Tapwater, RO, HMA, wet/dry and plants

[IanB]

Of course.. sorry.. :yes:

Water is extremely stable, all levels apart from TDS (which is dropping very slowly - now down to 125) are the same.
My water butts are 25L but I don't fill them to exactly the same level every time so I guess the 5L of tapwater makes a slightly varying amount of difference..
That's the only variable I can think of..

The planting was a debacle.. filled tank and sand substrate does not make for an easy time with plant pots (or trays).. the moment water and bottom of pot met, the contents fell out - the whole thing went very muddy for nigh-on 24hours with zero visibility for the first 3 or 4...
I had thought about a 'liner' for the pots but decided against it because I wanted them to be able to spread their roots.

So there is some of that JBL gear in the tank but it's spread randomly throughout wherever on the substrate it hit.. and the plants are planted in the sand.
Doing quite well though, which is nice - thinking that they'll probably do even better once I get a hood with some lights in it.

Now that I'm happy with the way things work (to this point, I'm certain there will be more challenges later), I'm thinking of a bigger RO unit perhaps with a DI stage in the new year, which will also give me a chance to sort out some additional water storage (it's not that much of a chore doing 50L twice a week but, you were absolutely right, being able to store more would be so much better).

Not sure about HMA yet, seems like a large outlay/effort when the cut is 4:1..
Is there reject water with HMA like there is with RO??

 

[L777]

Hi,

:lol::lol:

Sorry I shouldn't laugh at your misfortune its just the way you tell it. If you had stuck with the substrates I had listed you wouldn't have had that problem as they are quite large and granular in essence being predominantly fired clay. If I remember rightly I think the clay that they use is dug up somewhere in japan for its rather special qualities, hence its price.

As for upgrading your RO unit you can just add on bits here and there as and when required / budget allows. Have a look at this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250717895633?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Just connect it after the membrane, sorted.

I'm glad your TDS is now sorted and doubt that you'll get it much better than you have it with the GH and KH values that we talked about earlier if they still apply. If you want it to go lower then you'll need to lower those two values accordingly. But that's pretty clean water, in fact 3 times cleaner than the stuff the water company supplies for you to drink!!!!

Now you have a TDS meter you can apply it as a tool to tell you how dirty your tank water is getting, its rather handy for keeping an eye on things.

As for HMA filters they don't have reject water at all so there is no waste. The water is just filtered as per your 'normal' filters but with more expensive catridges in them.

When weighing thigs up when it comes to costs a good HMA filter will cost about £45-£50 to set up and will averagely require a minimum of 1 filter change per year depending on use which will be about £20 - £25.

However with the addition of another pod fitted with a CBR2 filter catridge and a couple of shut off valves its also possible to adapt your RO unit so that it can produce HMA water aswell, although probably best not to run both outlets at the same time. In essence it'll just be a different outlet that is tapped off before the membrane whilst that is not in use and the pod containing the CBR2 cartridge only fed with supply water (after the two filters currently installed) when required to extend its working life as its so expensive. Setup cost for that is probably about £35 by the time you've bought the filter, pod and a couple of valves and connectors.

Again you can just buy extra bits here and there and build up from your basic model no need to start again. That's the beauty of modular systems.

Alternatively a good set of accurate weighing scales will cost you about £10 - £15 and you'll get change from a tenner for a years supply of chemicals for remineralising if you 'roll your own'. Or buy a proprietory brand of remineralising salts and expect to pay a little more but not as much as it'll cost to run a HMA filter.

Also worth considering is that if your cutting back into RO water, reject or HMA water which will both have a buffered PH, it will still adopt that same PH value as a starting point and retain it until all the carbonates are exhausted. But if you are remineralising using 100% RO water with a 0ppm baseline your actually starting with PH7 no matter how much carbonate you add aditionally as that will not increase the PH value on its own. It therefore becomes so much easier in your case with a buffered PH 7.6 to lower the PH if you so desire as you haven't got so far to go in the first instance.It still remains though that the PH isn't all that important as per the article previously linked to but when your as obsessive about water quality as I am its kind of gratifying to get all your numbers in order.:woohoo::lol:

Chris.

