your bucket is leaching. What kind of buckets do you have? I am with Diana on this. If there was a chance my storage containers where leaching I would get different ones right away. I have a couple food grade 55g drums and a 90g water storage container. The 90 is made for water storage. The 55s can be bought off of Craigs list most anywhere and works great.

 

[blackbeltmom]

Marc Levenson spoke to our reef club Saturday. He spoke on this exact thing. It is probably not that your container is leaching, it is that you need to clean your water containers at least once a year or you will get TDS readings like this. He recommends cleaning it muriatic acid. I think he also said you could use bleach and water.

 

[Stephane Cote]

Hey guys, sorry for the late reply i was really busy the last few days. Im using Home Depot regular clear buckets.

I did what Black explained. I used bleach to clean one bucket and rinced it well. I filled it with RO and readings show 0 TDS. so it was just the fact that they were dirty i suppose. Good to know i have to really clean them out every so often

thanks everyone

Steph