Gilliroo Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I think we are getting ammonia leaching out of our barrels. We have two 33G barrels, one for RODI water and one for mixing saltwater. They are rubbermaid Brute barrels, and we've had them for a few months. We run the RODI into the first barrel, and use this for topping off. When we need to make saltwater, we transfer the RODI water from barrel #1 onto barrel #2, and add salt. There's a powerhead and a heater in that bucket. The water coming out of the RODI has zero tds, and no ammonia. After a few days in bucket #1, we are measuring some ammonia, and the saltwater bucket has nitrates/nitrites, but no ammonia. I presume it's cycling. What the heck is going on? We have rinsed out the buckets and wiped them down, and the problem came back a second time. What are the rest of you using for water storage/mixing? Thanks, Gillian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omarortiz Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Chloramine is my guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omarortiz Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 How many stages is your RO filter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliroo Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 Our RODI is the 5 stage BRS unit with a chloramine filter.m If it were chloramines, wouldn't the ammonia show up right away? Fresh out of the RODI, we get zero TDS and zero ammonia. Mthe ammonia only shows up after a few days in the storage barrel. So, can plastic leach ammonia? Thanks, Gillian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 It has gotta be the chloramines, the molicule is a chlorine wraped with amonia and from what i was told the amonia dosn't reliese from the chlorine for upto 48 hours and wont show up on tests till it relieses. This info could be wrong so if it is please chime in cuz I'm only going by what I was told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliroo Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 Aha. I didn't know it was a delayed release of ammonia! That makes sense. I bet our chloramine filter needs replacing. Thanks! Gillian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckeye Field Supply Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 If it were chloramines you should be seeing it right away in your DI water. It's the carbon exposure that splits the chloramine - the ammonia is removed a bit by the RO membrane, but more by the DI resin. Russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I wouldn't discount a mystery here. A good ro/di unit strips the water to near perfection. It doesn't take Much to make 0.125 ammonia that shoes up on a test. A cat marking the lids, a few drops fall in. Maybe you stuck your arm in the barrel a little less than clean. <1 ppm tds is incredibly clean. Stupidly clean. With a little something on your arm or airborne drifting into your reef, the bacteria will clean it up fast...not so in an ro /di barrel that is perfect water. My brute can of ro/di has some bacteria growing in it (you can feel a thin filmy slime on the wet surfaces, especially the tube I use for siphoning. I'm not to worried about it and my coral are still happy...maybe it helps my bacteria diversify? Sent using Forum Runner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Also, even if the chloramine block is wearing out, shouldn't the di resin pick it up? Either both are toast, or it's not chloramine Sent using Forum Runner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Electrokate Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I won the BRS ro unit at the xmas sale. It was not set up for chloramines, but the DI part was taking care of it... so I used it like that for a while. I had tested the waste water, tap water, prefiltered water, prefilter plus RO membrane water, it was not til it hit the DI that the chloramines were removed. When the prefilters got nasty I switched to the BRS chloramine specific prefilters. NO CHANGE. Is it my test kit? Swapped them for a 2nd set and chloramine is still going through. New plan is to pick up a Spectrapure DI cartridge for chloramine and slap that on there, I think Upscales has them in stock for the same price as online. Portland sells water to surrounding burbs from time to time without notice to the public, so while some days you get chlorine in the burbs others it's going to have chloramine in it. Portland also jacks up the ammonia dose on hot days since warmer water needs more, despite the fact that the water is coming out of the tap ice cold not hot. Maybe they just don't want those open reservoirs turning into greenwater? I called them, they have no system for alerting the public when the chloramine dose increases and said "People with aquariums are supposed to use special water, are you using special water? You buy it at the grocery store". Unfortunately you can't kick a customer service rep through the phone. I stopped using plastic barrels when I started using RO because I assume the super low ph of RO is more likely to leach chemicals out of the plastic, and I noticed my fish all became infertile when I started using the plastic barrel. Even freshwater. Supposedly the chemicals that soften plastic are endocrine disruptors. Previously had mixed in a hard plastic bin and had great fertility. Now am mixing in an old 30 gallon tall glass tank, it's great because I can see how slowly to add the salt and it fits nicely in a corner unlike the huge round barrel. I'd recommend a glass or acrylic tank, you can pick up some old scratched up thing and also then put a lid on it to keep pets, hair and dust out. When you mix in a glass tank you start seeing how much scary debris settles into the water, possibly feeding bacteria. Oh also never overlook the possibility of random cat behaviors, someone on the forum had this problem and was mystified til he spotted the cat peeing into his barrel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alterego Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Kate, did you happen to notice a down turn in algae growth when you switched to mixing your water in an old aquarium? I'd be curious to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckeye Field Supply Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 RO water doesn't have low pH... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Ro/di water should have Ph=7.0 if it's good. That shouldn't do any leaching (it's perfectly neutral, cause it's perfect water), but it is low for what reefers are used to Sent using Forum Runner Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliroo Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 Double post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gilliroo Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 Hmm, I guess the mystery persists, then. I cleaned out the barrel again yesterday, ran new RODI water, and added salt. I'll test it when I get home. I also ordered a new chloramines block because I figure it can't hurt! Gillian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barelycuda Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I have used a 55g plastic drum. The white food grade ones you used to get from ushida's. I have never had ammonia issues with the drum or infertility since I have a 800g saltwater breeding setup I would have noticed that . Unfortunately for me Vancouver's water is 10ppm of Nitrates right out of the tap so I pretty much never get perfect water.DOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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