Could it be rust?

[WABlonde]

We did a partial water change on our display last week. About 15 gallons for the 75. Scrubbed some of the algae off of one of our big rocks but really didn't disturb much else. Rinsed out the skimmer cups and also rinsed out the fluval. All normal stuff that we've not had problems from in the past. Water perameters were all good before and after change (heat, salinity, ammonia, PH, Nitrates and Nitrites which are the only things we can test for).

Fish were all breathing pretty hard for the remainder of the night and clowns were basically sticking in one spot and not moving around. Corals all looked like crud and we lost our precious Steve over night. :'(

We're sitting here going back trying to figure out what the heck went wrong. We did use a mix of RO water as well as some tap that had been sitting out (never had an issue with our tap in the past and is what we primarily use in our QT tank).

Norm had a thought this morning and I wanted to run it past the forum members to see what they thought. Our RO machine is currently hooked up to our hot water. Wasteful, I know... and it will be changed soonish - was the only thing we could easily access when we first set it up. And norm mentioned when mixing water the other night, he used some hot water from the tap.

Our hot water furnace is 20+ years old. Is there a chance that our recent troubles could be rust from the HW tank? We've also had a problem with LOW ph from the RO machine.. He suggested maybe rust would explain the low PH?

Discuss nicely please - it's a frustrating situation. Thanks.

 

[sandswhitson]

I don't know what caused your issues after the water change but hot water will ruin the DI cartridge very fast if you are running an RO/DI unit. I have also read that hot water tanks do contain more heavy metals than cold water sources.

 

[jrgilles]

As said, hot water is not good for the RO filters. It could also take what is on the filters and put it back into solution (ie. in your RO water.) If the filters were old, you could have taken a lot of crap that built up on them and added it to your tank.

Also, when talking to thefilterguys.com, they said tap water is not constant. Seatte they said is very good, but it seems that once or twice a year it has a spike of some bad stuff. Don't really remember more than that though, sorry.

A little iron in the tank shouldn't be a big issue, which is probably all you would be getting if the water looked normal. Some people actually dose iron (according to google.)

Maybe there is a spike of chlorine or chloramines? You could put in a bit of chlorine/ammonia remover? See what other people think about that

 

[Slate]

I don't personally know enough to link the rust to your problems (not sure what all ions hurt our tanks). However, when you run water that hot through your RO/DI you will encounter some problems. Heating water reduces the surface tension which will make it pass through your RO/DI unit much faster than intended which could affect how it removes the stuff you don't want in your tank. Another thing to consider is that the warmer the water the lower the disolved oxygen content it can have. So if it comes out hot and isn't properly aerated over night it could have extremely low oxygen levels (probably would only matter if you did a good sized water change). Another scary thought is that your hot water heater may be connected with copper pipe and if your DI did get damaged and wasn't catching all the copper ions that may be affecting the corals and stressing the fish aswell. I would run a hose from a cold water source for the time being and try to make some new saltwater up for water changes asap.

 

[Krish]

Sorry to hear Sarah . From what I was told by a buddy of mine who worked at Premium Aquatics, he said that he was told a little rust is good as it works like a phosphate remover. We'll have to get Boomer to confirm that. Pretty tough situation as I never used an ro/di filter as I buy my ro/di water. Hope you get it sorted out.

 

[the6goat6man6]

Sorry to hear about your troubles.
I agree with all above. For 15 gals to effect it like that, sounds like something was very bad, maybe leaching toxins through your RO membrain?
I would replace your membrains before using it again. And switch to cold water. Running extra carbon may help.
Can you get water from a trusted source to help for now, if it's your water, export is the best. I used Distilled water for 8months before I got my RO/DI, Actually was better than Boxed ocean water. Walmart has distilled for 83cents.

 

[BackwerdsMan]

Hot water heaters are not a good thing to use. I didnt run it through an RO. But I used to have a 100 gallon freshwater Frontosa tank. When I moved I used the drain in the hot water heater at the new place to mix some hot water with the ice cold tap water, because they had been in buckets for a long while. I went to bed, woke up in the morning and all my Frontosas were dead.

That's when I took a 3 year hiatus from tank keeping. My reef is the first one since.

 

[WABlonde]

Thanks guys. The RO unit is new and we've at best probably only used 50 gallons from it. So I'm hoping the cartridges aren't toast yet. If so, they'll need to wait to be replaced as this hobby has sucked all of my free money from the bank already.

 

[the6goat6man6]

You can test the nitrate or such before ro and after, then compare to see if they are still good. Assuming you don't have a TDS meter.

 

[Cwazy Clown]

Funny, I had this exact problem TWICE.

For me, the issue was ammonia spike from disturbing the sand/rocks. I just gave it some time and my clown was back to full health in a few days.