What to make of poly filter changing to a dark red in about 30 minutes?

[Dylan McKenzie Holloway]

Update: So my tank was doing a little better this morning after the water change yesterday. Today I added more carbon and modified my reactor to run a lot more water through it with out the carbon moving around. Just checked on the tank again this evening and seems like it's going back down hill a little. I am planning on doing another 20% water change tomorrow as well as add another poly filter. The one I had in there from last week hasn't gotten as red as the first one so maybe it is still doing something, but I will replace it tomorrow.

I do have a question about my RO/DI unit. its a 4 stage 75 gallon per day unite from marine depot. I have had it running for about a year and a half all on the same filters. I never really thought to replace the filters because the water has always lowered down to 0 ppm. The di resin has only slightly changed color near the bottom, and the sediment filter is still pretty white. I am on city water, not sure if that helps. My question is though, Could their still be stuff coming through my RO/DI system even reading 0 ppm for TDS?

Also I think I found the source of my pink pigments. I am feeding my tang green ocean nutrition nori and heard of red nori turning skimmer pink. I took a small piece in a little tank water and it turned a little pink over an hour or two. I am currently soaking another piece in tank water from my other tank to see if it will turn that water pink, or if the other water just turned pink over time.

Any advice on the RO unit would be cool.

Thanks, Dylan.

 

[old salt reefer]

Well now that you found what the pink color is,how do I put this--let's say you have a car that runs great,you put a supercharger on it, a new high energy coil and new injectors. Now the car runs like crap which one of the things you put on are causing that? Now if you would have put just one of those things on at a time you'd know which one caused the problem.
You've done a lot of water changes, after I do water changes my corals don't like it. You proably have lowered your Nitrate and PO4 to zero. I'd say quit feeding the pink food and leave everything alone and see what happens. Give it a couple of days. You been doing so much for so many days I know my coral and anemones would be mad. What do they say--stability.

 

[VA5]

Did not read all comments do if anyone mentioned this sorry. Do you use a pheric product for phosphates? The small granulated get out easily.

 

[Dylan McKenzie Holloway]

Did not read all comments do if anyone mentioned this sorry. Do you use a pheric product for phosphates? The small granulated get out easily.

I do not. The only thing that I had in my tank before all this happened was a small marine pure block that I used to start the tank, and a bag of activated carbon. Since then I had added chemipure blue at the advice of my LFS, purigen which is now pink, and a few poly filters that are now red.

 

[laverda]

After reading your thread it seems that water changes may be making the problem worse some how. Have you checked for chlorine/chloramines in your RO/DI water? You can get cheap chlorine test kits at Home depot or Lowe's in the pool dept.

 

[FEED ME ZOAS]

Any updates on this pink water situation?

 

[Dylan McKenzie Holloway]

Any updates on this pink water situation?

No real update other than I slowed the water changes down and I have kept cycling purigen and poly filters. Been doing half a poly filter a day. They are still turning red, but taking a little longer each time. No idea what it is pulling out, but my coral do not like it. I did do a chemiclean treatment so I know that it isn't cyano turning it pink.

 

[FEED ME ZOAS]

No real update other than I slowed the water changes down and I have kept cycling purigen and poly filters. Been doing half a poly filter a day. They are still turning red, but taking a little longer each time. No idea what it is pulling out, but my coral do not like it. I did do a chemiclean treatment so I know that it isn't cyano turning it pink.

This is very weird. Have you check all equipment touching the water for corrosion? Looked in and around rocks /sump for something that shouldn't be in the tank? Any exposed metals anywhere? I'll put some time into researching this today and let you know if I come up with anything.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

This is very weird. Have you check all equipment touching the water for corrosion? Looked in and around rocks /sump for something that shouldn't be in the tank? Any exposed metals anywhere? I'll put some time into researching this today and let you know if I come up with anything.

I think it is a planktonic organism (like a cyanobacteria) rather than a corrosion product.

 

[FEED ME ZOAS]

I think it is a planktonic organism (like a cyanobacteria) rather than a corrosion product.

Maybe so. I'm not super well versed in the microbiology of reef tanks beyond the surface level. My only thought is to altogether stop feeding the algae he mentioned can turn red and see if the red stops but the problem persists. I'm wondering if it's not a red herring (no pun intended) and possibly unrelated to the coral's stress.