Hi Randy,
I have several large systems that have problems with excessive algae and dinoflagellates. I have (4) 500 gallon systems ((15) 30 gallon tanks plus sump) with 2 small clownfish and one small bubble tip in each of the 30 gallon tanks that are target fed just a couple of pellets a day (like 4-5 tiny new life spectrum pellets) with anything missed immediately siphoned out. Every tank is covered in dinos and algae. The systems are setup to have a constant trickle of roughly 20 gallons each of freshly made seawater daily and are heavily skimmed with Orca Pro2 skimmers.
Ive been having a battle with my RODI company about the levels of phosphate in our DI water. They are under the impression that there is no way that there is phosphate getting past their system, but I am detecting almost 0.2 when testing for it. They claim that there must be an error in my testing. The massive amount of algae and dinos coupled with the tiny amount of food and large exchanges of water seems to contradict their claim, but I would like to verify my testing procedures as I know there can be errors when testing RODI.
I use a HACH 3900 spectrophotometer and the reactive phosphate reagent. I test both straight RODI and I also make up a fresh batch of seawater in a sterile container that has been acid washed and test that as a comparison. They do differ slightly.
My question is, am I using the correct test, and would this be an appropriate method to test for phosphates in the RODI? Do I need to do something different?
I have read your articles about phosphate in RODI and I do agree that food is probably the major source of phosphates in most cases. I know that topping off tanks with this water probably isnt a big deal, but wouldnt setting up a system with elevated water and constantly changing water with elevated phosphates be a problem? We can pull out enough algae that it exceeds the total biomass of the tanks by several times on a weekly basis and it still look like we hardly made a dent. I even have planted freshwater tanks with one fish using this RODI that are being overrun with algae
Thanks in advance.
I have several large systems that have problems with excessive algae and dinoflagellates. I have (4) 500 gallon systems ((15) 30 gallon tanks plus sump) with 2 small clownfish and one small bubble tip in each of the 30 gallon tanks that are target fed just a couple of pellets a day (like 4-5 tiny new life spectrum pellets) with anything missed immediately siphoned out. Every tank is covered in dinos and algae. The systems are setup to have a constant trickle of roughly 20 gallons each of freshly made seawater daily and are heavily skimmed with Orca Pro2 skimmers.
Ive been having a battle with my RODI company about the levels of phosphate in our DI water. They are under the impression that there is no way that there is phosphate getting past their system, but I am detecting almost 0.2 when testing for it. They claim that there must be an error in my testing. The massive amount of algae and dinos coupled with the tiny amount of food and large exchanges of water seems to contradict their claim, but I would like to verify my testing procedures as I know there can be errors when testing RODI.
I use a HACH 3900 spectrophotometer and the reactive phosphate reagent. I test both straight RODI and I also make up a fresh batch of seawater in a sterile container that has been acid washed and test that as a comparison. They do differ slightly.
My question is, am I using the correct test, and would this be an appropriate method to test for phosphates in the RODI? Do I need to do something different?
I have read your articles about phosphate in RODI and I do agree that food is probably the major source of phosphates in most cases. I know that topping off tanks with this water probably isnt a big deal, but wouldnt setting up a system with elevated water and constantly changing water with elevated phosphates be a problem? We can pull out enough algae that it exceeds the total biomass of the tanks by several times on a weekly basis and it still look like we hardly made a dent. I even have planted freshwater tanks with one fish using this RODI that are being overrun with algae
Thanks in advance.