6 days of working w/ATO water

madlynb

madlynb

madtaz
My last thread mentioned that my salinity in my 125 gal. was at 1.038. I checked it today, it is 1.036. I have been mixing 1 gal. tank water w/3gal RODI water for my top off. In the meantime, all my snails have died. My fish are still okay. Algae is showing on my LR, sand, back wall, side walls of tank. I turned off my halides two days ago. The only lights I left on are my actinic. They are on 8:00 am. to 10PM. My refuge is indicating some growth from the chaeto. I see coralline algae growth along w/algae in the refuge. Here are my water parameters:
Nitrate: side view of vial: 5
top side view of vial: 2
Nitrite: 0
Phosphate: 0.03
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 80.8
pH: 8.26
Am I going along okay w/lowering the salinity slowly? Anything more I can do to stop my tank from having the "green" hue it has? I know "patience", just want to know where I stand right now. Are these readings looking promising?:frustrat::bowdown::question:
 
As the resident king of hair algae cultivation, I am struggling with some of the same issues as you. The salinity not so much, but the algae growth was really out of hand. There were a couple of things I did to keep this in check and it seems to be good for now. My hair algae was so think I was removing by the handful.

1. Dead spots or low flow areas. I had areas that were not getting a lot of flow because of my rockwork design and my powerhead placement. Make sure your rockwork is as open as possible as to let the water flow around it as much as possible. I have two powerheads on the sides at the bottom pointing at the base of the rock to eliminate any low flow areas. I also had a bunch of rock rubble in my sump creating dead spots in there also. Not a good thing. It was trapping a bunch of crap down there which created a nitrate spike when it got stirred up.

2. Water changes. I did a couple of large water changes (35 gallon) (vacuuming the sand in the process) a few days on a row which reduced the green hue and will also help bring your salinity in line.

3. Be proactive. I waited and waited for things to get better but nothing changed for the better. Only worse. It took two of us about 4 hours to pull all of the rocks and coral. Pull out most of the sand (it was about 3", now is about 3/4 to 1"). Scrub all of the rocks in saltwater to remove the algae, and redo the rock work looser. And after all of that I added 2 more power heads and possible will be adding a third. Now when I see any sign of algae on the sand I vacuum it out right away.

4. Clean up crew. Most of my clean up crew had died off and I wasn't aware of it. I have since added 85 hermits of various species and a dozen mexican turbo snails and a spiny urchin. Seems to be doing the trick.

There is a ton of other stuff to worry about, halide bulb age, ph level (yours looks good but could be a little higher), running phosphate remover, more agressive clean up crew and on and on. I can gaurentee you this, this problem will not go away on its own.
 
I run an oversized UV in my 150gal. I have no problems ever with hair algae or any other green kinds. Don't know if that's why or not though. I got it to fight ick and parasites on fish. That works very well at least for me. I haven't had a single fish get sick at least from that.
 
a ulta violet light. There are several ways to install them. Mine is part of my canister filter. There is also one called a submariner that goes in the tank most are put inline on return from the sump. One of the most popular is the turbo twist. It essential zapps anything in the water when it passes the bulb. Algae, parasites and such. It will kill good bacteria as well but that is mostly in your live rock not free floating. here is a link talking about them. UV Sterilization - What Is It, and How Are UV Sterilizers Used in Saltwater Aquariums
 
What do you mean by free floating algae? I don't consider mine hair algae. Just a slight covering on LR, back and side walls of DT and sand. I am not completely convinced about the purpose of UV for algae control.
 
Just like everything in this hobby it can be a hot topic. I mainly got mine to help when I got ick. The free floating algae kill was a side benefit. At the moment mine isnt even turned on. I am trying to cultivate some base rock into live rock for the nano build. So any free floating bacteria im trying to get into the new rock. However I do know of people who had a "green tank outbreak" and the skimmer couldnt keep up with it. They put on a uv and in two days tank was clear. Just is another option if you are having algae problems. I know your main issue is salinity the only thing to me that would work on that would be to increase water changes like you are doing. Unfortunately you have to do that slow. Anyway was just a option :D
 
Got to admit, I am getting antsy to get my tank going. I was recently looking through old pix with my tank all pretty with coral and beautiful LR in it. It made me sad! Should I mix more than 1 gallon of tank water w/3 gallons of RODI for my ATO? I have a 5 gallon bucket that I use for my ATO.
 
how much are you loosing to evap each day?

also, if your adding any salt to the ato water, then your adding that salt into the tank, and remember the only time you are removing salt from the tank is when you remove water, so i wouldnt personally have any salt in my ato.

i would probably also remove something between 1/2 and 1 gallon each day and dump it, just so that you are actually removing a little salt.. that will also help bring down the concentration.
 
I lose close to 5 gallons of ATO in 1-1/2 days. And I will start pulling out 1 gallon of DT water, tossing it and just adding ATO. Thanks!!!
 
i don't understand the mixing of tank water with RO/DI water for top off.... there seems to be confusion with that.

your top off water should contain NO salt whatsoever. as tank water evaporates, it leave behind the salt, so all you are doing is replacing the lost RO/DI that is evaporating. simply pour straight RO/DI into the tank.
 
OK, now I am really getting impatient. I tested my salinity today and it is still 1.037. Please let me know if I am okay to do a 13 gallon water change. So, I would remove 13 gal from DT. Mix up new saltwater. When I mix up the new saltwater am I looking for it to test at 1.026? Am I to be concerned about the water remaining in DT and its salinity before adding new saltwater? HELP!!!!
 
I would recommend doing a 5 gallon water removal and replacing it with RODI only water every 2-3 days until your salinity gets down where it should be.
 
Your salinity is too high and its killing things. I do not see any reason at all to put salt water in the ATO reservoir --use fresh water only. If you remove tank water to speed up the lowering of salinity then test salnity several times a day to ensure it doesn't get lowered to fast.
 

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