 

[IanB]

Laugh away bud... it's good for the soul.. :yes:

It's all good now (although, I dislodged something while netting out some uneaten peas and something floated out of one of the pots.. so that's 1 less pot and 1 more plants that's straight into sand..)..

They are doing remarkably well so I might just be lucky in this respect..

There's 11 fish in there now, few more coming this week..
9 Angels
1 L200
1 Black Ghost Knife (an impulse purchase from an unhealthy situation (for him))

There were 10 Angels but 1 lost out in the battle for superiority and never recovered.

Need to flush the RO membrane (not got in touch with the supplier yet - should be this week) really...

 

[L777]

Hi

I think I was editing my last post whilst you posted then. Your right about laughter life's just way to boring without it.

Sometimes with plants which are initially healthy problems can take a while to properly manifest themselves and conversly when they do appear can take an equally long time to rectify. I wish you all the luck in the world with them, I mean that, I really do.

As an aside did you read that link I posted to before about EI dosing? If you did what are your thoughts on it?

Chris.

 

[IanB]

Well the swords and cryps were living in a bucket for a couple of months and have been in the tank a couple of weeks now.. some outer leaves (of the swords) are dying off but there's muchos new growth from the middle.. my lotus bulbs were living in my sump for a month and grew a few leaves but have now sprung roots and leaves from everywhere..
The only new plants, really, are the vallis.. keeping an eye on them, they've been in a couple of weeks I think..

I'm not assuming anything with live plants.. it's been hit/miss in my tanks for ever... fingers are crossed, rose tinted glasses are on... here's hoping

EI dosing.. the link is open on the pc for reading later.. when it's not so hot (the pc lives just inside the french doors which are south facing... I'm slow roasting.. )

I will, however, be dosing with something I have to mix with water to aid the plants.. possibly the same thing?

 

[L777]

Looks like this

See that white tube between the two housings on the left of your picture that's your flow restrictor. To flush the membrane all you need to do is bypass this and turn the supply on for a few minutes. You can either temporarily pop one the pipes off and reconnect it temporarily for now and then put it back when your finished or by two T connector and a ball valve and setup a bypass loop. That's all there is to a flush valve.

Chris.

 

[IanB]

Time for another check-in..

All my levels of toxic stuff are still stable at 0 for ammo and nitrate and under 10 for nitrate..

Hardness is changed though..
I am getting almost 0 GH and the KH has been slowly falling and is now sneaking onto 4 (it's fallen from 5 over about a month I guess)..

All the fish are healthy (there's more than a few Angels, a herd of Cory Sterbai, a pair (of female, I think) Rams, an L114 and an L200 that I hardly ever see - the L114 in particular is extremely shy.

My Vallis and Nymphae are doing quite well but all my floating plants pretty much dissolved - probably due to still not having sorted a lit hood (I'm on it!!)

After commenting on how good everything's going I am now frantically searching for one of those 'touch wood' pieces of furniture lest I jinx the whole thing..

**edit** I've not flushed my membrane or renewed my filter cartridges yet.. other life stuff got in the way and soaked up fundage

 

[IanB]

KH is now under 4 (but not quite 3 I don't think) and the PH has started to drop too.

It's been pretty static since day 1 at 7.6 (on the normal PH kit) and now it's 6.4/6.6

I'm adding an extra litre of tapwater to the RO now so it's 19L RO to 6L tap.

 

[L777]

Hi Ian,

I've not looked in for a while for reasons best not mentioned.

I'm so glad that you seem to have cracked it though after all our discussions and it sounds like you have the perfect water now mate.

PH 6.5, KH 3-4, GH 6-8, zero ammonia, nitrite and very low TDS readings is pretty much the holy grail to Amazonian species fish keepers. Well done for your efforts, understanding and commitment.

Hope everything else is going well for you now. I probably won't be bothering with this site in the future from here on in but I wish you all the best and continued success with all you do.

Chris.