Effects of a high TDS

EyeReef · Aug 3, 2007

Ive trying desperately to find out whats going on with some of my sps. Ones affected are my soli and its frags and torts(cali, bennet). The soli started to stn a week ago and still had a fair amount of flesh left with extended polyps. The tips of the torts are dying and barely any polyp extension. I think the primary suspect is the alk swing that shot the levels down from 11 to 9. Its consistent at 9 now. I did a 15 gallon water change with tm salt mix yesterday and was planning to do one again today. I measured the TDS reading of the water it its 105 ppm!! I use this water to top off also. Do you guys think this could be affecting the sps?

Im planning to do some water changes with NSW from scripps today.

nahtanoj · Aug 3, 2007

that is really low, isn't it? i think scripps is your best bet. when i switched to NSW i noticed a huge improvement in overall health of my tank. especially in the fish. they were more active and more colorful. so i've stuck with it.

nahtanoj · Aug 3, 2007

the 105ppm is on the DI water? thats bad.

EyeReef · Aug 3, 2007

DUh stupid me...
I dumped the Ro/di water into a bucket which already contained residue of saltwater from the previous water change and that. The true reading of the water is 20 ppm.. Which im sure is still unacceptable for Sps.

Saltwater is better then mix water? I never really knew the answer to that. It seems like all the TOTM uses mixed saltwater and awhile back when i was using NSW some one said I could get a lot better color if I switch to mixed. Any case, im sure theres a lot of variable to my unhealthy corals. I did delay the change of the phosban by a month while during that time I added more fish.

nahtanoj · Aug 3, 2007

i think the NSW vs. mixed SW is a never ending debate. all opinion, the mixed SW makers will of course say there artificial is better than the real thing, cause its scientifically made to be better. but in nature the NSW seems to do just fine. i noticed a difference. NSW being the better of the two, IMO.

EyeReef · Aug 3, 2007

Ive used NSW for almost all my tanks since 2003, and everything went well. The old tanks were a mix tank and I had a few sps. Just in the year or so I went hardcore sps and so I wasn't sure the effects of NSW on a pure sps tank. I couldn't recall one person with a thriving sps tank that was using NSW for water changes. I used NSW and my corals were mostly brown, since changing to NSW ive noticed an improvement on the colors. It might be other factors as well.

Anybody using NSW on a thriving sps tank?

EyeReef · Aug 3, 2007

Phosphate and alk is probably the main issues which I hoped I resolved already. Hopefully things turn around for me in the new few weeks

Nick_kun · Aug 3, 2007

wow 20ppm. What brand is your TDS meter mike? Sounds like its something that contributed to your problem.

EyeReef · Aug 3, 2007

not sure the brand gotta check later...Ive been toping off with my old RO unit which reads 20 ppm for a long time now..no ill effect...so im hoping its not a problem now

Nick_kun · Aug 3, 2007

You should get a quality RO/DI system like the spectrapure that EricF is selling. That's what cyberguy is using and he doesn't do water changes in his tank. It goes from 50ppm from tap and once it reaches the out flow its 0.

EyeReef · Aug 3, 2007

I have a pretty good system by Kent...its pretty good just need to change out DI portion

Nick_kun · Aug 3, 2007

man this system is soo sweet.

Effects of a high TDS

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