Changing salts

[james734]

i am starting to get those lil white pest things in my refuge

the body is all white with a feather duster like head, but trust me its no feather duster cause i know what those look like and there is qwite a few of them

i believe they got there from me letting alot of uneaten food get into my sump/refuge but ive solved that problem now, id just like those things to go away.

Sorry i cant get a pic, and from what youve seen of my pics you guys already know my cam is cheap and couldnt get a good close up of the Statue Of Liberty

I think there some kind of excess nutrient pest anemone, not the red anemone kind, but the white kind!!!yawll know what im talking about!!!!

Does it look like this?
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/photos_corals/showphoto.php?photo=622

I'm trying to get a idea of what you might be seeing.

 

[krisfal]

Or do they look like this?
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/photos_corals/showphoto.php?photo=634

These are pretty common in newer tanks, and tend to go away as the tank ages. I had a lot of them in both my tanks a few months after they were started, but they have gone away, for the most part, without any extraordinary action on my part.

 

[NaH2O]

trillyen - your RO/DI should be completely stripped of everything. Here's is the reading assignment you asked for! lolol Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Systems to Purify Tap Water for Reef Aquaria

This quote is from the above article, regarding pH of RO/DI

Aside from the issues discussed above concerning the effluent’s pH when the DI resin becomes depleted, the final pH coming out of an RO/DI system should not significantly concern reef aquarists. Many aquarists with low pH problems have asked, for example, if their aquarium’s low pH may be caused by their replacing evaporated water with RO/DI water that they measure to have a pH below 7. In short, the answer is no, this is not a cause of low pH nor is it something to be generally concerned about, for the following reasons:

1. The pH of totally pure water is around 7 (with the exact value depending on temperature). As carbon dioxide from the atmosphere enters the water, the pH drops into the 6’s and even into the 5’s, depending on the amount of CO2. At saturation with the level of CO2 in normal (outside) air, the pH would be about 5.66. Indoor air often has even more CO2, and the pH can drop a bit lower, into the 5’s. Consequently, the pH of highly purified water coming from an RO/DI unit is expected to be in the pH 5-7 range.

2. The pH of highly purified water is not accurately measured by test kits, or by pH meters. There are several different reasons for this, including the fact that highly purified water has very little buffering capacity, so its pH is easily changed. Even the acidity or basicity of a pH test kit’s indicator dye is enough to alter pure water’s measured pH. As for pH meters, the probes themselves do not function well in the very low ionic strength of pure freshwater, and trace impurities on them can swing the pH around quite a bit.

3. The pH of the combination of two solutions does not necessarily reflect the average (not even a weighted average) of their two pH values. The final pH of a mixture may actually not even be between the pH’s of the two solutions when combined. Consequently, adding pH 7 pure water to pH 8.2 seawater may not even result in a pH below 8.2, but rather might be higher than 8.2 (for complex reasons relating to the acidity of bicarbonate in seawater vs. freshwater).

 

[NaH2O]

oops - I also wanted to ask if the little feather duster type things....do they look like white aiptasia, or do they have a hard tube?

 

[HarleyDude]

As NaH2O said, your RO/DI water should be stripped of everything and your pH should be neutral (7.0) and as the article states it can change based on CO2 over time. Aeration and water movement should increase the pH over time - I do this will all my buckets. Do you have a TDS meter hooked up to your RO unit? TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) is a meter you can get, for about $25 or so, that will show you the amount in ppm's of TDS in your water. TDS is a combination of everything in your water - e.g. chloramine, calcium, etc. The RO/DI strips the water of all the good and bad so you can start at ground zero. Then you add what you want. The TDS meter is good to have as it will alert you when a component of your RO/DI system starts to get worn, e.g. your DI resins wearing out.

As I stated before, I would stick with IO for your salt unless there is a very good reason for change - so your thoughts are good there. Reef Crystals and IO are owned by the same company, but I believe that was through acquisition (I might be mistaken). Yes, it may have higher Ca, but if I remember from Eric Borneman's & Kim Lowe's research on salt there were a lot more differences from these two salts than Ca.

 

[MAGDRL Mom]

when I first saw pineapple sponges in my fuge and sump I panicked - just knew I had some terrible infestation of hydroids. We live and learn.

 

[trillyen]

Hey what up peeps, i been away for a while

my lil white things dont look anything like the links you showed me, they have a base that like a head comes out of, its not a feather duster thing i know thoughs

its a pest and its white ill get a pic tonight i found out how to work my camera better!!!

thanks for the home work NAh20 i havent had time to do much of anything lateley but ill give it a look this weekend

thanks on the article also, and yes i do have a tds meter i do need to check my water i know its about time for a di thing cause its almost all brown

They look like white aptasia NAH20, but the base is fatter and the tentacles aint as long.

thanks!!!!